JAMES (PERSON) [Gk Iakōbos Ἰακωβος]. It is unclear how many different persons bear this name in the NT, where it occurs 42 times (the majority of these are in Mark; the name never occurs in John). The name was evidently quite popular in the 1st century. Three persons bearing the name James are relatively familiar to us from the NT. Fully half of the occurrences refer unquestionably to James the son of , one of the twelve disciples chosen by . Next most frequently referred to, in about a quarter of the occurrences, is James the brother of Jesus, who was to assume the leadership of the early Jerusalem church. See JAMES, BROTHER OF JESUS. A second named James is mentioned in all four lists of the Twelve, being specified as the son of . Beyond the clear references to these three, we know of probably at least two [Vol. 3, p. 617] others named James: one a son of a certain Mary (unless this James is to be regarded as the “brother” of Jesus mentioned above, and thus in reality his cousin, or unless he is to be identified with James the son of Alphaeus); the other the father of the Judas who is listed as one of the Twelve in the Lukan lists. The identity of two other persons named James remains unclear: the author of the book of James (Jas 1:1) and the brother of the author of the book of Jude (Jude 1). These probably refer to the brother of Jesus, at least pseudonymously, but it is still possible that one or two other persons could be in view. If so, and if these two are not the same and not to be identified with any of the other persons named James mentioned above, we could have up to as many as seven individuals bearing the name James in the NT. 1. James the son of Zebedee. Among the first of the twelve disciples called by Jesus were James and his younger brother John, “the sons of Zebedee” (by which expression they are sometimes referred to without the mention of their specific names, as in Matt 20:20; 26:37; 27:56; John 21:2). According to Matt 27:56, the third of the three women watching the crucifixion at a distance was “the mother of the sons of Zebedee.” Matthew’s source (Mark 15:40) refers to this third woman as . If, as seems probable, Matthew is identifying Salome for his readers, rather than substituting another woman, then the wife of Zebedee and the mother of James and John was Salome. The further speculation that this Salome was a sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and that therefore James and John were cousins of Jesus, rests on a very precarious identification of the unnamed “sister of his mother” among those standing beside the cross, mentioned in John 19:25 (cf. the reference to “many other women” at the crucifixion in Mark 15:41). Because Zebedee has “hired servants” (misthōtoi, :20) and Salome seems to have materially supported Jesus during his Galilean ministry (Mark 15:40–41; Matt 27:55–56; cf. Luke 8:2–3), it is arguable that James and John grew up in a relatively prosperous home. Like their father, they were fishermen and had become partners with Simon Peter in a fishing business (Luke 5:10) in Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee, presumably near their home. James the son of Zebedee is never mentioned in the NT apart from reference also to his brother John. Since he is almost consistently named first (except in Luke 8:51; 9:28; and in the list of the eleven in :13), and John is repeatedly designated “the brother of James” (while the reverse never happens, except in Acts 12:2, where it is necessary to indicate which James was martyred), he was probably the elder of the two. He has also sometimes been called “the greater,” in order to distinguish him from others named James in the NT (cf. James “the less” in Mark 15:40). In the lists of the Twelve, his name is the third (Matt 10:2; Luke 6:14; Acts 1:13), except in :17, where it is the second, probably in order to group the names of the three—Peter, James, and John—who formed the inner, privileged circle of disciples. These three alone were allowed to accompany Jesus to witness the raising of the little daughter of Jairus (Mark 5:37 = Luke 8:51), to witness the transfiguration of Jesus (Mark 9:2 = Matt 17:1; Luke 9:28), and to accompany Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:33; cf. Matt 26:37). The three are joined by Andrew in the private questioning of Jesus that leads to the Markan eschatological discourse (Mark 13:3; cf. too the presence of these four at the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, Mark 1:29). The immediate response of James and John to the call of Jesus, even to the point of leaving their father with the servants in the boat (Mark 1:19–20 = Matt 4:21–22), suggests the possibility of some previous contact. If, on the other hand, Peter and Andrew had learned of Jesus as disciples of (John 1:35–42), James and John would undoubtedly have heard the good news from them. According to Mark 3:17, Jesus gave the appellation “Boanerges” to James and John, an name meaning probably “sons of thunder” or “sons of trembling.” This has been taken to indicate the volatile temperament of the brothers as revealed, for example, in their suggestion that the unreceptive Samaritans be consumed by fire called down from heaven (Luke 9:54; cf. Mark 9:38). Further evidence of a certain impetuosity on the part of the brothers may be seen in their extraordinary request to sit at the positions of honor on either side of Jesus when he came into his glory (Mark 10:35–37; the request is made by their mother, according to Matt 20:20–21). In his response to their improper request, Jesus tells the brothers that they must be prepared to “drink the cup” that he is to drink and to be “baptized with the baptism” that he must accept, i.e., to be killed (Mark 10:38 = Matt 20:22). Their easy acceptance of this eventuality is followed by the ominous prophecy of Jesus that it would indeed be so. This came true for James who, so far as can be known, was the first of the Twelve to suffer martyrdom (Acts 12:1–2), and the only one of the Twelve whose martyrdom the NT records. Probably in A.D. 44, but not later, I killed James in a campaign against the Church designed apparently to gain the favor of his Jewish subjects. Given the importance of James in the synoptic tradition, it is remarkable that this reference to the martyrdom of James is the only mention of him in the book of Acts after the list of the eleven in Acts 1:13. Book IV of the Apostolic History of Abdias attempts, in the fashion of the NT , to fill in this gap by recounting some of the (fictional) deeds of James. records a tradition from Clement of Alexandria’s Hypotyposes that the guard (or possibly accuser) who brought James to the court was so deeply affected by his witness that he became a believer on the spot and then went with James to be beheaded with him, after having first received forgiveness from him (Hist. Eccl. 2.9.2–3). Much later tradition (6th or 7th century) alleges that James preached the in Spain and accounts for the fact that James (St. Iago) was to become the patron saint of Spain. Further romantic tradition maintained that the body of James was placed in a ship which was guided by angels to Iria in NW Spain, and was ultimately brought to Santiago de Compostela, where the shrine of St. Iago remains the goal of pilgrimages to this day. 2. James the son of Alphaeus. One of the twelve apostles about whom nothing is known. He is referred to only four times in the NT, namely in the four lists (Matt 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15; and Acts 1:13). Here he is always called [Vol. 3, p. 618] James the son of Alphaeus and his name is firmly fixed in the ninth position, at the head of the third group of four names. He is known in church tradition as James “the Less” in contrast to the son of Zebedee, who is known as “the Great.” This does not, however, require identifying him with the James, the son of Mary, referred to in Mark 15:40, who is designated ho mikros (“the small” or “the younger,” so RSV). On this possible but unnecessary identification, see below. In the only other occurrence of the name Alphaeus in the NT, Levi is described as “the son of Alphaeus” (Mark 2:14; Levi is probably another name given to Matthew, cf. Matt 9:9 and Luke 5:27). This has naturally given rise to the speculation that Levi (Matthew) and James were brothers. But since the evangelists seem eager to point out pairs of brothers among the Twelve (as in Peter and Andrew, and James and John) but never refer to Matthew and James as brothers, this conclusion seems very improbable. The only further question that calls for discussion is whether this James is possibly referred to in any of the other occurrences of the name in the NT, although this may initially seem unlikely since he is so consistently referred to as “the son of Alphaeus.” Several possibilities have nevertheless been argued. a. (adv. Helvid.), who was followed by Augustine, in fact identified this James with the James who is elsewhere called “the brother” of Jesus. He and his brother (= ) are then understood as the sons of the Mary mentioned in Mark 15:40 (= Matt 27:56; cf. :3), who in turn is identified as the Mary who is the husband of and the sister of the mother of Jesus according to John 19:25. The fact that James is the son of Alphaeus, however, necessitates the further speculation that Clopas and Alphaeus are names of the same person. The acceptance of such an implausible conclusion (despite the later argument that the two names trace back to the same Aramaic name, h lpy) is to be explained by Jerome’s desire to defend the perpetual virginity of Mary, and so to understand the “brothers” of Jesus as in reality cousins (with the added advantage that James “the brother of Jesus” who assumes so important a position in the early Church becomes one of the Twelve).

b. James the son of Alphaeus has also been identified as the James referred to in the Lukan lists (Luke 6:16; Acts 1:13) in the phrase “Judas of James,” by understanding this as “Judas the brother of James” (so KJV). This view is taken up by proponents of the preceding view to identify this Judas with the “brother” (in their view “cousin”) of Jesus mentioned in Mark 6:3 (= Matt 13:55). In these two lists, however, nowhere is the relationship of brothers indicated by the simple genitive (in Luke 6:14 Andrew is very specifically “the brother” [ton adelphon] of Simon Peter) and Luke regularly inserts adelphos when it is called for (cf. Luke 3:1; 6:14; Acts 12:2). The most natural understanding of the simple genitive is “the son of,” as in the case of “James of Alphaeus,” which is universally understood as “the son of Alphaeus.” c. It remains a possibility, although an extremely remote one, that James the son of Alphaeus is the author, or pseudonymous author, of the book of James (Jas 1:1), and further that he is the brother of Jude who is referred to in Jude 1. James the son of Alphaeus is so consistently known as such in the lists of the Twelve, in order to distinguish him from others bearing the same name, that it is most improbable that he is in view here, where the name occurs without the similar designation. There is furthermore reason to believe that the James in view in these two instances is meant to be James the brother of Jesus. Late tradition relates the legend that James the son of Alphaeus labored in SW Palestine and Egypt and that he was martyred by crucifixion in Ostrakine, in lower Egypt (Nicephorus, 2.40; but in Persia according to Martyrologium Hieronymi [Patrol. 30.478]). 3. James the son of Mary. If the arguments presented above are sound, then this James is yet another James, and again one of whom we know next to nothing. He is probably referred to four times in the NT, in each instance as the son of Mary. He is mentioned alone in Mark 16:1 and Luke 24:10 (where his mother is mentioned as a witness of the empty tomb), while in a second pair of passages he is mentioned with his brother Joseph (Matt 27:56), who is also called Joses, a Grecized form of Joseph (Mark 15:40; cf. 15:47). The way the mother of these brothers is named, not to mention that she is named after among the women at the crucifixion of Jesus, makes it virtually impossible that she is the same Mary as the mother of Jesus. We have, therefore, to reckon with a second Mary who had sons named James and Joses (cf. Mark 6:3, where two additional brothers of Jesus, Judas and Simon, are also named). If this Mary can be identified with the Mary the wife of Clopas, the sister of Mary the mother of Jesus, in John 19:25—at best a matter of speculation—then this James would be a cousin of Jesus. In Mark 15:40 this James is called ho mikros, obviously to distinguish him from others named James. This epithet probably refers to the small stature of this James (cf. Luke 19:3) or possibly to his youth, but less likely is the view that it is used metaphorically to suggest his relative unimportance. The later custom of referring to the apostle James the son of Alphaeus as “the Less,” in comparison with James the son of Zebedee as “the Great,” probably depends (and perhaps mistakenly) on this passage, although there is little else that supports the view that this James is the same person as James the son of Alphaeus. 4. James the father of Judas. This James is mentioned only in the Lukan lists of the apostles (Luke 6:16; Acts 1:13), as the father of the apostle Judas, who is listed in the eleventh position but whose name does not occur in the other two lists (the same as the Judas in John 14:22?). It is very unlikely that the simple genitive iakōbou is to be understood as “the brother of James” (see above). The name of the father is apparently used to distinguish his son from the other, the infamous, Judas among the Twelve. There is no reason to identify this otherwise unknown James with any of the persons of the same name discussed above.

Bibliography Lightfoot, J. B. 1865. The Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians. London. Mayor, J. B. 1913. The Epistle of St. James. 3d ed. London. Sieffert, F. 1910. James. Pp. 89–94 in vol. 6 of New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, ed. S. M. Jackson. New York. DONALD A. HAGNER