ACC ~ Mark 15 v40b

WHICH JAMES?

BEDE: How could it be said that the brother of the Lord was not the apostle, but a third James, since Paul also gives him the name of an apostle, saying, “I saw none of the other apostles except James, the brother of the Lord”; [1] and the evangelist Mark names the same man, not a third, but one of the two Jameses, saying, “There were women also watching from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of the James the younger and of Joseph and Salome?” [2] Now “greater and lesser” are customarily used to establish a difference not among three, but between two. Hence the lesser James is named “of Alphaeus,” in distinction from the greater, who was the son of Zebedee. COMMENTARY ON ACTS 1.13. [3]

[1] Gal 1:19.

[2] Mk 15:40.

[3] Cetedoc 1357, 1.139; CAA 15*. There were not three but two Jameses, the younger of whom is James, the son of Alphaeus, whose mother stood afar with the women. Cf. Mt 10:3; 27:56; Mk 3:18; Lk 6:15; Acts 1:13.