Minor lesson
James, Son of Alphaeus
One of the twelve. Not James the brother of John, and not the James of Jerusalem, unless a later guess is doing the work.
September 25, 2026
He is in the four lists, and that is nearly all. "Son of Alphaeus" keeps him distinct from James the son of Zebedee. Mark also knows a James the younger, or the little, whose mother Mary is at and at the tomb (). Some readers identify that James with the son of Alphaeus. The text does not.
He is also not, on the ordinary reading, James the Lord's brother. Paul calls that James a pillar, and "the Lord's brother," and does not call him one of the twelve (, ). Matthew lists both "James son of Alphaeus" and, in another place, the brothers of Jesus, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas (). Two different sentences. Merging them is a guess people make when there are too many Jameses. The guess is the thing to resist.
No book is his by any early claim that sticks. The letter of James belongs in the conversation about , not here.
His death is not in the New Testament. Later confusion with the stoning of James the brother, which tells, is how this James sometimes inherits a martyrdom that is not his. Do not give it to him.
This is a deeper teaching under The Apostles. Its home is Sermons and Series.