Week of 26 December: James the Just
In our last Sunday post, I wrote about St. Thomas the Apostle because his traditional feast day is 21 December. This week, we will look at St. James the Just, or James the Less, or James the Brother of the Lord, because one of his traditional feast days is 26 December. Interestingly, the two figures may have been brothers, although that is far from clear.
There are a lot of people named James who show up in the New Testament. There is a “James, son of Alpheus” who appears in Mark’s list of the Twelve Apostles (Mark 3:18). There is the famous James, brother of John the Evangelist, who is often called “James the Greater” or “James, Son of Thunder”. There is “James, the brother of Jesus” or “James, the brother of the Lord” (who appears, for instance, in Mark 6:3). There’s also a James who has a mother named Mary and a brother named Joses or Joseph (Matthew 27:56, Mark 15:40, Mark 16:1 and Luke 24:10). There’s also a James who accompanies Peter and John at the Transfiguration, a James at the Mount of Olives, and a James in the Garden of Gethsemane. These last three presumably are the same as one of the Jameses listed above, but exactly which is completely unclear. (Oh, I missed one. There is also a James who is the father of Judas, but not the famous Judas, a different Judas - Luke 6:16).
If we put James, brother of John (the “Son of Thunder”) aside, there are three basic figures who emerge named James that may, in fact, all be the same person.
James, son of Alpheus
One of the Twelve Apostles (Matthew 10:3, Mark 3:18, Luke 6:15, Acts 1:13)
Possibly the brother of St. Matthew the Apostle (Matthew is usually linked to another apostolic figure referred to as “Levi, son of Alpheus” in Mark 2:14)
James the Less or James the Younger
Listed as the son of a woman named Mary who had siblings named Joses and Salome (Mark 15:40)
Possibly the same James mentioned in Matthew 27:56 (“Mary the mother of James and Joseph”) and Luke 24:10 (“Mary the mother of James”)
James, the Brother of the Lord
Appears in the Gospels as Jesus’ sibling
Matthew 13:55 - “Is not his mother Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?”
Mark 6:3 - “Is not this the carpenter, son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?”
Appears in Acts as one of, if not *the*, leader of the church in Jerusalem (Acts 12:17, 15:13-29, 21:17-26)
Appears in two of Paul’s letters
1 Corinthians 15:7 - “The he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.”
Galatians 1:19 - “I did not see any other apostle except James the Lord’s brother.”
Galatians 2:9 - “James and Cephas and John, who were acknowledged pillars”
Mentioned in the Letter of Jude 1:1 - “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James”
Actually mentioned in a non-Biblical source - the Jewish historian Josephus describes his death in the Antiquities of the Jews, where he is referred to as “the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ”.
There is considerable debate, both among ancient Christians and modern scholars, about whether these three Jameses are really one James, or two Jameses, or three different Jameses. Much of the debate centers around the question of what the Bible means when it refers to someone as Jesus’ “brother” or “sister”.
The Brethren of the Lord
The debate over the meaning of the term “brother of the Lord” centers around the issue of the “Perpetual Virginity” of Mary, Jesus’ mother. Some early Christian authors (including Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and Helvidius) take the word “brother” literally, and describe James as Jesus’ younger brother and as the son of Mary and Joseph. However, this idea flies in the face of the idea that Mary remained a virgin after Jesus’ birth, a concept that became increasingly popular in the 3rd and 4th century.
If you believe in the Perpetual Virginity of Mary, then James can’t be Mary’s son. That leaves us with two other options:
James (and the other “brothers and sisters” of Jesus) were step-siblings, the children of Joseph from a previous marriage
The Protoevangelium of James (a really interesting 2nd century early Christian document describing in great detail the history of Mary and Jesus’ birth) claims to be written by James, the Brother of Jesus, who presents himself as an older step-brother
Epiphanius, in the 4th century, agrees; he says that James, Joses, Simeon, Judah, Salome and Mary (or maybe Anna) were children of Joseph from his first marriage
James (and the other “brothers and sisters” of Jesus) were cousins of Jesus, children of Joseph’s brother, Clophas, and another woman named Mary
This is possible because Aramaic and Hebrew lack a specific term for “cousins” and use the word for “brothers” to describe both siblings and cousins. However, the New Testament wasn’t written in Aramaic or Hebrew (although a minority of scholars think the Gospel of Matthew might have originally been written in one of those languages), it was written in Greek, which definitely had separate words for cousin and brother.
Eusebius, in the 3rd century, thinks that James is the son of Clopas or Clophas, Joseph’s brother
Jerome, in the 4th century, goes a step further. He thinks that James and the other “brethren” are the sons of Clophas (Joseph’s brother) and his wife Mary (who happens to also be the Virgin Mary’s sister).
Jerome ties everything together (not necessarily convincingly), but arguing the Clophas and Alpheus are actually the same person, so James, the brother of Jesus is the same as James, the son of Alpheus (and also James the Less, for good measure).
So we have a lot of different conflicting theories coming out of the early Church, and contemporary Christians are divided as to which of these views is most convincing. The Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodoxy adhere to the Perpetual Virginity of Mary, and so they reject the idea the James was son of Mary and Joseph. A lot of traditionalist Catholics follow the view of Jerome that James and Jesus were cousins, but this is not official dogma in the church. Protestant thought is divided, with some embracing the “full-brother” theory while others prefer the “step-siblings” theory. I can’t imagine any way that we will ever know for sure, though.
Liturgy of St. James
There’s tons more to be said about James the Just - his pre-eminent role in the early Church, the various stories about his death, the way that he has been used both in the early Church and by modern scholars as foil for Paul - but that will have to wait for another day. I think we’ll close this current post with a little music.
St. James’ name is associated with the oldest extent Christian liturgy, known as the Liturgy of St. James. It is the ancient liturgy of the Church of Jerusalem, which James led, though it probably only dates to the 4th century. It isn’t used much in the contemporary Eastern Orthodox Church - only on St. James’ feast day (23 October) and the Sunday after Christmas, and then only in the area around Jerusalem. However, it is the main liturgy of the Syriac Orthodox Church, which includes many of the “Thomas Christians” of India that I wrote about last week.
One of the key hymns that is sung in the Liturgy of St. James is “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence”. An Anglican pastor named Gerard Moultrie paraphrased the Greek text into English in the 19th century, and it has become a traditional Christmas hymn in the English speaking world.
Here’s the First Plymouth Church in Lincoln, Nebraska singing the English version of the hymn.
For a more traditional version in a Byzantine style, here’s some sheet music of the hymn from “The Divine Music Project” of St. Anthony’s Monastery in Florence, Arizona.