James, Son of Alphaeus

James, is also called the ‘Less’ or perhaps ‘Younger,’ was a brother of Joses and a sister name Salome, and the son of Miriam. Which Miriam is not altogether certain though she appears to be the wife of one Clopas (Cleophas), which may have been another or second name for Alphaeus. James was a cousin of Y’Shua that fact would of course shed light on their previous acquaintance. His mother Miriam is supposed by some to have been called sister (sister-in-law) to Miriam the mother of Y’Shua, because of their marriage to two brothers, Clopas and Joseph (Jn. 19:25); Clopas, or Cleopas, is believed by scholars to be the same person as Alphaeus. It is also been supposed that Alphaeus died without offspring and that his wife was espoused by Joseph, on which accout James is perhaps the legal son of Alphaeus and the reputed half brother of our L-rd. James had a brother, Joses or Joseph (Matt. 27:56). The KJV in Lk. 6:16 mentions ‘Judas the brother of James’, whereas the NIV renders ‘the son of James.’
Whether or not this James is to be identified with the James the Less, the son of Alphaeus, the brother of our L-rd, is one of the most difficult questions in the gospel history. By comparing Matt. 27:56 and Mark 15:40 with John 19:25, we find that the Virgin had a (sister-in-law) that had two sons, James the Less and Joses. By referring to Matt. 13:55 and Mark 6:3 we find that a James and a Joses, with two other brethren called Jude and Simon, and at least three sisters, were living with the Virgin at Nazareth. By referring to Luke 6:16 and Acts 1:13 we find that there were two brethren named James and Jude among the apostles. It would certainly be natural to think that we had here but one family of four brothers and three or more sisters, the children of Clopas and Miriam, nephews and nieces of the Virgin. There are difficulties however in the way of this conclusion into which we cannot her enter; but in reply to the objection that the four brethren in Matt. 13:55 are described as the brothers of Y’Shua, not as his cousins, it must be recollected that the word which is here translated ‘brethren’ may also signify cousins.
Most of the ancient denominations, such as the Roman Catholic or Armenian Orthodox, identify James the Less and James the brother of Y’Shua as one and the same. Their reasoning is complicated, contradictory and not defensible by the Scriptural record. Essentially though, it is an attempt to assert that, contrary to what Paul wrote in Galatians about ‘James the brother of the L-rd, James the Just was a cousin of Y’Shua. The reason for this tortured attempt to explain Paul’s plain statement away is to protect the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Miriam (Mary) by implying that when Paul wrote ‘brother’ he really meant cousin. Obscure references in Greek literature are used by some to show that this was possible.
The early heresy of Docetism attempted to convince Believers that all sexual intercourse was evil. The later elevation of Miriam (Mary) to the stature of a demigoddess, force some to those who took this view to invert out of whole cloth the notion that the brothers and sisters of Y’Shua were perhaps children of Joseph by a previous marriage. Thus James the brother of the L-rd becomes James the half brother. However, at this point a further contradiction inserts itself. How could James the Less be the son of Joseph and also be the son of Alphaeus?
The answer which has apparently satisfied most of the scholars of the oldest branches of organized Christianity is to make Miriam the mother of James the Less, a sister of Miriam the mother of Y’Shua! This reduces James the Less to the status of a cousin of Y’Shua rather than a half brother.
The defenders of this point of view were under the pressure they were to preserve the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Miriam, the mother of Y’Shua. But their solution is simply impossible. Never in history have two sisters been given the same name in the same family. The purpose of names is to distinguish between children. With the great number of names available to the ancients it would be grotesque to suggest that there were two Miriam’s in the same family. We are safe, therefore, in assuming that James the half brother of Y’Shua was indeed just that. It is not an utter impossibility that James the Less is meant, but the whole thrust of Paul’s historic references to ‘James’ seemed to be, according to the context of Paul’s writing, the ‘James’ who is the brother of the L-rd.
James was a Zealot (a revolutionary group seeking to throw off the yoke of both Herod Antipas and Rome). But his patriotic and nationalistic idealism was rudely dashed by the policy of bloodshed which characterized the Zealots. Therefore, James became an ascetic, who sought refuge in his own piety from the bloodshed of the Zealots.
In the procurator ship of Alvinus the successor to Festus, the enemies of James decided to dispatch him. A council was hastily summoned. They plotted to set the scribes and Pharisees to ensnare him. They told him they had a mightily confidence in him and that they would that he might correct the error and false opinion the people had of Y’Shua. To that end he was invited to go to the top of the temple where he might be seen and heard by all. There they demanded, ‘Tell us, what is the institution of the crucified Y’Shua?’ The people below, hearing it, glorified, the blessed Y’Shua. The Scribes and Pharisees perceiving now that they had overshot themselves and that instead of reclaiming the people had confirmed them in their (supposed) error, thought there was no way left but presently to dispatch him, that by his sad fate others might be warn not to believe him. Wherefore, suddenly crying out that James himself was seduced and had become an imposter, they threw him down from the place where he stood on the top of the Temple. Though bruised, he was not killed by the fall, but recovered so much strength, as to get upon his knees and pray to heaven for them.
They began to load him with a shower of stones until one more mercifully cruel than the rest with a fuller’s club beat out his brains that went dashing out upon the ground. Thus dyed that good man in the 90th year of his life and about 24 years after Y’Shua’s ascension. He was buried upon the Mt. Of Olives in a tomb which he had built for himself.”
The seeds of Syrian Believers had been sown in Jerusalem during the Apostolic age was none other than James of the Twelve Apostles, identified as James the less. Having been stoned by the Jews for preaching Y’Shua, and was buried by the Sanctuary in Jerusalem then taken to Constantinople in the year 572. Were it was interred by Pope John 111 in a church which was first known as the ‘Church of the Apostles Philip and James the less.’