The Two James's

epchois_nai_nan

Hi all,

Does anybody know our Church's position on the authorship of the Epistle of James (as in exactly WHICH James wrote it)? Modern scholarship seems to be very confused over the whole issue, and understandably so since there are potentially four different James' mentioned in the Gospels.

My current understanding is that the Epistle was written by 'James the Just' who is generally identified as 'James the Son of Alphaeus' from the list of disciples given in the Gospels. It was this James who was a relative of Jesus and was an administrator in the Church of Jerusalem for some time, until he was (probably) executed by the Jewish authorities in 62 AD.

The other James, the son of Zebedee, was the brother of John the Evangelist - it was he who is recorded as being killed by Herod Agrippa I in 44 AD. He is NOT the author of the epistle in the New Testament.

Have I got it right?

PFM

minatasgeel

if i am not mistaken, it is James the Brother of the Lord; His brother from Saint Joseph the Elder. atleast that's what i was always taught.

imikhail

There at least five people by the name of St James:

1. James the brother of the Lord called the Just (bishop of Jerusalem)
2. James the son of Zebedee
3. James the son of Alpheus
4. James the Little, son of Mary
5. James the father of Jude surnamed Thaddeus

According to Tradition of the Church of Alexandria, it was James the brother of the Lord who wrote the epistle.

Thanks.

epchois_nai_nan

Hmm thanks - that was the impression I was getting. But is there any good reason to think that James 'the brother of the Lord' was also 'the son of Alphaeus'?

anba bola

The Eastern Orthodox also hold that St. James the brother of the Lord (the Just) wrote it: http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsViewer.asp?SID=4&ID=1&FSID=100018

The only real backing of this is what is held traditionally. It may be that we're wrong, but it doesn't matter that much.

[quote author=epchois_nai_nan link=topic=11008.msg133350#msg133350 date=1300492324]
Hmm thanks - that was the impression I was getting. But is there any good reason to think that James 'the brother of the Lord' was also 'the son of Alphaeus'?


The Eastern Orthodox hold them to be two different people as they celebrate St. James the Son of Alphaeus on a different day (see here: http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsViewer.asp?FSID=102916 and as evidenced by what is written at the end of the link I posted.

The funny thing is in our synaxarium they are said in the readings themselves to be the same person, but we have two feast days for St. James and on the two separate readings there are two different accounts of the martyrdom that are extremely different (so as if they are two people.)

St. Hippolytus wrote about the Apostles but what he says differs from both what is in our synaxarium and that of the Eastern Orthodox: http://www.synaxis.org/cf/volume05/ECF05HIPPOLYTUS_ON_THE_TWELVE_APOSTLE.htm

This work is also deemed dubious, so we are not 100% sure if it was in fact St. Hippolytus who wrote it.

As seen from my post, the issue is very confusing. It doesn't really matter and doesn't affect our salvation in any way I can think of, the only thing we gain from figuring out is interesting knowledge. I'll try to post again if I figure anything out.

imikhail

Please, use the following link for a more thorough study on the different James and how it is not possible the St James of Alphaeus could not be the St James the the Just from the New Testament and the Church fathers.

http://stpaulatlanta.org/tradition/thecharacterjames.html


Thanks.