Saint James the Just: Encyclopedia II - Saint James the Just - Brother half-brother step-brother or cousin of Jesus

Saint James the Just - Brother half-brother step-brother or cousin of Jesus

To many dispassionate outsiders, the number of the Jameses in the immediate circle of Jesus seems to have been multiplied, and Jerome's perhaps inadvertent remark, "Many indeed are called James" has a disarming frankness. The Catholic Encyclopedia (1910) divides the New Testament references to "James" among five separate personages [1], separating apart even a "James, the brother of Jude", by testimony of the Epistle of Jude 1:1, and remarking "Most Catholic commentators identify Jude with the 'Judas Jacobi', the 'brother of James' (Luke 6:16; Acts 1:13), called thus because his brother James was better known than himself in the primitive Church." Non-Catholic readers like Robert Eisenman (Eisenman 1997) may recognize in this "Jude" of the author of Luke and Acts Jude Thomas.

Quite aside from the literary doppelgänger, the relationship of James, one of the desposyni or the "heirs of the Master", to Jesus has been rendered problematic to many Christians. Due to the belief of Christians that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, born of a Virgin, many Christians believe James the Just and the other brethren of Jesus therefore must at best be half-brothers. Jesus's brothers—James as well as Jude, Simon and Joses—are unequivocably mentioned in Matthew 13:55, Mark 6:3 and, less unequivocally, by Paul in Galatians 1:19. Even in the passage in Josephus' Jewish Antiquities (20.9.1) the Jewish historian describes James as "the brother of Jesus who is called Christ", though this passage has been suggested as an interpolation.

However, the problem has become further compounded by the developing dogma of the Perpetual Virginity of Mary. Following the belief that Mary's virginity continued even after the Virgin Birth (not directly attested in the canonic New Testament), Eastern Orthodoxy treats James as a step-brother, being the son of Joseph, but not Mary and instead by a previous wife of Joseph, unmentioned in canonic texts.

Eusebius of Caesarea reports the tradition that James the Just was the son of Joseph's brother Clopas, and therefore was of the "brethren" (which he interpretes as "cousin") of Jesus described in the New Testament. The Greek word adelphos was not restricted to the literal meaning of a full brother in the Bible.[2] Jerome (died 420) argued vehemently (De Viris Illustribus, "On Illustrious Men") that James was merely a cousin to Jesus, the son of another Mary, the wife of Clopas and "sister" of Mary, the mother of Jesus, in the following manner:

Jerome's opinion has been embraced by the Roman Catholic church, and has the effect of suggesting an identification of James the Just with James the Less. Despite this, some biblical scholars tend to distinguish them.

James the Just, the only prominent Christian James in Jerusalem, is referred to by Paul as an Apostle. In Galatians 1:18 – 19, Paul, recounting his conversion, recalls "Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, and tarried with him fifteen days. But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother."

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Brother half-brother step-brother or cousin of Jesus", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki