James – Acts 15:13

Jan 21, 2015 | Acts

Is there anyone here tonight who understands all the REFERENCES TO JAMES in the New Testament?

If there is, I will gladly sit down and let you lead us in a good Bible study. Anyone?

I’m not sure that anyone can dogmatically answer all the questions that I have about the various James.

In fact I’m not even sure if the plural of James is “James” or if it is “Jameses,”

But since the latter sounds funny, I’m going to stick with “James.”

I think that the same rule which makes the possessive form of Jesus “Jesus’, “

Makes the possessive of James “James’ “ AND the plural of James “James.”

Anyone want to fight me on that one? Good.

There appear to be three men in the New Testament who are called James.

But I have to admit that there are some students who reduce that to two James,

And others who think that there might be as many as four.

Tonight I’d like to try to outline the majority opinion about James.

The first, and most prominent, James was THE BROTHER OF THE APOSTLE JOHN.

According to Strong, we have twenty-one references to James, the Son of Zebedee, the brother of John.

I guess that the most logical place to start tonight is by turning to Matthew 10:1-4:

“And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.

Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; JAMES THE SON OF ZEBEDEE, and John his brother;

Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; JAMES THE SON OF ALPHAEUS, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus;

Simon the Canaanite, & Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. These twelve Jesus sent forth.”

To this scripture we should probably add Acts 1:13:

“And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.”

Clearly, there were two men called James who were among the Apostles of the Lord.

One of the first problems that I have with James beside the spelling of his name, is the spelling of his name.

The Greek word translated “James” is “iakobos” ( ee-ak’-o-bos ).

Obviously, this is the Grecianized form of the old Hebrew name “Jacob.”

But 27 times in the New Testament we have the word “iakob” (ee-ak-obe), and IT IS translated “Jacob”

It would seem to me that “iakobos” should be Jacob as well, but I’m not a Greek scholar.

Anyway, the great Apostle John had an equally great brother whose name was James.

Peter, John and James the two sons of Zebedee appear to have been the Lord Jesus’ first disciples.

Those three were with the Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration.

James was present when the Lord healed the mother-in-law of Peter.

He was one of the three witnesses to the raising of the daughter of the synagogue ruler in Mark 5.

He and his brother and mother petitioned the Lord Jesus to permit them to sit next to Him in His glory.

It was Peter, John and James who privately asked Jesus to explain the details of the last things.

Peter, James and John, his brother are generally said to be among Jesus’ inner circle.

James was an important man among the disciples and apostles of the Lord.

Now here is what I think is a fascinating piece of Bible trivia:

As you may know the name of the Apostle John cannot be found in the Gospel of John.

The penman of that book never mentioned his own name,

Even though he was forced to talk about himself a time or two.

Is Peter’s name found in the Gospel of John? It is there a bunch.

Would you be surprised to learn that the name of James cannot be found in that book either?

We find that name scattered throughout Matthew, Mark and Luke.

And Peter is often mentioned in John, but neither James nor John, the 2 sons of Zebedee are so named.

To me, that says something about the penman and that he was probably related to James.

When we leave the gospels and the upper room in Acts 1, we run into James Bar-Zebedee only once.

Turn to Acts 12:1-2.

“Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church.

And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.”

We should have no trouble identifying who it was murdered here.

But why do you suppose that Herod picked out this James for execution?

It was probably because as one of the Sons of Thunder this man was a thorn in the flesh to Herod’s priestly supporters.

He may have been, as people today might say, “an Apostle with an attitude.”

I’m sure that Herod and the high priest would have been delighted to get rid of James, Peter AND John, but that was not to be.

They TRIED to kill Peter, but had to be content with executing only James, the brother of John.

I personally, don’t have too much trouble identifying James the brother of John, the son of Zebedee.

The other apostle James was THE SON OF ALPHAEUS.

Now here is where the Jameseses get confused.

Some scholars say that James the son of Alphaeus was ALSO a “brother” of the Lord Jesus.

They manipulate the name “Alphaeus” and also the name of his wife.

And then they play around with the word “brother.”

Here is the article that is found in EASTON’S BIBLE DICTIONARY:

“The son of Alphaeus, or Cleopas, “the brother” or NEAR KINSMAN, or COUSIN, of our Lord,

Called James “the Less,” or “the Little,” probably because he was of low stature. (He was vertically challenged.)

He had a separate interview with our Lord after his resurrection,

And is mentioned as one of the apostles of the circumcision.

He appears to have occupied the position of head of the Church at Jerusalem, where he presided at the council held to consider the case of the Gentiles.

This James was the author of the epistle which bears his name.”

Easton believed that there are only two men named James in the New Testament.

The International Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE), however, separates the son of Alphaeus from the Lord’s brother.

The controversy hinges on the definition of the word “brother” – “adelphos.”

The word can legitimately mean any of the following:

Brother, half-brother, male relative, as in cousin, or a relationship like a brother in Christ.

The question in this case is whether this James was the half-brother or the cousin of the Lord Jesus.

Since James the son of Alphaeus was a disciple of Christ during Jesus’ ministry, it proves to me that he was NOT one of the sons of Jesus’ mother Mary.

Jesus’ half-brothers were not believers in the Lord at any time during the life of Christ.

For whatever reason – jealousy, stupidity, or just plain-old spiritual blindness – they refused to admit that their oldest brother was the Messiah.

That means that the son of Alphaeus was not Jesus’ half-brother.

But could he have been a COUSIN of the Lord?

Yes, he COULD have been,

But it seems to me that the impression of the scriptures is against that idea.

I have no dogmatic evidence, or proof, of this,

But I believe that James the son of Alphaeus was NOT any earthly kin to the Lord Jesus.

There are no scriptures which speak about “James the son of Alphaeus, the brother of the Lord.”

There are no scriptures which put those two things side-by-side.

BUT scriptures like Matthew 13 help to push me to the other opinion.

The third James that we have in the Bible is called THE BROTHER OF OUR LORD.

Turn to Matthew 13.

Verse 53 says,

“And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed thence.

And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works?

Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?

And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?

And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house.

And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.”

It appears to me that without any doubt the Lord Jesus had a half-brother whose name was James.

The structure of the sentence seems to militate against the idea that this James was a cousin.

And I believe this James was a part of the group of which we read in Matthew 12:46-49:

“While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him.

Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee.

But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?

And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!”

Based upon the scriptures that we have in the Gospels,

Whenever we have a reference in Acts or elsewhere to “James the Lord’s brother,”

I have to believe that he was a different man from the son of Alphaeus and from the son of Zebedee.

He REALLY WAS the half-brother of Jesus, one of the children of Mary Jesus’ mother.

So how did this James go from being an unbelieving, troublesome little brother in the Gospel’s to being pastor of the church in Jerusalem?

The same way that any sinful child of Adam becomes a useful servant of the Lord – by the grace of God.

Turn to I Corinthians 15:1-8.

“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;

By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:

After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.

After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.

And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.”

Who is the James of verse 7?

I don’t think that it could be either the son of Alphaeus or the son of Zebedee,

Because they are included in the twelve of verse 5.

It appears to me that the Lord had a special and eternal love for Jesus’ own half-brother James.

And it appears to me that after Jesus’ resurrection,

He made a special visit to this James the son of Joseph and Mary.

If he was not a child of God beforehand, it was at this time that he was born again.

This James then quickly became a part of the Lord’s church: Acts 1:12-14 –

“Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day’s journey.

And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.

These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.”

Probably based upon thirty earlier years of observation of Christ, he matured rapidly as a Christian.

Then for reasons that we are not given, he eventually became the pastor of the church which Jesus started in Jerusalem.

When Paul made his first visit to Jerusalem after his salvation he met with Peter and James.

Galatians 1:17 – “Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.

Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.

But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother.”

Galatians 2:9 is talking about this same James:

“And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.”

This verse, by the way, forces me to admit to a mistake which I made last Sunday.

Paul says that John, whom I must assume to be the Apostle John, was in Jerusalem for this council.

As I was preparing for this message, I read some comments from a book by Paton Gloag, considered to be one of the classics on the Book of Acts.

Gloag pointed out some things that I think are, at the very least, interesting things to consider:

Do you remember when Peter was released from prison by the angel and he went to John Mark’s house?

There was a portion of the membership there praying for the release of Peter.

After he got someone to open the door,

“He, beckoning unto them with the hand to hold their peace, declared unto them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, Go shew these things unto James, and to the brethren. And he departed, and went into another place.”

Gloag suggests that the church was so large that they met in smaller organized groups.

He thinks that one group, perhaps Peter’s group met at John Mark’s mother’s house,

And James’ group met somewhere else.

Peter escaped from prison, went to John Marks’ house and then asked them to tell the other part of the church that he had escaped.

Interesting and plausible idea.

Then Gloag also said that James is described in ecclesiastical history as having strong legal tendencies.

He said that literature indicates that James was a STRICT observer of the Mosaic law.

He said that James, like the ancient Nazarites, didn’t cut his hair, didn’t drink either wine nor strong drink and was also a vegetarian.

He said that Eusebius reported that James spent most of his time in the temple praying for the salvation of Israel.

If these things were true, then we might imagine that the Judaizers would have thought that they had a strong ally in this man.

But when he came out on the side of Peter and Paul,

There could have been no remaining doubt about the will of God in regards to the salvation of the Gentiles.

Once again, this is an interesting concept.

Anyway, I think that this James is worthy of a lot more attention than we have as yet given him.

He began in hatred towards Jesus as the Christ, contrary to logic and fact.

But then he appears to have been instantly converted, with the catalyst being the Lord’s resurrection.

From there he very quickly rose to become one of the most important of the early church leaders.

And despite a propensity towards the Judaizers, he laid aside his own personal preferences to take a clear stand upon the revealed truth of God.

I think that Christianity could use a few more people like James, the brother of the Lord.