James the Just
| James | |
|---|---|
Icon of James
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| Apostle and Martyr, Adelphotheos | |
| Born | Unknown |
| Died | 69 AD (Hegesippus, Clement of Alexandria, and Eusebius of Caesarea) or 62 AD (Josephus) Jerusalem |
| Venerated in | All Christianity |
| Canonized | Pre-congregation |
| Feast | May 3 (Roman Catholic), May 1 (Anglican), October 23 (Lutheran), (Episcopal Church (USA)), (Eastern Orthodox), December 26 (Eastern Orthodox) |
| Attributes | Fuller's club; man holding a book |
| Controversy | There is disagreement about the exact relationship to Jesus. James is sometimes identified with James, son of Alphaeus and James the Less. |
James (Hebrew: יעקב Ya'akov; Greek Ίάκωβος Iákōbos, can also be Anglicized as Jacob), who died in martyrdom in 62 or 69 AD, was an important figure of the Apostolic Age. Other epithets used to refer to James include James the Just, or a variation of James, brother of the Lord. Roman Catholic tradition generally holds that this James is to be identified with James, son of Alphaeus, and James the Less. It is agreed by most that he should not be confused with James, son of Zebedee.
Catholics and Orthodox, as well as some Anglicans and Lutherans, believe in the perpetual virginity of Mary; they teach that James, along with others named in the New Testament as "brothers" (Greek: ἀδελφοὶ, translit. adelphoi, lit. 'brothers') of Jesus, were not the biological children of Mary, but were possibly cousins of Jesus or step-brothers from a previous marriage of Joseph.
In a 4th-century letter pseudographically ascribed to the 1st century Clement of Rome, James was called the "bishop of bishops, who rules Jerusalem, the Holy Assembly of Hebrews, and all assemblies everywhere".Hegesippus, in his fifth book of his Commentaries, mentions that James was made a bishop of Jerusalem but he does not mention by whom: "After the apostles, James the brother of the Lord surnamed the Just was made head of the Church at Jerusalem."Clement of Alexandria wrote in the sixth book of his Hypotyposes that James the Just was chosen as a bishop of Jerusalem by Peter, James (the Greater) and John: "For they say that Peter and James and John after the ascension of our Saviour, as if also preferred by our Lord, strove not after honor, but chose James the Just bishop of Jerusalem." But the same writer, in the seventh book of the same work, relates also the following concerning him: "The Lord after his resurrection imparted knowledge (gnōsin) to James the Just and to John and Peter, and they imparted it to the rest of the apostles, and the rest of the apostles to the seventy, of whom Barnabas was one."
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