Alphaeus (; ) is a man mentioned in the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

seemingly as the father of two of the

Twelve Apostles In Christian theology and ecclesiology, the apostles, particularly the Twelve Apostles (also known as the Twelve Disciples or simply the Twelve), were the primary disciples of Jesus according to the New Testament. During the life and minist ...

Matthew the Evangelist Matthew the Apostle was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. According to Christian traditions, he was also one of the four Evangelists as author of the Gospel of Matthew, and thus is also known as Matthew the Evangelist. The claim of his g ...

Mark 2:14 and

James, son of Alphaeus James, son of Alphaeus (Greek: , ; Aramaic: ; ; ; ) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus, appearing under this name in all three of the Synoptic Gospels' lists of the apostles. He is generally identified with James the Less ( , Mark 15:40) a ...

. However, Mark 2:14 in

Codex Bezae The Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis is a bi-lingual Greek and Latin manuscript of the New Testament written in an uncial hand on parchment. It is designated by the siglum D or 05 in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts, and � ...

uses the name Levi rather than Matthew. It is therefore highly probable that the Alphaeus in "James son of Alphaeus" and "Levi son of Alphaeus" are the same person. He is implied to be the father of Joseph or

Joses Joses () is a name, usually regarded as a form of Joseph, occurring many times in the New Testament: * Joses, one of the four "brothers" of Jesus () * Joses or Joseph, son of a Mary of Clopas and brother of a James ( James the Less according t ...

, and in Church tradition he is the father of Abercius and

Helena Helena may refer to: People *Helena (given name), a given name (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Katri Helena (born 1945), Finnish singer * Saint Helena (disambiguation), this includes places Places Greece * Helena ...

Identity

Identification with Matthew and James the Less

Usually, in the Western Catholic tradition, there are believed to be two men named Alphaeus. One of them was the father of the apostle

James James may refer to: People * James (given name) * James (surname) * James (musician), aka Faruq Mahfuz Anam James, (born 1964), Bollywood musician * James, brother of Jesus * King James (disambiguation), various kings named James * Prince Ja ...

and the other the father of

Matthew Matthew may refer to: * Matthew (given name) * Matthew (surname) * ''Matthew'' (album), a 2000 album by rapper Kool Keith * Matthew (elm cultivar), a cultivar of the Chinese Elm ''Ulmus parvifolia'' Christianity * Matthew the Apostle, one of ...

(Levi). Though both Matthew and James are described as being the "son of Alphaeus," there is no Biblical account of the two being called brothers, even in the same context where

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

and

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

and

Andrew Andrew is the English form of the given name, common in many countries. The word is derived from the , ''Andreas'', itself related to ''aner/andros'', "man" (as opposed to "woman"), thus meaning "manly" and, as consequence, "brave", "strong", "c ...

are described as being brothers. Despite this, Eastern Church tradition typically states that Matthew and James were brothers. The

apocryphal Apocrypha () are biblical or related writings not forming part of the accepted canon of scripture, some of which might be of doubtful authorship or authenticity. In Christianity, the word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to ...

Gospel of Peter The Gospel of Peter (), or the Gospel according to Peter, is an ancient text concerning Jesus Christ (title), Christ, only partially known today. Originally written in Koine Greek, it is a non-canonical gospel and was rejected as apocryphal by the ...

also refers to Levi as the son of Alphaeus.

Identification with Clopas

In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, Alphaeus was said to be the husband of Mary the daughter of Clopas. More recently, Alphaeus has been identified with

Clopas Clopas (, ; Hebrew: possibly , ; Aramaic: חילפאי, ''Ḥilfài'') is a figure of early Christianity. The name appears in the New Testament, specifically in John : He is often identified with another figure of a similar name, Cleophas (), ...

, based on the identification from parallel Gospel accounts of Mary, the mother of James the third woman with

Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to crucifixion of Jesus, his cr ...

and

Salome Salome (; , related to , "peace"; ), also known as Salome III, was a Jews, Jewish princess, the daughter of Herod II and princess Herodias. She was granddaughter of Herod the Great and stepdaughter of Herod Antipas. She is known from the New T ...

, wife of Zebedee beside the cross in Matthew with

Mary of Clopas According to the Gospel of John, Mary of Clopas (, ''María hē tou Clōpá'') was one of the women present at the crucifixion of Jesus and bringing supplies for his funeral. The expression ''Mary of Clopas'' in the Greek text is ambiguous as t ...

, the third woman in John's account. Post-medieval scholars and translators often take the name 'Mary of Clopas' to mean Mary was the wife of Clopas, not his daughter. Mary is called the wife of Cleophas in the King James Version. According to the surviving fragments of the work ''Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord'' of the

Apostolic Father The Apostolic Fathers, also known as the Ante-Nicene Fathers, were core Christian theologians among the Church Fathers who lived in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD who are believed to have personally known some of the Twelve Apostles or to have bee ...

Papias of Hierapolis Papias () was a Greeks, Greek Apostolic Father, Bishop of Hierapolis (modern Pamukkale, Turkey), and author who lived c. 60 – c. 130 AD He wrote the ''Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord'' () in five books. This work, which is lost apart fr ...

, who lived c. 70–163 AD, Cleophas and Alphaeus are the same person: "Mary the wife of Cleophas or Alphaeus, who was the mother of James the bishop and apostle, and of Simon and Thaddeus, and of one Joseph" According to the Anglican theologian

J.B. Lightfoot Joseph Barber Lightfoot (13 April 1828 – 21 December 1889), known as J. B. Lightfoot, was an English theologian and Bishop of Durham. Life Lightfoot was born in Liverpool, where his father John Jackson Lightfoot was an accountant. His m ...

this fragment quoted above is spurious. The ''

Catholic Encyclopedia ''The'' ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'', also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedi ...

'' suggests that etymologically, the names ''Clopas'' and ''Alphaeus'' are different, but that they could still be the same person. Other sources propose that ''Alphaeus'', ''Clophas'' and ''Cleophas'' are variant attempts to render the Aramaic ''H'' in Aramaic Hilfai into

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

as aspirated, or ''K''.

References

{{New Testament people People in the canonical gospels James, son of Alphaeus