Alphaeus (from Greek: Ἀλφαῖος) is a man mentioned in the ''
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...
'' 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 ...
, namely:
*
Matthew the Evangelist[Mark 2:14]
*
James, son of Alphaeus
He is implied to be the father of:
* Joseph or
Joses
Joses ( grc-gre, Ἰωσῆς) 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 and brother of a James ( James the Less acc ...
And in Church tradition he is the father of:
*
Abercius
*
Helena
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 and the other the father of
Matthew (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
* Secon ...
and
James or
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 sur ...
and
Andrew
Andrew is the English form of a given name common in many countries. In the 1990s, it was among the top ten most popular names given to boys in List of countries where English is an official language, English-speaking countries. "Andrew" is freq ...
are described as being brothers. Despite this, Eastern Church tradition typically states that Matthew and James were brothers.
The
apocryphal Gospel of Peter
The Gospel of Peter ( grc, κατά Πέτρον ευαγγέλιον, kata Petron euangelion), or the Gospel according to Peter, is an ancient text concerning Jesus Christ, only partially known today. It is considered a non-canonical gospel and ...
also refers to Levi as the son of Alphaeus.
In the Medieval period Alphaeus was said to be the husband of Mary the daughter of Clopas. More recently, Alphaeus has been identified with
Clopas, based on the identification from parallel Gospel accounts of
Mary, the mother of James the third woman with Mary Magdalene and Salome wife of Zebedee beside the cross in Matthew with
Mary of Clopas, 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 Papias of Hierapolis
Papias ( el, Παπίας) was a 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'' ( el, Λογίων Κυριακῶν Ἐξ ...
, 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 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 Encyclopedia'') i ...
'' 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:
Greece
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 ...
as aspirated, or ''K''.
References
{{New Testament people
People in the canonical gospels