Question:
Answer:
It’s possible that James, the brother of the Lord, and James, the son Alphaeus and one of Jesus’ 12 Apostles, are one and the same person, and this is a traditional view.
However, it’s also possible—and perhaps more likely—that James, the brother of the Lord (Gal. 1:18-19), is another James, i.e., distinguished from the two apostles. According to this view, the James noted in Galatians 1:18-19, a relative/cousin of Jesus, not a blood brother (Mark 6:3), and whom tradition identifies as the Bishop of Jerusalem (see Acts 15:13; 21:17-18), is not the son of Alphaeus but a third biblical James. This James (Acts 12:7) had seen Jesus raised from the dead (1 Cor. 15:7) and wrote the biblical Letter of St. James.
This latter view regarding the identity of James in Galatians 1:18-19 is held by such Scripture scholars as Dr. Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch, the co-authors of the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament.
For more information on this subject, see our tract on “Brethren of the Lord.”