On this evidence, may be founded a rational belief, though not an absolute certainty, that Thomas actually did preach the gospel in distant eastern countries, and there met with such success as to leave the lasting tokens of his labors, to preserve through a course of ages, in united glory, his own name and that of his Master. In obedience to His last earthly command, he went to teach “nations unknown to Caesar,” proclaiming to them the message of divine love,——solitary, and unsupported, save by the presence of Him, who had promised to “be with him always, EVEN TO THE END OF THE WORLD.”
JAMES, THE LITTLE;
THE SON OF ALPHEUS.
HIS NAME.
It will be observed, no doubt, by all readers, that the most important inquiry suggested in the outset of the most of these apostolic biographies, is about the name and personal identification of the individual subject of each life. This difficulty is connected with peculiarities of those ancient times and half-refined nations, that may not, perhaps, be very readily appreciated by those who have been accustomed only to the definite nomenclature of families and individuals, which is universally adopted among civilized nations at the present day. With all the refined nations of European race, the last part of a person’s name marks his family, and is supposed to have been borne by his father, and by his ancestors, from the time when family names were first adopted. The former part of his name, with equal definiteness, marks the individual; and generally remains fixed from the time when he first received his name. Whenever any change takes place in any part of his appellation, it is generally done in such a formal and permanent mode, as never to make any occasion for confusion in respect to the individual, among those concerned with him. But no such decisive limitation of names to persons, prevailed among even the most refined nations of the apostolic age. The name given to a child at birth, indeed, was very uniformly retained through life; but as to the other parts of his appellation, it was taken, according to circumstances, chance or caprice, from the common name of his father,——from some personal peculiarity,——from his business,——from his general character,——or from some particular incident in his life. The name thus acquired, to distinguish him [♦]from others bearing his former name, was used either in connection with that, or without; and sometimes two or more such distinctive appellations belonged to the same man, all or any of which were used together with the former, or separate from it, without any definite rule of application. To those acquainted with the individual so variously named, and contemporary with him, no confusion was made by this multiplicity of words; and when anything was recorded respecting him, it was done with the perfect assurance, that all who then knew him, would find no difficulty in respect to his personal identity, however he might he mentioned. But in later ages, when the personal knowledge of all these individual distinctions has been entirely lost, great difficulties necessarily arise on these points,——difficulties which, after tasking historical and philological criticism to the highest efforts, in order to settle the facts, are, for the most part, left in absolute uncertainty. Thus, in respect to the twelve apostles, it will be noticed, that this confusion of names throws great doubt over many important questions. Among some of them, too, these difficulties are partly owing to other causes. Their names were originally given to them, in the peculiar language of Palestine; and in the extension of their labors and fame, to people of different languages, of a very opposite character, their names were forced to undergo new distortions, by being variously translated, or changed in termination; and many of the original Hebrew sounds, in consequence of being altogether unpronounceable by Greeks and Romans, were variously exchanged for softer and smoother ones, which, in their dissimilar forms, would lose almost all perceptible traces of identity with each other, or with the original word.
[♦] replace word omitted from text “from”
These difficulties are in no case quite so prominent and serious as in regard to the apostle who is the subject of this particular biography. Bearing the same name with the elder son of Zebedee, he was of course necessarily designated by some additional title, to distinguish him from the other great apostle James. This title was not always the same, nor was it uniform in its principle of selection. On all the apostolic lists, he is designated by a reference to the name of his father, as is the first James. As the person first mentioned by this name is called James, the son of Zebedee, the second is called James, the son of Alpheus; nor is there, in the enumeration of the apostles by Matthew, Mark or Luke, any reference to another distinctive appellation of this James. But in one passage of Mark’s account of the crucifixion, it is mentioned, that among the women present, was Mary the mother of James the Little, and of Joses. In what sense this word little is applied,——whether of age, size, or dignity,——it is utterly impossible to ascertain at this day; for the original word is known to have been applied to persons, in every one of these senses, even in the New Testament. But, however this may be, a serious question arises, whether this James the Little was actually the same person as the James, called, on the apostolic lists, the son of Alpheus. In the corresponding passage in John’s gospel, this same Mary is called Mary the wife of Clopas; and by Matthew and Mark, the same James is mentioned as the brother of Joses, Juda, and Simon. In the apostolic lists given by Luke, both in his gospel, and in the Acts of the Apostles, Juda is also called “the brother of James;” and in his brief general epistle, the same apostle calls himself “the brother of James.” In the beginning of the epistle to the Galatians, Paul, describing his own reception at Jerusalem, calls him “James, the brother of our Lord;” and by Matthew and Mark, he, with his brothers, Joses, Juda and Simon, is also called the brother of Jesus. From all these seemingly opposite and irreconcilable statements, arise three inquiries, which can, it is believed, be so answered, as to attribute to the subject of this article every one of the circumstances connected with James, in these different stories.
James, the Little.——This adjective is here applied to him in the positive degree, because it is so in the original Greek, [Ιακωβος ὁ μικρος, Mark xv. 40,] and this expression too, is in accordance with English forms of expression. The comparative form, “James, the Less,” seems to have originated in the Latin Vulgate, “Jacobus Minor,” which may be well enough in that language; but in English, there is no reason why the original word should not be literally and faithfully expressed. The Greek original of Mark, calls him “James, the Little,” which implies simply, that he was a little man; whether little in size, or age, or dignity, every one is left to guess for himself;——but it is more accordant with usage, in respect to such nicknames, in those times, to suppose that he was a short man, and was thus named to distinguish him from the son of Zebedee, who was probably taller. The term thus applied by Mark, would be understood by all to whom he wrote, and implied no disparagement to his mental eminence. But the term applied, in the sense of a smaller dignity, is so slighting to the character of James, who to the last day of his life, maintained, according to both Christian and Jewish history, the most exalted fame for religion and intellectual worth,——that it must have struck all who heard it thus used, as a term altogether unjust to his true eminence. His weight of character in the councils of the apostles, soon after the ascension, and the manner in which he is alluded to in the accounts of his death, make it very improbable that he was younger than the other James.
First: Was James the son of Alpheus the same person as James the son of Clopas? The main argument for the identification of these names, rests upon the similarity of the consonants in the original Hebrew word which represents them both, and which, according to the fancy of a writer, might be represented in Greek, either by the letters of Alpheus or of Clopas. This proof, of course, can be fully appreciated only by those who are familiar with the power of the letters of the oriental languages, and know the variety of modes in which they are frequently given in the Greek, and other European languages. The convertibility of certain harsh sounds of the dialects of southwestern Asia, into either hard consonants, or smooth vowel utterances, is sufficiently well-known to Biblical scholars, to make the change here supposed appear perfectly probable and natural to them. It will be observed by common readers, that all the consonants in the two words are exactly the same, except that Clopas has a hard C, or K, in the beginning, and that Alpheus has the letter P aspirated by an H, following it. Now, both of these differences can, by a reference to the original Hebrew word, be shown to be only the results of the different modes of expressing the same Hebrew letters; and the words thus expressed may, by the established rules of etymology, be referred to the same oriental root. These two names, then, Alpheus and Clopas, may be safely assigned to the same person; and Mary the wife of Clopas and the mother of James the Little, and of Joses, was, no doubt, the mother of him who is called “James the son of Alpheus.”
Clopas and Alpheus.——It should be noticed, that in the common translation of the New Testament, the former of these two words is very unjustifiably expressed by Cleophas, whereas the original (John xix. 25,) is simply Κλωπας. (Clopas.) This is a totally different name from Cleopas, (Luke xxiv. 18, Κλεοπας,) which is probably Greek in its origin, and abridged from Cleopater, (Κλεοπατρος,) just as Antipas from Antipater, and many other similar instances, in which the Hellenizing Jews abridged the terminations of Greek and Roman words, to suit the genius of the Hebrew tongue. But Clopas, being very differently spelt in the Greek, must be traced to another source; and the circumstances which connect it with the name Alpheus, suggesting that, like that, it might have a Hebrew origin, directs the inquirer to the original form of that word. The Hebrew חלפא (HHALPHA) may be taken as the word from which both are derived; each being such an expression of the original, as the different writers might choose for its fair representation. The first letter in the word, ח, (hhaith,) has in Hebrew two entirely distinct sounds; one a strong guttural H, and the other a deeply aspirated KH. These are represented in Arabic by two different letters, but in Hebrew, a single character is used to designate both; consequently the names which contain this letter, may be represented in Greek and other languages, by two different letters, according as they were pronounced; and where the original word which contained it, was sounded differently, by different persons, under different circumstances, varying its pronunciation with the times and the fashion, even in the same word, it would be differently expressed in Greek. Any person familiar with the peculiar changes made in those Old Testament names which are quoted in the New, will easily apprehend the possibility of such a variation in this. Thus, in Stephen’s speech, (Acts vii.) Haran is called Charran; and other changes of the same sort occur in the same chapter. The name Anna, (Luke ii. 36,) is the same with Hannah, (1 Samuel i. 2,) which in the Hebrew has this same strongly aspirated H, that begins the word in question,——and the same too, which in Acts vii. 2, 4, is changed into the strong Greek Ch; while all its harshness is lost, and the whole aspiration removed, in Anna. These instances, taken out of many similar ones, may justify to common readers, the seemingly great change of letters in the beginning of Alpheus and Clopas. The other changes of vowels are of no account, since in the oriental languages particularly, these are not fixed parts of the word, but mere modes of uttering the consonants, and vary throughout the verbs and nouns, in almost every inflexion these parts of speech undergo. These therefore, are not considered radical or essential parts of the word, and are never taken into consideration in tracing a word from one language to another,——the consonants being the fixed parts on which etymology depends. The change also from the aspirate Ph, to the smooth mute P, is also so very common in the oriental languages, and even in the Greek, that it need not be regarded in identifying the word.