no...the James you speak of [who was an apostle,along with his brother John] were the son's of Zebedee. The three [Simon Peter included] were always together with Jesus during various occurrences and they had been fishing partners in the past. Luke 5:8-10.
Added: James, the brother of John was killed by Herod after the departure of Jesus.
Acts 12
1 Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. 2 Then he killed James the brother of John with the sword. 3 And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread. 4 So when he had arrested him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover.
Again, the three were seen as a team...
James, the brother of Jesus, was part of the council in Jerusalem, later on noted in Acts 15.
Acts 15
[sup]4[/sup]And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them.
[sup]13[/sup] And after they had become silent, James answered, saying, “Men and brethren, listen to me: [sup]14[/sup] Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. [sup]15[/sup] And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written:
[sup]16[/sup] ‘ After this I will return
And will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down;
I will rebuild its ruins,
And I will set it up;
[sup]17[/sup] So that the rest of mankind may seek the LORD,
Even all the Gentiles who are called by My name,
Says the LORD who does all these things.’
[sup]18[/sup] “Known to God from eternity are all His works [sup]19[/sup] Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God,
Acts 21
17 And when we had come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. 18 On the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present.19 When he had greeted them, he told in detail those things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.
Galations 2
[sup]11[/sup] Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; [sup]12[/sup] for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. [sup]13[/sup] And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.
The term brother is never used in the New Testament to denote a cousin or relative or anything other than a literal BROTHER.
- John 1:41 He *found first his own brother Simon, and *said to him, "We have found the Messiah"
Shalom!
Hello Angelina,
Jesus did not have any biological brothers. None of the James mentioned in the Bible were Jesus' biological brother. The problem with the Hebrew and Aramaic language is that they don't have a word for "cousin." So, the word "brother' was also used for cousin. The writers of the New Testament were brought up using the Aramaic equivalent of "brothers" to mean both cousins and sons of the same father—plus other relatives and even non-relatives. When they wrote in Greek, they did the same thing the translators of the Septuagint did.
Let's look closely at James, whom some say is Jesus' brother. We know that James the younger’s mother was named Mary. Look at the descriptions of the women standing beneath the cross: "among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee" (Matt. 27:56); "There were also women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome" (Mark 15:40).
Then look at what John says: "But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene" (John 19:25). If we compare these parallel accounts of the scene of the crucifixion, we see that the mother of James and Joseph must be the wife of Clopas. So far, so good.
An argument against this, though, is that James is elsewhere (Matt. 10:3) described as the son of Alphaeus, which would mean this Mary, whoever she was, was the wife of both Clopas and Alphaeus. But Alphaeus and Clopas are the same person, since the Aramaic name for Alphaeus could be rendered in Greek either as Alphaeus or as Clopas. Another possibility is that Alphaeus took a Greek name similar to his Jewish name, the way that Saul took the name Paul.
So it’s probable that James the younger is the son of Mary and Clopas. The second-century historian Hegesippus explains that Clopas was the brother of Joseph, the foster-father of Jesus. James would thus be Joseph’s nephew and a cousin of Jesus, who was Joseph’s putative son.
What does all of this have to do with marrying outside one's faith?
Nothing, it was Buzz who changed the subject when I stated that when one should allow the non-Christian member in the family first to know God and be sanctified by Him before one goes outside the family. After all, Jesus went to the House of Israel first and then sent His Apostles into the world of the Gentiles.
