Among the men named James (יעקב "Holder of the heel; supplanter"; Standard Hebrew Yaʿaqov, Tiberian Hebrew Yaʿăqōḇ), in the New testament, whose number may be increased by the variety of epithets and euphemisms applied to them, James son of Alphaeus (or Clopas), is called the Less or the Younger to distinguish him from Saint James the Great and Saint James the Just. He was a brother of the apostle Matthew and the son of Mary (whom Roman Catholics insist must not be confused with Mary, the mother of Jesus).

He appears in the slightly varying lists of the Twelve Apostles, as does James the Great: Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13. He is also mentioned when his mother appears in Mark 15:40 (where he is labelled "less", "little" or "younger" depending on the translation) and Matthew 27:56; her marriage to Clopas is probably mentioned in John 19:25.

Not much is known about his later ministry. Eusebius of Caesarea reported a tradition identifing him with James the Just, the head of the early Christian Church in Jerusalem, but modern biblical scholars usually distinguish them.

External link

• Catholic Encyclopedia: Saint James the Less