Question about Jerome and James
Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 5:14 am
Does anyone know offhand in which of his writings Jerome proposed that James son of Alphaeus was the same person as James the Just?
Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com
Investigating the roots of western civilization (ye olde BC&H forum of IIDB lives on...)
https://earlywritings.com/forum/
Question about Jerome and James
Page 1 of 1
Re: Question about Jerome and James
Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 5:42 am
The Perpetual Virginity of Mary, Chapter 13
Re: Question about Jerome and James
Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 6:09 am
Thanks!
Re: Question about Jerome and James
Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 10:33 am
The Catholic Encyclopaedia outlines Jerome's 'propositions'
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm
Jerome maintains against Helvidius three propositions:—
1st. That Joseph was only putatively, not really, the husband of Mary.
2d. That the brethren of the Lord were his cousins, not his own brethren.
3d. That virginity is better than the married state.
...
3. In support of his preference of virginity to marriage, Jerome argues that not only Mary but Joseph also remained in the virgin state (19); that, though marriage may sometimes be a holy estate, it presents great hindrances to prayer (20), and the teaching of Scripture is that the states of virginity and continency are more accordant with God's will than that of marriage (21, 22)
Re: Question about Jerome and James
Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 5:56 pm
Yeah, from the late second century onward, theological concerns about Mary's virginity directed the development of tradition about Jesus' so-called brothers. Thus, Eusebius, Jerome and others combed the texts at their disposal to find alternate explanations of James' parentage.
Despite their theological motivations, their instincts may not have been far off. The earliest layers of the James tradition (especially second-century texts associated with Gnostics) make it fairly explicit that James had a different earthly father than Jesus.
Despite their theological motivations, their instincts may not have been far off. The earliest layers of the James tradition (especially second-century texts associated with Gnostics) make it fairly explicit that James had a different earthly father than Jesus.
Re: Question about Jerome and James
Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 7:57 pm
I would expect Gnostics to maintain that James had a different earthly father from Jesus because a true Gnostic would regard Jesus as the first emanation of the purely spiritual First God, who would have nothing to do with materiality, which Gnostics viewed as totally evil. Gnostics would not view Jesus as material in any important sense of the word: he was the first, the purest attribute of the perfectly spiritual First God. The proto-catholic church, once it had developed philosophical underpinnings for the notion of "Trinity" and had found ways to reconcile with the Gnostic character of the Gospel according to John, read the incarnation of the Word not as a metaphor of the nature of Jesus but as an affirmation that Jesus was equal to God. 
Re: Question about Jerome and James
Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2014 12:12 pm
The work in question is the "Adversus Helvidium", "Against Helvidius". An English translation can be found here:
http://tertullian.org/fathers2/NPNF2-06 ... 91_1770937
But I think the main point made is in chapter 15.
http://tertullian.org/fathers2/NPNF2-06 ... 91_1770937
But I think the main point made is in chapter 15.
13. The last proposition of Helvidius was this, and it is what he wished to show when he treated of the first-born, that brethren of the Lord are mentioned in the Gospels. ... 'Observe, Mary is the mother of James the less and of Joses. And James is called the less to distinguish him from James the greater, who was the son of Zebedee' ...
No one doubts that there were two apostles called by the name James, James the son of Zebedee, and James the son of Alphaeus. Do you intend the comparatively unknown James the less, who is called in Scripture the son of Mary, not however of Mary the mother of our Lord, to be an apostle, or not? If he is an apostle, he must be the son of Alphaeus and a believer in Jesus, "For neither did his brethren believe in him."
Notice, moreover, that the Lord's brother is an apostle, since Paul says, "Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, and tarried with him fifteen days. But other of the Apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother." ...
And that you may not suppose this James to be the son of Zebedee, you have only to read the Acts of the Apostles, and you will find that the latter had already been slain by Herod.
The only conclusion is that the Mary who is described as the mother of James the less was the wife of Alphaeus and sister of Mary the Lord's mother, the one who is called by John the Evangelist "Mary of Clopas," whether after her father, or kindred, or for some other reason.