Yesterday, May 3rd, was the Feast of St. James...(es). And since my name is James, that should interest me. But I'm still not clear on "which James" - according to the Church, the feast day of James the son of Zebedee is July 25 (and so it makes sense that my dad, whose birthday is July 26th, is also a James). And then yesterday was the feast day of the "other" James (and my birthday is coming up, too, though I was named after my dad).
But you may remember that in The Journey, when we talked about the apostles, I mentioned that yesterday's feast day assumes that "James the Lesser" (James the Younger, the son of Alphaeus) is the same James as James of Jerusalem, a relative of Jesus who became the first bishop of Jerusalem. And yet, I do not think the evidence we have in the gospels about the Jameses supports the idea that this is the same person. I think there are 3 Jameses, and tradition has conflated James 2 with James 3.
So here's the handout I made back then, in case you want to see it again. It's called "Sorting Out the Jameses" and I invite feedback, comments, corrections, etc. What do you think?
Jim
Dear friends - Please take 10 minutes to watch this personal update from me:
I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
I hope you like the song!
I hope to have another installment of THE JOURNEY up this Saturday - here's the text for the rest of the chapter - I didn't bother with the colored text since this is all from the Gospel of John.
