The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 384

<leliver him from the danger Christiana W8l'e uni,ereal ooneent tl1e Just, received the iu at Jerusnlem nt this time. government of the Churoh together with Ver. 13.- When he for"" Petef', A.V. and the apostles;" and in ii. 1 he quotes Clement T.R.; maid for dam~el, A.V.; to amioer for of Alexandria BI! saying thnt, after the lo 11eorken. A.V. (/nrarcoiitrcu). The door ot Ascension, Poter, James, nnd John selected the gate l~ee eh. :r.. 17, note). To hearken James the Just, the Lord's brother, to be 0T listen ~e<>ms the best rendering. It is the first Bishop of Jerusalem, And Euse- the. phr~e rroper to a doorkeeper, "·hose bius gives it as the general testimony of busmeia 1t 1s to go to the door and listen antiquity that James t.l1e Just, the Lord's when any one knocl.-s, and find out what brother, was the first who sat on the epis- their bu,iness is before opening the door. copal throne of Jerusalem. But who he This is the primary sense of the word; that v,M exactly is e. point much controverted. of an~ng after listening is a sooondttry The three hypotheses are: 1. Tho.t he was sense. At a time of such alarm to Christians the son of Alphmus or Clopo.s and lifary, n knock at the door in the dead of the night sister to the blessed Virgin, and therefore would carry terror with it, ttnd careful our Lord's oousin-germau, and co.lied his I istcning to ascertain whether there was brother by a common Hebrew idiom. Accord- more than one person, and then to ask who ing to this theory he was one of the twelve ""as there and what wee his business, W88 (Luke vi. 15), as he appears to be in Gal. i. the natural course. 19, though this is not certain (see Ilishop Ver. 14.--Joy for glad-, A.V.; that for Lightfoot, in loc.). 2. That he was the son l101e, A. V. When she knew Peter'& voioe, of Joseph by his first wife, and so step- This evidence of Peter's intimacy with the brother to the Lord, which is Eusebius's family of Mary is in remarkable agreement explanation (' Eccl. Hist.,' ii 1). 3, Tho.t with 1 Pet. v. 13, "Greet llle.rcns my son." he was in the full sense the Lord's brother, Ver. 15.-Confidently for eomta.ntJ.y, A.V. being the son of Joseph o.nd Mary. This is (for the same use of li,,·"Xvpl(oµ,u. see Luke the opinion of Alford (in loc.), fully argued xxii. 59); and tlte1J Baid for tlten said they, in the • Proleg. to the Epistle of James,' A. V. It is his a.ngel; meaning probably and of Meyer, Credner, and many German his gnnrdian angel (i\Intt. xviii 10). But commentators. According to these two Inst the expression is obscure, and we do not hypotheses, he was not one of the twelve. l"llow e=tly tbe nature of the belief on "The spostolic constitutions distinguish which it was grounded. They must have between James the son of Alphmus, the thought that perhaps Peter had been put to apostle, anrl Ja.mes the brother of the Lord, death in prison that very night, and that I, br/,r,co1ros " (Meyer). It may be added his angel, speaking with his voice, W88 sent that eh. i 14 separates the brethren of the to BDDOunce it to the Church. The narrative Lord from the apostles, who are enumerated is a striking instance how .. slow of heart in the preceding verses. The hypothesis to believe" are even the most devout. They which identifies James the Lord's brother were praying very earnestly for Peter's life; with James the son of Alphmus or Clopas their prayer was granted; and yet the and Mary is well argued in Smith's announcement of it onlv draws out the 'Dictionary of the Bible,' art. "Jo.mes" (see anewer, "Thou art mad(" e..id then, 88 an also the able Introduction to the Epistle of nltcrnative, the explanation, " It is his James in the' Speaker's Commentary'). It angel I" seems impossible to come to a certain Ver. ] 6.-0pened for opened the door, conclusion. The weakest point in the A. V. ; tli,ey • • • and for and . . . they, hypothesis which identifies James the A.V.; amazed for aBtonished, A. V. (see eh. Lord's brother with the son of AlphieUB is viii 9, note). that it fails to account for the distinction Ver. 17.-B7ought him forth for brought clenrly ma.de between the Lord's brothers him, A. V.; teU for go show, A.V.; to for and the apostles in such passnges as John into, A. V. Beckoning, etc. ; ,ca.,-acrdcras .,.ii ii 12; vii. 3, 5, 10; eh. i. 13; Matt. xii. 46, X"Pi (see eh. xiii. 16; xiL 33; :ui 40). It is 4!> ; l Cor. ix. 5. For the effect of these the action of one having BOmething to say passages is scarcely neutralized by Gal. i. end bespeaking silence while he says it. 19. llut then, on the other hand, the Unto .James. This, of courae, is the same hypothesis that the Lord's brethren, inolud• James e.s is mentioned in Ge.I. i. 19 as "the ing Ja.mes and Joses, were tho children of Lord's brother," aud who, in Gal. ii 9, 12, Joseph and Mary, seems to be flutly contra- and eh. xv. 12 e.nd x.xi. 18, 88 well as here, dicted by the mention of Mary the wife of appears o.s occupying e. peculiar place in tho Clopa.s as being" the mother of James o.nd ClrnrcL nt JerulSlllem, viz. 88 all antiquity Joses" (Mark xv. 40; John xix. 25), Re went testifiell, us Bishop of JerW:IBlem. So liege- to another plaoe. Whether Luke was not i;ippus, quuLed by EU6C:Lius (' Eccl. Hist.,' ii. informed what the place was, or whether :.I.a), "Jamee the Lord's l,rother, calli,d by there waa some re&110Jl why he did not CH, XII, 1-2G.] THE ACTS OF 'l'HE APOSTLES. 381