Real Bible People: The Family of Alpheus

The Family Ministries of Jesus

The Descendants of Alpheus: a Broken Family Healed

The disciples  of Jesus came from varied backgrounds.

Technical note:

Identifications of the relatives of Alpheus are varied and contentious among Bible scholars, and the explanations used for their relationships to one another are often complex. I use the plain teaching of scripture as I see it and I use this for the family relationships in my book series JOHN! (available at rolinbruno.com). Given these relationships, I present here the implications of these relationships for real people who really lived in the first century AD.

Matthew 'Levi,' estranged member of the Alpheus family

Living members of the Alpheus family included a son named Matthew, a wife named Mary and her two sons Joses and "little" James, and a son of "little" James named Judas Thaddeus. As an extra bonus, I'll also include Matthew's co-worker Chuza and Chuza's wife Joanna.

Father Alpheus

Alpheus is a variant spelling of Alphaeus, which I use for its simplicity. Alpheus himself does not appear in the Bible text, and has undoubtedly passed away before the Gospel stories begin. He was a Levite, which means that at scheduled times he had duties to perform in the temple at Jerusalem, such as assisting at services or singing in the choir.

He was most likely a man of means, who owned a large house within striking distance of Jerusalem so that he could perform his duties when scheduled. A possible place for his house may have been at the town of Ephraim, located in the Old Testament territory which became the Samaria of Jesus' time. Ephraim, 20 miles from Jerusalem, was one of the cities where Jesus took refuge, out of the reach of the murderous priests and Sadducees. If Alpheus' home was there it would have been a comfortable respite for Jesus and his disciples.

Matthew "Levi," one of the Twelve

When we meet Matthew in the gospel text, he is living 80 miles away from Jerusalem, collecting taxes for King Herod Antipas in Capernaum. This was a lucrative position which would have made him quite wealthy. Such positions could be given out as patronage from the King, or they could be purchased for substantial sums of money. As a lowly Levitical servant of the temple, becoming a friend of the king was unlikely. So where would Matthew get the fortune required to buy a tax collector's job?

The most likely occasion would have been the death of his father Alpheus. If Matthew was the oldest he could demand his portion of his father's inheritance even if it meant selling family holdings. (He could also have demanded this before his father's death, which would have meant even more severe resentment from the rest of the family.)

As a wealthy Jew he would most certainly have had a spacious home, a wife, and children. In the first century, these were three of the  four marks of wealth, rather than money held by bankers. The fourth mark of wealth was the ownership of tracts of agricultural land, such as were held by Nicodemus, the wealthiest man in Jerusalem. But Matthew's wealth came not from agriculture but tax collection from farmers, fishers, and other artisans. Because of Matthew's estrangement from the rest of his family, his children would not know their cousin Judas Thaddeus son of Little James and grandson of Alpheus.

Being a tax collector was a scandal for a Jew, to wring money out of the peasantry and give it to the overlords working for the hated Romans. It was even more of a scandal for a Levite, who should be responsible for collecting the temple tax for the priests rather than serving Rome. This was how he got his nickname: the contemptuous phrase "Levi the tax collector." Matthew would prosper in Capernaum, but the rest of his family would have nothing to do  with him.

But ALONG COMES JESUS! Matthew is the last of the Twelve to be called into the service of Jesus. He leaves his tax collector booth and throws a big party for Jesus, for the "sinners" following Jesus, and for the other "sinners" that worked for Herod. Matthew's two brothers James and Joses would have welcomed him back into the family joyously. This scene and this story would later become part of the tale that Jesus tells about the Prodigal Son.

Wife Mary, mother of James and Joses

Only two men are mentioned as sons of the wife of Alpheus, and Matthew is not one of them. They may have refused to acknowledge him, or more likely, he is the son of Alpheus by a previous wife. This Mary, although elderly, is one of the prosperous women who helped Jesus in his ministry, and she was present at the crucifixion with her sons Joses and 'little' James.

Joses, disciple of Jesus

Joses is a diminutive of Joseph, and this served as the name for the younger son of Mary of Alpheus. He was a disciple of Jesus, but was not chosen as one of the Twelve. Little else is known about him.

"Little" James, one of the Twelve

When James the son of Alpheus was inducted into the Twelve, there was already among them James the son of Zebedee, one of the seven earliest disciples. Since the son of Zebedee was a muscular fisherman, and the son of Alpheus was a lightweight helper at the temple, they acquired the nicknames of Big James and Little James. The church later called them James the Great, and James the Less.

Judas Thaddeus son of James, one of the Twelve

The listing of this young man in the same paragraph with  "little" James makes it likely that this is the son of little James and grandson of Alpheus. Here we have a father-son team among the 12 apostles! At one place in the Gospels, this disciple is identified as "Judas, not Iscariot."

Chuza the Syrian

This man is little noticed by Bible Scholars, but he was a fellow employee of Herod Antipas along with Matthew the tax collector. Chuza was the "steward" of Herod, placed in charge of King Herod's personal land holdings (Luke 8:3). As a non-Jew working for Rome's assigned king of Galilee, he would receive the cold shoulder from the Jews of the Land. But as a potential invitee to Matthew's party of conciliation  with Jesus, he could have become a believer. It is unlikely that he left his employment with Herod, for that would probably have elicited a comment from one of the Gospel writers.

Joanna the Wife of Chuza

In Luke 8:3, Joanna is highlighted by Luke as one of the disciples of Jesus who followed him and supported him in his ministry. Along with Susanna, Mary the Magdalene, and the un-named wife of Peter, these four women would have formed a cohesive group and become close friends, for men of that day were not in the habit of talking with women to whom they were not related. Luke notes that there were "many" women followers of Jesus, and at the end they included Mary, the matriarch of the Alpheus family.

NEXT WEEK:

Next week we will take a look at the family of Herod Antipas, who was neither a friend of Jesus, nor an enemy--but he was intensely interested in Jesus, and had a most interesting family.