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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Galatians 1:19 - 1:19
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Save James (εἰ μὴ)
With the usual exceptive sense. I saw none save James. Not, I saw none other of the apostles, but I saw James. James is counted as an apostle, though not reckoned among the twelve. For Paul's use of “apostle,” see on 1Th 1:1, and comp. 1Co 15:4-7.
The Lord's brother
Added in order to distinguish him from James the son of Zebedee (Mat 4:21; Mat 10:2; Mar 10:35), who was still living, and from James the son of Alphaeus (Mat 10:3). The Lord's brother means that James was a son of Joseph and Mary. This view is known as the Helvidian theory, from Helvidius, a layman of Rome, who wrote, about 380, a book against mariolatry and ascetic celibacy. The explanations which differ from that of Helvidius have grown, largely, out of the desire to maintain the perpetual virginity of Mary. Jerome has given his name to a theory known as the Hieronymian put forth in reply to Helvidius, about 383, according to which the brethren of the Lord were the sons of his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Alphaeus or Clopas, and therefore Jesus' cousins. A third view bears the name of Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis in Cyprus (ob. 404), and is that the Lord's brothers were sons of Joseph by a former wife.