Simon & Jude, Apostles (Western)
Honoratus, monk, bishop, Vercilli, Italy 415
Faro, bishop, Meaux, France 672
Today I’ve begun reading the Epistle of James, as assigned in the St. James Devotional Guide for the Christian Year. The “St. James” of our Fellowship is James, the Brother of Our Lord, who is also the brother of Jude (cf. Jude 1:1), whose feast day is today in the Western calendar. Jude identifies himself as, first, servant (doulos, slave) of Jesus Christ, then as adelphos Iakobou, brother of James (Jacob).
To be a relative of James (and thus, of Jesus, of the house of David) was noteworthy. The second-century writer Hegesippus, according to Church historian Eusebius, “records that after the capture of Jerusalem Vespasian issued an order that, to ensure that no member of the royal house should be left among the Jews, all descendants of David should be ferreted out.”
The emperor’s fears were not entirely baseless. After the martyrdom of James and the conquest of Jerusalem:
“It is said that those of the apostles and disciples of the Lord that were still living came together from all directions with those that were related to the Lord according to the flesh (for the majority of them also were still alive) to take counsel as to who was worthy to succeed James.
2. They all with one consent pronounced Simeon, the son of Clopas, of whom the Gospel also makes mention; to be worthy of the episcopal throne of that parish. He was a cousin, as they say, of the Savior. For Hegesippus records that Clopas was a brother of Joseph. (HE III.2)
Simeon was later accused of being “a descendant of David and a Christian; as a result he suffered martyrdom at the age of 120, when Trajan was emperor and Atticus consular governor.”
“Tortured for days on end, he bore a martyr’s witness, so that all, including the governor, were astounded that at the age of 120 he could endure it; and he was ordered to be crucified.” (HE III.32)
Simeon was not the only member of the Lord’s family to attract imperial scrutiny. According to Eusebius-Hegesippus:
1. Of the family of the Lord there were still living the grandchildren of Jude, who is said to have been the Lord’s brother according to the flesh.
2. Information was given that they belonged to the family of David, and they were brought to the Emperor Domitian…. For Domitian feared the coming of Christ as Herod also had feared it. And he asked them if they were descendants of David, and they confessed that they were. Then he asked them how much property they had, or how much money they owned. And both of them answered that they had only nine thousand denarii, half of which belonged to each of them.
4. And this property did not consist of silver, but of a piece of land which contained only thirty-nine acres, and from which they raised their taxes and supported themselves by their own labor.
5. Then they showed their hands, exhibiting the hardness of their bodies and the callousness produced upon their hands by continuous toil as evidence of their own labor.
"And when they were asked concerning Christ and his kingdom, of what sort it was and where and when it was to appear, they answered that it was not a temporal nor an earthly kingdom, but a heavenly andangelic one, which would appear at the end of the world, when he should come in glory to judge the quick and the dead, and to give unto every one according to his works."
"Upon hearing this, Domitian did not pass judgment against them, but, despising them as of no account, he let them go … And … they lived until the time of Trajan." (HE III.20)
But physical relationship matters little if one is unfaithful. Jesus, when told his brothers were seeking him, replied, “Who are my brothers? Those who hear the Word of God and keep it.”
In his epistle, James chooses not identify himself as “brother of the Lord” but as his servant. And he affirms the Lord’s saying himself: “Be doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”
Family relationship or apostolic appointment or church office exempts no one from the first requirement of a Christian: fidelity as a servant of Jesus Christ. James, Jerusalem’s first bishop, was martyred in 62. His successor, Simeon, was crucified in ca. 107. They were “good and faithful servants,” and our brothers in Christ, who heard the Word of God--and kept it.