Alphaeus: A Father Known Only by His Sons

A man of the New Testament era

Alphaeus belongs to the generation that saw Jesus. The dossier places his era at around 4 BC to AD 33, a span drawn from Ussher's chronology (1650), and lists him with the tribe of Judah. He is described simply as a man living at the time of the New Testament, and that is nearly all that can be said of him directly, because Scripture never once lets him speak, act or appear. He is named seven times across five books, and in each case he is named as somebody's father.

Named in the lists of the apostles

The most frequent way Alphaeus enters the Bible is through his son James. When Matthew records the apostles Jesus sent out, Alphaeus is there as an identifying mark in the record (Matthew 10:3). Mark's list reads: "Andrew; Philip; Bartholomew; Matthew; Thomas; James, the son of Alphaeus; Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot;" (Mark 3:18). Luke's list carries the same phrase: "Matthew; Thomas; James, the son of Alphaeus; Simon, who was called the Zealot;" (Luke 6:15).

After these lists the name surfaces once more, in the upper room: "When they had come in, they went up into the upper room where they were staying; that is Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James" (Acts 1:13). Four times, then, this man exists on the page in order to tell one James apart from another. His name is the label fixed to an apostle.

Named at a tax office

One other verse carries the name, and it is the only one with any movement in it. "As he passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, 'Follow me.' And he arose and followed him" (Mark 2:14). Again the father is only the identification. The call, the rising and the following all belong to the son. The dossier's family record lists Matthew among the children of Alphaeus alongside James, tying this Levi to the Matthew named in the apostolic lists. The quoted text itself says only "Levi, the son of Alphaeus" and "James the son of Alphaeus," and leaves the reader to notice the repeated name.

Two passages where the name does not appear

Two further passages are gathered into the record of Alphaeus without using his name at all. At the cross John writes: "But standing by Jesus' cross were his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene" (John 19:25). Afterward Luke reports: "One of them, named Cleopas, answered him, 'Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who doesn't know the things which have happened there in these days?'" (Luke 24:18). The names in those verses are Clopas and Cleopas, not Alphaeus. The dossier links these passages to him and lists a wife named Mary, yet the quoted text makes no such identification, and honesty about the page requires saying so.

No sins recorded, and no righteousness either

The dossier records no failure and no act of obedience for Alphaeus. This is not a clean record; it is an empty one. Scripture neither praises him nor blames him, because Scripture never places him in a scene. Whether he believed, whether he followed the one his sons followed, whether he stood near the cross or stayed away, the Bible does not say. It is worth resisting the pull to make him a godly father by inference. The text does not offer that, and supplying it would mean writing over Scripture instead of reading it.

What we do not know

The dossier is blunt: no scene is told about this person, and every mention is a list, a genealogy or a passing note. We have no words of his, no place where he lived, no trade, no death, no age. The dossier gives no original form of his name. And from the quoted passages alone we cannot be certain that the father of James and the father of Levi are one and the same man.

The line to Christ

And yet each time this obscure name appears, Jesus is close by. Jesus chose and sent the son of Alphaeus among the apostles (Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15). Jesus passed a tax office and said two words, "Follow me," to another son of Alphaeus, who arose and followed him (Mark 2:14). Later the son of Alphaeus is in the upper room with the rest (Acts 1:13). The name is also gathered in beside the cross of Jesus (John 19:25) and beside the question asked in Jerusalem about the things which had happened (Luke 24:18). Alphaeus contributes no sermon and no deed. He is the man whose household the call of Christ reached, and whose name Scripture kept because his sons answered.