James the Great
one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus
James the Great (Koine Greek: Ἰάκωβος, romanized: Iákōbos; Classical Syriac: ܝܥܩܘܒ, romanized: Yaʿqōḇ; died c. 44) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. According to the New Testament, he was the second of the apostles to die, after Judas Iscariot, and the first to be martyred. Saint James is the patron saint of Spain and, according to tradition, what are believed to be his remains are held in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain.
He was also known as James the Apostle; James, son of Zebedee; James, brother of John; James, Son of Thunder, Saint James the Great; Saint James the Greater; St. James the Major; Saint James the Elder; Saint Jacob; and Santiago.
In the New Testament
James was born into a family of Jewish fishermen on the Sea of Galilee. His parents were Zebedee and Salome. Salome was a sister of Mary (mother of Jesus) which made James the Great a cousin of Jesus. James is styled "the Greater" to distinguish him from the other apostle James "the Lesser," with "greater" meaning older or taller, rather than more important. James the Great was the brother of John the Apostle.
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This entry incorporates text from “James the Great” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.