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Saint James the Just (Hebrew: ????) (Greek I?κωβο?), (died AD 62), also known as James the Righteous, James of Jerusalem,
James Adelphotheos, or James, the Brother of the Lord, was an important figure in Early Christianity. The Catholic Encyclopedia
concludes that, based on Hegesippus's account, it is "probable" that James the Just is also James the Less, and in line with "
most Catholic interpreters", that he is therefore James, son of Alphaeus as well as James the son of Mary.[1] He is not, however,
identified with James the Great.[1]
James the Just was the leader of the Christian movement in Jerusalem in the decades after Jesus' death, but information about
his life is scarce and ambiguous. Several early sources described him as the brother of Jesus; historians have variously interpreted
this description as perhaps meaning a brother in a spiritual sense, or more literally as meaning that James was a close family relative
of Jesus- perhaps his full brother, half- or stepbrother, a cousin, or some other relation. The oldest surviving Christian liturgy,
the Liturgy of St James, called him "the brother of God" (Adelphotheos)