No James - Things You Learn From The Greek

Did you know there is no James in the Bible? No James the brother of the Lord, no apostle James, no epistle of James.

Nope. The real name is JAKOBUS. Otherwise known as Jacob. The epistle of Jacob. By the apostle Jacob. Mmmmm hmmmm.

So, why do we have James in our Bibles? Simple. King James had the Bible translated into English, so some of the Jacobs were translated into James even though all the others were left as Jacob. (Interestingly, all the "bad" Jacobs were kept as Jacob - those who stole their brother's birthright. The important "good" ones - i.e. followed Jesus and wrote letters - were translated as James.)

This was partly justified because James, in English, has similar meaning to the Hebrew definition of Jacob.

I guess we can be glad there wasn't a Queen who had the Bible translated or we might have gone for centuries thinking Maureen or Molly was the mother of Jesus (those are English equivalents of the Hebrew name, Mary; just like James is for Jacob). Hmmm... Molly the mother of Jesus. The Virgin Molly. Hail Molly, full of grace.... Interesting thought.