Alphaeus

Alphaeus is the name of two individuals in the New Testament. (1) The father of James the Less, one of the twelve apostles, consistently distinguished in apostolic lists as James the son of Alphaeus (Matt. 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13). Some scholars propose identifying this Alphaeus with the Clopas (or Cleophas) of John 19:25, suggesting that Mary the mother of James was the wife of Clopas. (2) The father of Levi (Matthew), the tax collector called by Jesus (Mark 2:14).

Whether these two fathers named Alphaeus are the same person — which would make James and Matthew brothers — is a question debated since antiquity. The name's ordinary occurrence in the Greco-Roman world makes identification uncertain.