My friend Hunter’s first name is James. He’s (at least) a third-generation James. I know his grandfather as Mr. J.L., and Hunter’s dad, who’s also a friend of mine, goes by Jay.
Hunter’s wife, Joselyn, is from Honduras (she’s a legal immigrant who is now a citizen), and when I began to meet her family in the run-up to their wedding, I noticed that her family called Hunter Santiago. At first, it confused me that nobody called him Hunter, but there’s no Spanish equivalent for that name, so he became Santiago, which is Spanish for James.
Hunter and Josie kept the James tradition alive with a twist when their son was born. Their sweet baby boy is Santiago.
I brought up this long-ish story because of the connection between Santiago and James. Santiago is essentially a shortened version of Saint Iago — Saint James. Iago is a form of Jacob, which is the Hebrew name for James, both Jesus’ brother and the Apostle James. Thus, the connection between Santiago and James.
There are some believers who think that we should use the Hebrew names for New Testament figures (and some Old Testament ones whose names got Europeanized along the way). Under this calculus, Jesus becomes Yeshua. John becomes Yochanan. Mary becomes Miriam. And, yes, James becomes Jacob or Ya’akov.
The late David M. Stern’s translation, the Complete Jewish Bible (CJB), uses Hebrew names for places and people exclusively, along with some terminology. Here’s how the list of Jesus’ apostles reads in the CJB, followed by the English Standard Version (ESV):
Yeshua called his twelve talmidim and gave them authority to drive out unclean spirits and to heal every kind of disease and weakness. These are the names of the twelve emissaries: First, Shim‘on, called Kefa, and Andrew his brother, Ya‘akov Ben-Zavdai and Yochanan his brother, Philip and Bar-Talmai, T’oma and Mattityahu the tax-collector, Ya‘akov Bar-Halfai and Taddai, Shim‘on the Zealot, and Y’hudah from K’riot, who betrayed him.
Matthew 10:1-4 (CJB)
And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
Matthew 10:1-4 (ESV)
It’s striking, and it gives us a good glimpse into the culture of first-century Israel. Another Messianic Jewish translation that I enjoy, the Tree of Life Version, keeps Yeshua for Jesus and uses Jacob for James in that list; the rest of the names are familiar to Western eyes and ears.
Related: The Nephilim Debate Just Got a Boost From Ancient Egypt
One name in particular gets the “should be Hebrew” treatment. If you guessed James, you’re right.
Mark Ward of Logos Bible Software writes:
This linguistic situation is utterly fascinating to me.
And totally unacceptable to a lot of people. I don’t mean they refuse to call people John or any of its equivalents. No, they don’t know or care about John. He can take a hike from Lithuania to Wales, for all they care.
What gets their linguistic dander up is James. They say—they insist—that James should be Jacob. This is because (and this is true) the English name James began its life as the Hebrew word יַעֲקֹב (yaaqov), what we know as Jacob. This name is introduced to us as some kind of pun in Genesis 25:26. Jacob was named after the “heel” (Hebrew עָקֵב) of Esau that he grabbed onto on his way into this world. To call James “James” is to obscure his all-important connection to the patriarch, many now say.
Side note: Logos is my Bible software of choice. If you want to grow in your study of God’s Word and have tons of resources at your fingertips, I highly recommend that you give it a try.
Scholar Mark Wilson writes that using Jacob instead of James diminishes the Jewishness of the New Testament and dishonors Jesus’ brother’s heritage.
“In Matthew’s genealogy, we learn that Joseph’s father was named Jacob (Matthew 1:16) and that his family tree included the patriarch Jacob (Matthew 1:2),” Wilson points out. “James was thus named after his grandfather.”
Wilson makes several salient points in his article, but Ward makes an excellent case for staying the course. He notes that James-to-Jacob won’t be far enough for some people and that all sorts of online squabbling could ensue.
Ward also points out that the antisemitism argument for using Jacob instead of James doesn’t hold much water:
Recovering the Jewishness of Jesus and Paul—and the neat connection between James the New Testament writer and Jacob the patriarch—is a good thing and not a bad thing. But I don’t think making people talk differently is the way to execute this recovery. I think insisting on replacing English words/names with Hebrew ones actually cheapens that effort by reaching for a theologically undesirable expedient.
But the biggest point is that, regardless of the name you use, the truth of God’s Word is still the truth of God’s Word. Ward states that we use different names in different languages, yet “somehow, people from all these nations manage to worship the one true God, and his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. They’re not all saying it wrong.”
He adds later, “God can speak your language. However you say James or Jesus or Jehovah in your language, keep on truckin’. God hears and understands.”
Whether you call Jesus' brother James or Jacob, it doesn’t change the profound and often blunt truth of the epistle that bears his name. Whether you worship Jesus Christ or Yeshua HaMaschiach, His life-changing power still applies to your life. What’s in a name? Lots of things, but God is still at work, no matter what language you use to refer to His Son and His disciples.
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