8 o’clock. Fuller’s club and sword. James the Less, son of Alphaeus. Having ‘the Less’ appended to your first name feels painful. Apparently our second James was given this title either because he was short in stature, or younger than James the son of Zebedee.
James is tough to pin down due to the abundance of other folks named James, including James the brother of Jesus, and James the author of the epistle. There are arguments for and against these all being the same man.
It follows that there are various traditions on how James the Less was martyred. Scenarios change and permutate depending on whether or not this James is identified with any of the other James’ noted above. The most dramatic tradition was that one of our collective James was thrown from the temple mount in Jerusalem, then stoned, then beaten with a fuller’s club, and then finally cut in half.
A fuller’s club was used in cloth-making. An example is shown in the mural: The Martyrdom of James the Less.
In the next part we will take a breath and reflect. In part 13, we move to Simon the Zealot at the 9 o’clock position.