There were also women looking on from afar: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome;
All Commentaries on Mark 15:40 Go To Mark 15
Bede
AD 735
How could it be said that the brother of the Lord was not the apostle, but a third James, since Paul also gives him the name of an apostle, saying, “I saw none of the other apostles except James, the brother of the Lord”; and the evangelist Mark names the same man, not a third, but one of the two Jameses, saying, “There were women also watching from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of the James the younger and of Joseph and Salome?” Now “greater and lesser” are customarily used to establish a difference not among three, but between two. Hence the lesser James is named “of Alphaeus,” in distinction from the greater, who was the son of Zebedee.
