1. MARY.
His mother and His mother's sister,
Mary, the wife of Cleopas and Mary Magdalene.
Mary Magdalene and Mary, mother of James and Joses. Matt. 27:56.
{John 19:15.}
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. Matt. 27:61;28. 1.
Mary Magdalene and Mary (mother) of Joses. Mark 15.47.
Mary Magdalene and Mary, mother of James. Mark 16:1.
Mary Magdalene and Mary, mother of James the Less and Joses.
Mark 15:40.
Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary (mother) of James. Luke 24:10.
JAMES.
Jude, brother of James. Jude 1.
James, son of Alpheus. Matt. 10:3.
Judas (brother) of James. Luke 6:16.
James, son of Alpheus. Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15.
James and Joses and Judas
And Simeon, Christ’s brethren
And His (Christ’s)sisters
James, the Lord's brother. Gal. 1
{Mark 6:3.}
In comparing these statements, there cannot, I think, be any doubt that Mary the mother of Jude, James, Joses, and the other Mary- constantly associated with Mary Magdalene—are the same; nor that Mary the wife of Cleopas is also. Jude is brother of James; and James is son of Alpheus, alleged to be the same as Cleopas (ש) הלפְּם; and James (Jude), and Joses, sons of Mary, are Christ's brethren; and are sons of Mary, I suppose, wife of Cleopas. Thus the identity and connection of persons is evident. Mary, called the other Mary, the constant companion of Mary Magdalene, was wife of Cleopas, and mother of James, Jude, Joses, and Simeon; and these were immediate relations of Christ: whether by Cleopas or Mary does not appear. This does not affect the question as to Mary's having a family after the birth of Christ, nor her living with Joseph; of which, I think, Scripture leaves no doubt. But, further, this would determine, that that James the Lord's brother is the Apostle, James the Less; because James, the Lord's brother, is brother of Jude (Mark 6:3). And James the Apostle is Jude's brother (Luke 6:16), and son of Alpheus, and I think from the place James holds in the Acts and in Galatians, it is the same James and not another. For in Galatians, it is " James the Lord's brother," and " certain came from James; " and in Acts, " tell it to James," and James presides, in a sense, in Acts 15.
It would have been quite incongruous to introduce the Lord's name in an Epistle; whereas Jude, the brother of James, was the distinctive name he had acquired in contrast with Iscariot (Luke 6:16).
The absence of all addition, in the case of James, is the natural proof of his being the well-known James.
2. In 1 Kings 15 there is certainly confusion comes in after Abijam. It is some question to me if Maachah was Absalom's daughter or granddaughter. If Absalom's daughter, allowing only five years from Absalom's death, she must have been six years old at David's death. The common chronology gives eight. Rehoboam was a year old when Solomon began to reign; so that she was five or seven years older than Rehoboam, if Absalom's daughter, supposing her born within a year before his death, the shortest time possible.
Solomon reigned forty years, this makes her forty-six or forty-eight, at Rehoboam's accession; he reigned seventeen; hence she was at least sixty-three or sixty-five at Asa's accession. It is possible she may have been his grand-mother, as in Chronicles it is not said his mother was Maachah, only the idol referred to. If 2 Chron. 11:20,21,22, be directly connected, it is clearly so. The mother's place was a kind of official one in the East, not the wife's, and still is. There remains 2 Chron. 13:2, which if not a mere misreading, must be compared with 11: 20-22; and if the same Abijah, raises further the question if Absalom or Abishalom is Absalom the son of David. The fact of 1 Kings 15:2 and 10, skews that something is to be sought out; some key I mean to it. The author of Kings and Chronicles cannot contradict themselves (nor each other), in the same passage and both on the same point.
I think it evident that it was not Absalom's daughter. It might be his granddaughter, but it is very doubtful. Maachah may have been Abijah's grandmother. But, there seems little doubt Abijah's mother was of Benjamin. It maybe, she was called Michaiah and Maachah, as the change of name is the commonest thing possible. Uriel and Abishalom were both known, one Uriel I suppose her father, the other a well-known ancestor. So Abihail, 2 Chron. 11:18, is evidently only a descendant of Eliab's. It is thus, though I doubt it, that Maachah may been a granddaughter of Absalom's, and daughter of Uriel. What adds to the probability of this is that Absalom was son of Maachah, so that the name may have been kept in the family, 1 Chron. 3:2. Uriel was a Benjamite, and called his daughter Michaiah, Maachah was given in Judah, where David's family connection was naturally kept