Epiphanius had heard that these opinions, which he held to be derogatory to the Lord’s mother, had been promulgated also by the elder Apollinaris or some of his disciples; but he doubted about this (p. 1034). The report was probably circulated by their opponents in order to bring discredit upon them.
The passages referred to in the text show clearly what was Chrysostom’s earlier view. To these may be added the comments on I Cor. xv. 7 (x. 355 D), where he evidently regards James as not one of the Twelve; on Matt. x. 2 (VII. pp. 368,9), where he makes James the son of Alphaeus a tax-gatherer like Matthew, clearly taking them to be brothers; and on Matth. xxvii. 55 (VII. p. 827 A), where, like Gregory Nyssen, he identifies Maria ‘Iakwbou with the Lord’s mother. The accounts of Chrysostom’s opinion on this subject given by Blom p. 111 sq, and Mill p. 284 note, are unsatisfactory.
The Homilies on the Acts also take the same view (IX. pp. 23 B. 26 A), but though these are generally ascribed to Chrysostom, their genuineness is very questionable. In another spurious work, Opus imp. in Matth. , VI. p. clxxiv E, the Hieronymian view appears; ‘Jacobum Alphaei lapidantes: propter quae omnia Jerusalem destructa est a Romanis.’