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What are the earliest attested usages of the phrase "James the Great" (or "James the greater") in reference to "James son of Zebedee"?

The attestation will be in Greek or Latin. The earliest usage I know of is in The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary/Against Helvidius by Jerome. Issued c.383 in Latin:

"Observe, Mary is the mother of James the Less and of Joses. And James is called the less to distinguish him from James the greater, who was the son of Zebedee..." https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm

Ryan Miller
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    Can you clarify what your question has to do with Latin (or Greek)? I can't tell whether this is a historical, biblical, or some other kind of question, so I'm unsure whether this is the best fit among SE sites. It'd be great if you could to elaborate on the context and what you already know about the phrase. – Joonas Ilmavirta Jul 27 '21 at 13:46
  • The earliest usage I know of is in The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary/Against Jovinianus, by Jerome (issued c.383 in Latin): "Observe, Mary is the mother of James the Less and of Joses. And James is called the less to distinguish him from James the greater, who was the son of Zebedee..." https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm – Ryan Miller Jul 27 '21 at 14:26
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    This sounds like a question for history.SE, christianity.SE, or hermeneutics.SE. –  Jul 27 '21 at 14:32
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    I can see a legitimate question here - the attestation will be in Greek or Latin. Ryan, can you add that info to the question. I'll run a TLG search later to see if it comes up. Just a little busy at the moment. – cmw Jul 27 '21 at 14:45
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    I couldn't find much, unfortunately. But I did find a Didymus the Blind reference where he calls James the Apostle μέγας (Comm. Ps. 29-34 228.18). It's not μείζων or maior, though, so not quite the same. I can keep looking around, but it'll get tricky in Greek because there's a prominent passage in Genesis that combines μείζων and Ἰακώβ. Searching TheLatinLibrary also brings up nothing. – cmw Jul 27 '21 at 20:46
  • RE: "Didymus the Blind reference where he calls James the Apostle μέγας (Comm. Ps. 29-34 228.18)." If he did not say which apostle, is it possible that he was talking about James the son of Alphaeus? – Ryan Miller Jul 28 '21 at 01:50
  • Re: TheLatinLibrary also brings up nothing. What is the latest date the LatinLibrary covers? – Ryan Miller Jul 28 '21 at 01:51
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    TLL goes very late, but it is not complete and doesn't have search capabilities. Re Didymus, I'll check again, but he specifically is referring to the author of the Epistle of James. I'll post that as an answer later and maybe others can fill in the gaps. – cmw Jul 28 '21 at 05:09
  • Re: Didymus. A quotation of the relevant passage (in the original language and in English translation) would be useful. Given that Origen refers to the author of the book of James as "the Brother of the Lord" (Commentarium in Epistulam ad Romanos IV, 8), and Didymus was influenced by Origen, it seems likely he was referring to "the Brother of the Lord" as "great." But since Didymus was in the chain of tradition leading to Jerome's identification of "the Brother of the Lord" with "James son of Alphaeus," I would like to know if the passage rules out the son of Alphaeus. – Ryan Miller Jul 28 '21 at 16:31

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