Alpheus

UPDV spells the name "Alphaeus" (also rendered "Alpheus") and applies it to two different fathers in the gospel record: the father of one of the Twelve named James, and the father of Levi the tax-collector.

Father of James

In the list of the Twelve as Mark gives it, one of the named apostles is identified by his father: "and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the [son] of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean" (Mark 3:18). The bracketed [son] is UPDV's resolution of the underlying genitive. There are two men named James among the Twelve, and Alphaeus is the patronym that distinguishes one of them from the son of Zebedee.

Father of Levi

A second Alphaeus appears at Levi's call: "And as he passed by, he saw Levi the [son] of Alphaeus sitting at the place of toll, and he says to him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him" (Mark 2:14). Levi the tax-collector is here named with his father, just as James is named with his — and the same form, "the [son] of Alphaeus," covers both. UPDV does not equate the two Alphaeuses; the name is simply used of two men whose sons are remembered.