[1] þessa (m. gen. sg.) ‘of this’: Ms. ‘þesse’ (m. nom. sg.) ‘this’. Finnur Jónsson and Kock emend to þessa, m. gen. sg., modifying Jóns, interpreting ll. 1-2 as ‘James, brother of this John’ (i.e. the Apostle referred to in the preceding st.). The ms. reading might alternatively be retained and the passage read: ‘this James, John’s brother’, i.e. James the Great, as opposed to James the Less, the subject of st. 8 below. The detail that James the Great was John’s older brother derives ultimately from scripture (cf. Matt. IV.21; Mark I.19; Acts XII.2).