Among the original twelve apostles of Jesus, James the son of Zebedee (also known as James the Greater) is historically and biblically recognized as the first to suffer martyrdom. According to the New Testament in Acts 12:1-2, King Herod Agrippa I "laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church" and had James killed with a sword around 44 AD. This event occurred in Jerusalem and is the only apostolic death explicitly recorded in the Bible. It is important to distinguish James the Greater from Judas Iscariot, who died earlier by suicide following his betrayal of Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 27. While Judas was technically the first of the original twelve to die, James is honored as the first of the faithful apostles to give his life for his beliefs. The other disciples, according to various church traditions and historical texts, met their ends through later martyrdoms or, in the case of John the Evangelist, a natural death in old age on the island of Patmos.