Lecture 5 - The Jewish Christianity of James
James, the brother of Jesus, should be given much more respect than he has traditionally received. As a blood relation to Jesus, he is one of the closest links which earliest Christianity had with Jesus. In Christian perspective, however, he has been all too often treated as a straw-man opponent of Paul. That trend should be reversed and James be given much more prominence and reverence, equivalent to that accorded to the other two first-generation leaders, Peter and Paul—his integrity and influence recognized across a wide spectrum of second-century Christianity, and the letter attributed to him respected as an authentic expression of the early faith of the founding community of Christianity.
Emerging Jewish Christianity
The Background of James in the New Testament
(1) The disciples said to Jesus, “We know that you will depart from us. Who (then) will rule over us?”
(2) Jesus said to them, “(No matter) where you came from, you should go to James the Just for whose sake heaven and earth came into being.”
These two texts establish that the Gentiles who join the eschatological people of God are technically described as those who are ‘in the midst’ (בתוך) of Israel. This catchphrase reveals that these Gentiles are also mentioned in the Torah. In Leviticus 17–18 (MT) there are five occurrences of the phrase ‘the alien who sojourns in your/their midst’ (Lv. 17:8, 10, 12, 13; 18:26, all using בתוככם or בתוכם). Since two of these occurrences (17:10, 12) refer to the same prohibition repeated, there are in fact four commandments in Leviticus 17–18 which not only the Israelite but also ‘the alien who sojourns in your/their midst’ is obliged to keep. These correspond to the four prohibitions of the apostolic decree, in the order in which they occur in the apostolic letter (Acts 15:29; cf. 21:25)
The objection to Paul is that (as they have heard) he teaches Jewish Christians in the Diaspora to give up observing the Law. The Gentile issue has been decided by the apostolic decree (as 21:25 reminds the reader) and is no longer an issue. This distinction between Jewish Christian obedience to the Law and Gentile Christian obedience to the Law is crucial for a proper understanding of the evidence. It is important to remember that Jewish Christians could be as insistent as any Jew on Jewish obedience to the Law without objecting at all to Paul’s Gentile mission. It was also possible to be strongly opposed to Paul, not at all because he did not require Gentiles to keep the Law, but because he allegedly encouraged Jews to abandon the Law.
The letter attributed to James strongly suggests that he was highly regarded among diaspora Jews who believed in Jesus, as highly regarded as he was among Jesus-believers in Jerusalem itself.
James remembered by early Jewish and non-Jewish Writers.
Now the report goes, that this elder Ananus proved a most fortunate man; for he had five sons, who had all performed the office of a high priest to God, and he had himself enjoyed that dignity a long time formerly, which had never happened to any other of our high priests: (199) but this younger Ananus, who, as we have told you already, took the high priesthood, was a bold man in his temper, and very insolent; he was also of the sect of the Sadducees, who are very rigid in judging offenders, above all the rest of the Jews, as we have already observed; (200) when, therefore, Ananus was of this disposition, he thought he had now a proper opportunity [to exercise his authority]. Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, [or, some of his companions]; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned; (201) but as for those who seemed the most equitable of the citizens, and such as were the most uneasy at the breach of the laws, they disliked what was done; they also sent to the king [Agrippa], desiring him to send to Ananus that he should act so no more, for that what he had already done was not to be justified
(1) The disciples said to Jesus, “We know that you will depart from us. Who (then) will rule over us?”
(2) Jesus said to them, “(No matter) where you came from, you should go to James the Just for whose sake heaven and earth came into being.”
The Gospel also which is called the Gospel according to the Hebrews, and which I have recently translated into Greek and Latin and which also Origen3 often makes use of, after the account of the resurrection of the Saviour says, “but the Lord, after he had given his grave clothes to the servant of the priest, appeared to James (for James had sworn that he would not eat bread from that hour in which he drank the cup of the Lord until he should see him rising again from among those that sleep)” and again, a little later, it says “ ‘Bring a table and bread,’ said the Lord.” And immediately it is added, “He brought bread and blessed and brake and gave to James the Just and said to him, ‘my brother eat thy bread, for the son of man is risen from among those that sleep.’ ” And so he ruled the church of Jerusalem thirty years, that is until the seventh year of Nero, and was buried near the temple from which he had been cast down. His tombstone with its inscription was well known until the siege of Titus and the end of Hadrian’s reign. Some of our writers think he was buried in Mount Olivet, but they are mistaken.
3 But Clement in the sixth book of his Hypotyposes writes thus: “For they say that Peter and James and John after the ascension of our Saviour, as if also preferred by our Lord, strove not after honor, but chose James the Just bishop of Jerusalem.”9
4 But the same writer, in the seventh book of the same work, relates also the following things concerning him: “The Lord after his resurrection imparted knowledge to James the Just and to John and Peter, and they imparted it to the rest of the apostles, and the rest of the apostles to the seventy, of whom Barnabas was one.
James, the brother of the Lord, succeeded to the government of the Church in conjunction with the apostles
He has been called the Just by all from the time of our Saviour to the present day; for there were many that bore the name of James.
5 He was holy from his mother’s womb; and he drank no wine nor strong drink, nor did he eat flesh. No razor came upon his head; he did not anoint himself with oil, and he did not use the bath.
6 He alone was permitted to enter into the holy place; for he wore not woolen but linen garments. And he was in the habit of entering alone into the temple, and was frequently found upon his knees begging forgiveness for the people, so that his knees became hard like those of a camel, in consequence of his constantly bending them in his worship of God, and asking forgiveness for the people
αὕτη ἡ πύλη τοῦ κυρίου,
δίκαιοι εἰσελεύσονται ἐν αὐτῇ.
8 Now some of the seven sects, which existed among the people and which have been mentioned by me in the Memoirs, asked him, ‘What is the gate of Jesus?’16 and he replied that he was the Saviour.
9 On account of these words some believed that Jesus is the Christ.
10 Therefore when many even of the rulers believed, there was a commotion among the Jews and Scribes and Pharisees, who said that there was danger that the whole people would be looking for Jesus as the Christ. Coming therefore in a body to James they said, ‘We entreat thee, restrain the people; for they are gone astray in regard to Jesus, as if he were the Christ. We entreat thee to persuade all that have come to the feast of the Passover concerning Jesus; for we all have confidence in thee. For we bear thee witness, as do all the people, that thou art just, and dost not respect persons.3
12 The aforesaid Scribes and Pharisees therefore placed James upon the pinnacle of the temple, and cried out to him and said: ‘Thou just one, in whom we ought all to have: confidence, forasmuch as the people are led, astray after Jesus, the crucified one, declare to us, what is the gate of Jesus.’
13 And he answered with a loud voice, ‘Why do ye ask me concerning Jesus, the Son of Man? He himself sitteth in heaven at the right hand of the great Power, and is about to come upon the clouds of heaven.’
because he who is high priest and chief of high priests afterward was installed as the first bishop: James, [3,9] called apostle and brother of the Lord. (He was the physical son of Joseph by lineage and called ‘the brother of the Lord’ because he lived closely together with him.)
[4,1] This James was the son of Joseph from his [first] wife, not from Mary, just as this has also been told to us in many places and very clearly worked out for us. [4,2] We find, on the one hand, that he also was from David because he was the son of Joseph, and he became a Nazirite (because he was the firstborn of Joseph and consecrated [as such to God]). [4,3] Wherefore he was also allowed once a year to enter into the holy of holies, just as the Law commanded the high priests according to the scriptures. So relate many who came before us concerning him, Eusebius and Clement and others. [4,4] On the other hand, he was even allowed to wear the high priest’s mitre on his head, just as the aforementioned trustworthy men bear witness in their writings.
Peter to James, the lord and bishop of the holy church.… Knowing well that you, my brother, eagerly take pains about what is for the mutual benefit of us all, I earnestly beseech you not to pass on to any one of the Gentiles the books of my preachings which I (here) forward to you, nor to any one of our own tribe before probation. But if some one of them has been examined and found to be worthy, then you may hand them over to him in the same way as Moses handed over his office of a teacher to the seventy.
For some from among the Gentiles have rejected my lawful preaching and have preferred a lawless and absurd doctrine of the man who is my enemy. And indeed some have attempted, whilst I am still alive, to distort my words by interpretations of many sorts, as if I taught the dissolution of the law …
On reading the letter, James accedes to Peter’s request
that we should pass on the books of his preachings that have been forwarded to us not indiscriminately, but only to a good and religious candidate for the position of a teacher, a man who as one who has been circumcised is a believing Christian …
The Jewish Christianity under James’ Leadership
The Implications of the Jewish Christian James
In any case, in James there is a combination of the high view of the law and a sharp critique of the theological position attributed to Paul.
But how could James, the brother of the Lord, recommend such an act to be done from such a motive, and how could Paul demean himself to do it? What should we think of the character of these men, if we supposed them capable of such a mode of action?
the real difference between him and the Jewish-Christian party; he desires, in one word, to represent the Apostle of the Gentiles at any cost as an Apostle of the Jews, which he certainly neither was, nor, according to his own express declaration, ever wished to be considered.