The Jesus Movement in Jerusalem | Zealous for the Law
Second Maccabees states, "The King of the Universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws."
“You see, brother, how many thousands of believers there are among the Jews, and they are all zealous for the law."
James and the elders of Jerusalem
Righteousness and Resistance
Gospel of Thomas: Jesus Appoints James as His Successor “The disciples said to Jesus, ‘We know you will leave us. Who is going to be our leader then? Jesus said to them, No matter where you go, you are to go to James the Just, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being.”
"Then James, whom the ancients surnamed the Just on account of the excellence of his virtue, is recorded to have been the first to be made bishop of the church of Jerusalem. This James was called the brother of the Lord "
Eusebius
Robert Eisenman
James the Brother of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls
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."
...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. But there were two Jameses: one called the Just, who was thrown from the pinnacle of the temple and was beaten to death with a club by a fuller, and another who was beheaded." Paul also makes mention of the same James the Just, where he writes, "Other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother."
Hegesippus
James, the Lord's brother, succeeds to the government of the Church, in conjunction with the apostles. He has been universally called the Just, from the days of the Lord down to the present time. For many bore the name of James; but this one was holy from his mother's womb. He drank no wine or other intoxicating liquor, nor did he eat flesh; no razor came upon his head; he did not anoint himself with oil, nor make use of the bath. He alone was permitted to enter the holy place: for he did not wear any woollen garment, but fine linen only. He alone, I say, was wont to go into the temple: and he used to be found kneeling on his knees, begging forgiveness for the people-so that the skin of his knees became horny like that of a camel's, by reason of his constantly bending the knee in adoration to God, and begging forgiveness for the people. Therefore, in consequence of his pre-eminent justice, he was called the Just, and Oblias, which signifies in Greek Defence of the People, and Justice, in accordance with what the prophets declare concerning him.
James as the Leader of the Jerusalem Church: “Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days. I saw none of the other apostles – only James, the Lord’s brother.” – Paul Epistle to the Galatians “James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.”
Eusebius, the early-4th-century Christian historian, “James whom men of old had surnamed ‘Just’ for his excellence of virtue, is recorded to have been the first elected to the throne of the Oversight of the church in Jerusalem” The Greek term thronos/θρονος, refers to a “seat” or “chair” of authority and is the same term used for a king or ruler.
Eusebius preserves the testimony of Hegesippus, a Jewish Christian of the early 2nd century, whom Eusebius says is from the “generation after the Apostles”: The succession of the church passed to James the brother of the Lord, together with the Apostles. He was called the “Just” by all men from the Lord’s time until ours, since many are called James, but he was holy from his mother’s womb (“to succeed”), is regularly used for the passing on of a genetic inheritance, for example, when Philip king of Macedonia passes on his rule to Alexander the Great
Roman Catholicism looks to Peter as the apostolic founder of its tradition, and the churches of the Reformation look back to Paul. Jewish Christianity has been lost and can only be recovered with careful reading and research of the historical data.
Yeshua and Yaakov | Jewish Martyrs
Robert Eisenman
The Jewish historical Theology collision The collision and tension between history and theology can be expressed in two individuals when it comes to the development and fate of Christianity. James and Paul. The Jewish Jesus was abandoned by all especially after the defeat of the Jewish people and the Jewish rebellions and the Roman wars in the 1st and 2nd century.