it is James’s own work.
II.
Who was James “the Just” of Jerusalem?
The earliest record in the New Testament that we have regarding James is found in the letters of Paul. He is not, of course, the only James in the New Testament. “James” or “Jacob” was a common name for Jews to bear, being the name of the Old Testament patriarch whose other, divinely bestowed name was “Israel.” Named in the New Testament are also James, the son of Zebedee (Mark 1:19–20; 3:17), James, the son of Alphaeus (Mark 3:18; Acts 1:13), and James, the father of Judas (Luke 6:18). But it is doubtful that the name of the author of the epistle was meant to signify someone other than James of Jerusalem, “the brother of the Lord.” It is Paul, whose authentic letters are considered to be the earliest writings in the New Testament, who provides us with some important details concerning James.
Paul informs us that James had been visited with an appearance of the risen Christ (1 Cor 15:7), and that he was one of the “pillars” of the church in Jerusalem (Gal 2:9), the one with whom Paul had consulted personally in that city (Gal 1:19), and whose influence, through his representatives, was felt as far as Antioch in Syria (Gal 2:12). We are given to understand that there was, at least at one point in their interactions, some tension between Paul and James (and, of course, with Peter, as well) over relations at table fellowship in Antioch between Jewish and gentile believers (cf. Gal 2:6, 11). Paul also leads us to believe that James probably was a married man (1 Cor 9:5).
Turning from Paul to the Gospels, all of which were written after Paul’s death, we find that they tell how Jesus’ family members not only were not initially followers of his message, but that they even worried for his sanity soon after he began his ministry. Mark 3:21 describes them as anxiously seeking for him in order to take him home, believing that “he was beside himself.” In Mark 6, when Jesus passes through Nazareth, we are informed, through the mouths of those hearing him speak in the synagogue, that he had four brothers and more than one sister: “Is not this man the craftsman, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” (Mark 6:3).1 The Gospel of John clearly concurs that Jesus’ brothers were not among his early followers: “his brothers,” the Evangelist writes flatly, “did not have faith in him.” They are depicted as taunting him, in rough brotherly fashion perhaps, to go and show himself off “to the cosmos” (by doing so before the multitudes in Jerusalem) if he really was doing all the astounding things he was touted as having performed (John 7:3–5). At this early stage, James, along with Jesus’ other brothers, shows no understanding of what Jesus is doing and proclaiming. We can suppose there is in this a true historical memory, given how greatly James and the family of Christ were later esteemed.
Lest we come too hastily to the conclusion that, perhaps, James was not regarded as a righteous man during the time that he and his brothers were dubious about Jesus’ ministry, there is an intriguing fragment from a lost Gospel that provides us with an early tradition that he and the family had, in fact, been receptive of the message of John the Baptist before Jesus began his own ministry. The so-called Gospel of the Nazarenes, originally composed in Aramaic sometime before 200, tells how “the mother of the Lord and his brethren” urged Jesus to go with them to be baptized by John the Baptist for “the remission of sins.”2 If not a total fabrication, it may be seen as agreeing somewhat with the witness of Hegesippus (a second-century Jewish Christian, it should be noted, about whom more below), who wrote of James that he “was holy from his birth” and that he was someone “whom everyone from the Lord’s time till our own has called the Righteous.”3 To say that James “was holy from his birth” is to say, in effect, that he was someone who had openly practiced his faith in God throughout his life without affectation. And if he had followed, even at a distance, John the Baptist, we can imagine James as a character whose seriousness in religious matters had lastingly impressed those who encountered it. In fact, he may have been scandalized at first by his brother’s ministry and growing reputation precisely because he took his faith so very seriously. One brother’s reactions to another can sometimes be censorious—and wrong, but for the “right” reasons.
Be that as it may, between the Gospels and the book of Acts something had evidently occurred to transform James and his family’s opinion of Jesus, as well as their role among the disciples. We have already noted that Paul apparently attributed this change to an encounter between James and the risen Christ. There is a legend preserved in the second-century Gospel of the Hebrews that purports to tell the story of this post-resurrection encounter. This was a Gospel that originated in Egypt among Greek-speaking Jewish Christians and comes to us now, like The Gospel of the Nazarenes, only in fragments through the writings of various early Fathers. Although it is legendary in nature, it is interesting enough to quote in full:
And when the Lord had given the linen cloth to the servant of the priest, he went to James and appeared to him. For James had sworn that he would not eat bread from that hour in which he had drunk the cup of the Lord until he should see him risen from among them that sleep. And shortly thereafter the Lord said: Bring a table and bread! And immediately it is added: he took the bread, blessed it and brake it and gave it to James the Just and said to him: My brother, eat thy bread, for the Son of man is risen from among them that sleep.4
The story assumes that James had been present at the Last Supper, where he had made a vow of abstinence. The mention of a “linen cloth” seems to refer to Jesus’ burial clothes, apparently given “to the servant of the priest” as testimony of the resurrection. The “eucharist” in the story is reminiscent of Jesus’ breaking of the bread with the two unnamed disciples of Emmaus (Luke 24:12–35). Whether or not there is any historical kernel in this version of the appearance to James, the canonical account of the book of Acts simply tells us that James and the family of Jesus were gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem with the eleven disciples before the events of the Day of Pentecost: “These [the disciples] devoted themselves constantly to prayer, with a shared intensity of feeling, together with the women and with Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers” (Acts 1:14). It is evident, then, that the brothers of Jesus were, by this time, fully integrated into the nascent community of Christ’s followers. We can assume that the resurrection appearance to James, to which Paul alludes, had already occurred.
When next we hear of James in the book of Acts, he has taken a principal role in the life of the mother church in Jerusalem. After Peter’s arrest and escape in chapter 12, Peter has little choice but to flee the city. Before he goes on the run, however, he gives final instructions that those gathered in the house of the mother of John Mark should inform James: “And, gesturing with his hand for them to be silent, he related to them how the Lord had led him out of the prison, and said, ‘Report these things to James and the brethren.’ And going out he went off elsewhere.” (Acts 12:17) Following Peter’s departure, James is depicted in Acts as the principal authority in the mother church, “the first among equals,” and even Peter later in the book appears to submit to his authority and judgment (just as, in Gal 2:12, Paul implies that Peter did not want to risk any disagreement with the emissaries sent to Antioch by James). Quite suggestively, it is James who, at the council of Jerusalem, delivered the verdict concerning the grounds for table fellowship between Jewish and gentile believers in Christ:
And, after remaining silent, James spoke up, saying, “Men, brothers, listen to me. Simon has declared how God first saw to it that he would take a people for his name from the gentiles. And the words of the prophets agree with this, just as has been written: ‘“After these things, I will return and rebuild the fallen tabernacle of David, and will rebuild its ruins and erect it again, so that the rest of humankind might seek out the Lord, even all the nations, those upon whom the name of the Lord has been
