RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
James
connection with Joseph and Mary, or with Maryalone, that they are clearly regarded as their children (Johnii. 12; Matt. xii. 47; Mark vi. 3;
3. New- Actg j 14) j^ designation of Mary Tes amen ag ^e mother of Jesus, employed in
Brother these passages, implies that the word brothers is used in the same proper sense. They could not therefore have been stepbrothers of Jesus, sons of a former wife of Joseph or of a former husband of Mary, or fosterchildren of Mary (thus J. P. Lange); and just as little only cousins of Jesus and identical with the apostles James Alphsus, Judas Lebbsus, and Simon Zelotes. Moreover, nowhere in the New Testament is James the brother of the Lord called James Alphaeus, and nowhere is the word brother used in a sense of distant relationship. That James Alpha?us is a brother of the apostles Judas Lebbseus and Simon Zelotes is absolutely excluded by the way in which they are named together, to be distinguished from other brothers who are alluded to in the same way. Besides this the brothers of the Lord are not only named alongside of the apostles as distinct from them (ut sup.), but they appear also as a circle, separate in every way from the disciples of Jesus (Matt. xii. 46; John vii. 5). Only after the departure of the Lord does there arise a closer companionship of the brethren of the Lord with the apostles, and James gains apostolic rank as head of the mother-church in Jerusalem, while still remaining distinct from the apostles (Gal. i. 19, ii. 9; I Cor. xv. 7).
The story of the material and spiritual life of James, the brother of the Lord, is quite clearly defined in its outlines. During the 3. His Life public ministry of Jesus, his brothers and Work, adopted a skeptical attitude, probably because they could not reconcile his lofty claims with the commonplace conditions in which they had lived together in their home. Jesus complains of a lack of recognition on the part of his own relatives (Mark vi. 4), and he could not count them as his spiritual kindred (Mark iii. 31-34). After the miracle of the loaves and fishes in the desert it seems that then the idea of his Messianic task may have dawned upon them, but the humility of his attitude prevented them from confidently believing in him. Even at the time of his Passion, the brothers seem to have separated themselves from his mother, who now believed in him (John xix. 27). Nevertheless, the superhuman patience with which Jesus went to his death may have won their hearts, especially that of James; for to him was vouchsafed an appearance of the risen Christ (I Cor. xv. 7), which affirmed his faith. He therefore appears after the ascension of the Lord as a member of the Christian community, wherein he won a leading position after the death of James, the son of Zebedee, and the flight of Peter. In general, his activity was confined to Jerusalem (Gal. i. 17). He took part in the council of the apostles with Peter and John as one of the three pillars of the Jewish-Christian Church (Gal. ii. 1 sqq.; Acts xv. 1 sqq.). There he showed himself free from the pharisaical and strictly legal views of the Judaizing opponents of Paul who desired to
impose upon Gentile Christians the full observance of the Mosaic laws. At the same time he gave the hand of fellowship to Paul in proof of their thorough agreement on the basis of the Gospel. Nevertheless he considered it important that Jewish Christians should strictly observe the laws of their fathers and should require for these Jaws a certain respect on the part of the Gentile Christians. The standpoint of James also appears in the influence exerted by his friends in Antioch (Gal. ii. 11 sqq.) upon Peter. The Ebionite party in the post-apostolic age endeavored to cover itself with the authority of James and to envelop him with a legendary atmosphere of glory. According to Epiphanius (Haer. XXX., xvi.), there were legends even of his ascension to heaven. Concerning the death of James there are two contradictory accounts. Hegesippus relates (Eusebius, Hist, eccl., II. 23) that he was thrown from the tower by the Pharisees, not long before the beginning of the Roman-Jewish war (cf. Zahn, Forschungen, vi. 235, Leipsic, 1900), therefore, about 66 a.d. According to Josephus (Ant. XX., ix. 1), however, the party of the Sadducees made use of the change in the proconsulship in 62 or 63 a.d. to have James stoned to death, against the will of the Pharisees. It is, however, strongly suspected that this passage of Josephus is an interpolation (Zahn, ut sup. vi. 301 sqq.). On the other hand, the date given by Hegesippus is supported by the pseudo-Clementine literature, according to which James survived Peter, and also by the Chronicon Paschale (p. 592), and therefore is to be preferred.
II. The Epistle of James: This bears a title in
the opening verse which names the writer and those
for whom it was destined. To see in
1. The this only the dedication to a dogmatic
Readers, writing, or a homily, is counter-indicated by the formal salutation common in Greek letters. Neither should it be assumed that this epistolary form only served the literary fiction of an unknown writer, nor that it is a title added to the writing about 200 a.d., since in both cases the author would probably have been called an apostle. Therefore, the words in the title " to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad " may well be used to determine the first readers. This expression, however, " the twelve tribes " is so specifically national and Israelitic that it can not be referred even figuratively to all Christianity. According to the title, therefore, the Epistle is addressed to the whole Jewish people outside of Palestine. This designation of the readers is limited, however, by the statement that the writer calls himself " a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ "; therefore he assumes that his readers recognize the authority of Jesus. Those readers are therefore neither Jewish and Gentile Christians nor Christians of Jewish and Gentile descent nor principally Gentile Christians; and just as little are they Jewish Christians within or without Palestine: they are Jewish Christians living outside of Palestine. They can, therefore, only be called the twelve tribes in the dispersion in the sense that they were the true Israel so far as it existed outside the Holy Land. These Jewish Christians living outside of Palestine
James