Zealot - The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

objected to wasAnanus taking the law into his own hands when Roman authority was required for the
     imposition of the death penalty (see John 18:31) does not fit an objection raised
     by ‘the most fair-minded … and strict in the observance of the law’.… Rather it suggests
     that those who were fair-minded and strict in their observance of the law regarded
     as unjust the verdict that James and the others had transgressed the law.” See John
     Painter, “Who Was James?” in
The Brother of Jesus: James the Just and His Mission
, Bruce Chilton and Jacob Neusner, eds. (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press,
     2001), 10–65; 49.
    Pierre-Antoine Bernheim agrees: “Josephus, by indicating the disagreement of the ‘most
     precise observers of the law,’ probably wanted to emphasize not the irregularity of
     the convening of the Sanhedrin in terms of the rules imposed by the Romans but the
     injustice of the verdict in relation to the law of Moses as this was interpreted by
     the most widely recognized experts …”
James, the Brother of Jesus
(London: SCM Press, 1997), 249.
    While some scholars—for instance, Craig C. Hill,
Hellenists and Hebrews
(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992)—disagree with Painter and Bernheim, arguing that
     the complaint of the Jews had nothing to do with James himself, most (myself included)
     are convinced that the Jews’ complaint was about the injustice of the verdict, not
     the process of the trial; see also F. F. Bruce,
New Testament History
(New York: Doubleday, 1980), especially pages 372–73.
    Hegesippus’s quote regarding the authority of James can be found in Eusebius,
Ecclesiastical History
2.23.4–18. It is unclear whether Hegesippus means that control of the church passed
     to the apostles and to James, or that control over the apostles also passed to James.
     Either way, James’s leadership is affirmed. Gerd Ludemann actually thinks the phrase
     “with the apostles” is not original but was added by Eusebius to conform with the
     mainstream view of apostolic authority. See
Opposition to Paul in Jewish Christianity
(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1989).
    The material from Clement of Rome is taken from the so-called
Pseudo-Clementines
, which, while compiled sometime around 300 C.E ., reflects far earlier Jewish-Christian traditions that can be traced through the
     text’s two primary documents: the
Homilies
and the
Recognitions
. The
Homilies
contain two epistles:
The Epistle of Peter
, from which the reference to James as “Lord and Bishop of the Holy Church” is cited,
     and the
Epistle of Clement
, which is addressed to James “the Bishop of Bishops, who rules Jerusalem, the Holy
     Assembly of the Hebrews, and all the Assemblies everywhere.” The
Recognitions
is itself probably founded upon an older document titled
Ascent of James
, which most scholars trace to the mid-100s. Georg Strecker thinks the
Ascent
was written in Pella, where the Jerusalem-based Christians allegedly congregated
     after the destruction of Jerusalem. See his entry “The Pseudo-Clementines,” in
New Testament Apocrypha
, vol. 2, Wilhelm Schneemelker, ed. (London: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 483–541.
    The passage from the
Gospel of Thomas
can be found in Chapter 12. Incidentally the surname “James the Just” also appears
     in the
Gospel of the Hebrews;
see
The Nag Hammadi Library
for the complete text of both. Clement of Alexandria is quoted in Eusebius,
Ecclesiastical History
2.1.2–5. Obviously the title of bishop in describing James is anachronistic, but
     the implication of the term is clear. Jerome’s
Lives of Illustrious Men
can be found in an English translation by Ernest Cushing Richardson in
A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church
, vol. 3 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1892). The no longer extant passage in Josephus blaming
     the destruction of Jerusalem on James’s unjust death is cited by Origen in
Contra Celsus
1.47, by Jerome in
Lives
and in his
Commentary on Galatians
, and by Eusebius in
Ecclesiastical History
2.23.
    That James is in the position of presiding authority in the Apostolic Council is proven
     by the fact that he is the last to speak and begins his judgment with the word
krino
, or “I decree.” See Bernheim,
James, Brother of Jesus
, 193. As Bernheim correctly notes, the fact that Paul, when referencing the three
     pillars of the church, always mentions James first is due to his preeminence.