“JAMES THE JUST”

Hugo McCord

The name “James” has an inglorious history, going back to “Jacob,” meaning a “heel-grabber” or “supplanter” (Genesis 25:26). A liar and a cheat Jacob was at first, but after his conversion the Lord changed his name: “your name will no more be called ‘Jacob,’ but ‘Israel’ will be your name” (Genesis 27:36; 28:20-22; 35:10).

In the New Testament, four men glorified the name “James,” two being apostles (James, the son of Zebedee, called “James the Great,” or “the Elder,” and James, the son of Alphaeus, called “James the Little,” or “the Less,” Mark 3:17-18; 15:40), and one being the father of an apostle (Luke 6:16), and one being Jesus’ half brother, called “James the Just” because of “his excellence of virtue” (Eusebius, 311 A.D., Book II, 1, 2-5). He “was holy from his mother’s womb” (Hegesippus, 140-175 A.D., quoted by Eusebius).

Jesus had been preaching some three years (26-29 A.D.) when his half-brothers, James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas, showed disdain and scorn for him: “If you are doing these things, show yourself to the world” (Mark 6:3; John 7:3-5).

Apparently they continued in that attitude at least until the day of Jesus’ crucifixion. On that day their mother, apparently now a widow, stood by the cross (John 19:25). A prophet had told her 33 years before that “a sword will pierce your soul” (Luke 2:35). But in Mary’s most difficult hour, not even one of her children was at her side.

As Jesus hung suffering, he thought of his mother in agony, and asked a non-family person to take care of her (John 19:26). That sad fact apparently means that none of his brothers and sisters was sympathetic (Matthew 13:56). Sometimes “a man’s foes will be they of his own household” (Matthew 10:36).

However, it could be that Mary’s children were standing not far away, and it could be that finally their hearts were touched when they saw with what grace and love their brother suffered shame and pain. We know that at least one of them, James, became a believer, else Jesus would not have appeared to him after his resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:7), and we know that the other three became believers, for all four were with their mother in a prayer meeting in an upper room in Jerusalem right after Jesus’ ascension (Acts 1:12-14).

We hope the word “brothers” (Acts 1:14) in this instance is generic, and so would include Jesus’ sisters. Likely all of them were in the 3000 baptized on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:41). We do have a hint that all of the brothers became faithful and well-known Christians, for they are listed along with the twelve apostles (1 Corinthians 9:5).

About the one named “James,” we have more than a hint. Some six years (36 A.D.) after Pentecost Day, Paul made a trip to Jerusalem and later wrote that he saw “James, the brother of the Lord” (Galatians 1:19). Later (44 A.D.), one night when Peter was miraculously delivered from prison, he particularly wanted James to know of it: “Tell these things to James and to the brothers” (Acts 12:17).

Also, so well known was James that another brother of Jesus, Jude (Judas) introduced his New Testament letter by saying that he was a “brother of James” (Jude 1:1). The good influence of a man who had condemned Jesus was spreading rapidly.

Apparently apostolic hands were laid on James, making his a prophet (cf. Acts 8:18; 2 Timothy 1:6), and inspiring him, about 45 A.D., to write the first New Testament book to go into circulation.

Tradition makes James the “first bishop” of the Jerusalem church, which is false. Clement of Alexandria (150-220 A.D.) wrote that James was “first appointed to the throne of the oversight of the church in Jerusalem” (J. W. Roberts’ COMMENTARY, p. 230). But the church in Jerusalem had a plurality of elders (Acts 21:18), not a “monarchical bishop.” However, very likely James was one of the elders (Acts 21:18).

For sure we know that he was a “pillar” of the Jerusalem church (Galatians 2:9). He seems to have presided at the Jerusalem conference about the circumcision of Gentile converts (Acts 15:2, 6, 13-21). He appears to be the principal author of a Spirit-inspired letter (“it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us,” Acts 15:28), a letter that relieved the Gentile Christians of circumcision.

However, sadly, racial prejudice was still in James, for at Antioch (probably in 51 A.D.) “certain men came from James” teaching that Jewish Christians must not “eat with the Gentiles” (Galatians 2:12). It is surprising that such teaching took hold again in Peter, to whom God had, back in 40 A.D., given a special vision that he “should not call any man common or unclean” (Acts 10:28).

But the teaching from James caused Peter to relapse, so that “he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision” (Galatians 2:12). Also, “the rest of the Jews [in the church at Antioch] played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy” (Galatians 2:13).

Sadly, James not only led Peter and Barnabas and other Jewish Christians into “hypocrisy” by refusing to “eat with” Gentile Christians, but, in another matter, James led Paul into sin. James and Paul were both sincere, but sincerity is not sinlessness (Proverbs 14:12; Acts 23:1).

James urged Paul to offer animal blood in a temple sacrifice service at Jerusalem in 58 A.D., 28 years after they were out of date (Acts 21:26; Hebrews 9:13-14). Paul, in order to make some Jewish Christians think that he was keeping “the law” (Acts 21:24), agreed to do so. But when “the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom” in 30 A.D., “the law” requiring “the blood of goats and calves” was “abolished” (Matthew 27:51; Hebrews 9:12; Ephesians 2:15).

Animal blood offerings made “the blood of the covenant by which” Paul had been “sanctified an unholy thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace,” and it was a return to “the weak and beggarly elements” of the law of Moses (Galatians 4:9; Hebrews 10:29).

If disciples, whether Jewish or Gentile, should now assemble in Jerusalem, construct an altar, appoint a priesthood, and offer sin-offerings, they could but be regarded as apostates from Christ. But why would it be regarded as a crime now, if it was innocent then? (J. W. McGarvey, COMMENTARY OF ACTS OF APOSTLES, p. 260).

Yet, at James’ insistence, Paul paid the “expenses” for himself and four other Jews, and “purified himself along with them”: 15 sheep, 5 grain offerings, 5 drink offerings, and 5 baskets of bread (Numbers 6:13-20; Acts 21:26).

It is a shame that James, a pillar in the Jerusalem church, likely the principal elder, led Peter, Barnabas, and Paul into sin. We hope that all four repented and confessed their wrong doing.

The after life of James points to a humble Christian man doing everything he could to please the Lord. Hegesippus (140-175 A.D., quoted in Alexander Ross, THE EPISTLES OF JAMES AND JOHN) reported that James spent so much time in the temple on his knees that they became as “horny” as the knees of a camel. Josephus (ANTIQUITIES, 20, 9, 1) reported that in 62 A.D. James was sentenced by the Sanhedrin (Ananus presiding) to death.

Clement of Alexandria (150-220 A.D., quoted by Robertson) wrote that James was flung from a temple gable. On the ground, continued Hegesippus (quoted by Eusebius, ibid,), James got on his knees and prayed, “I beg you, O Lord God, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Then he was stoned, and clubbed to death.

What James the Just had written in 45 A.D. he practiced when he suffered a martyr’s death in 62 A.D.:

My brothers, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the trying of our faith produces patience, and let patience have its complete work, that you may be complete and entire, lacking in nothing (James 1:1-2).

The hope James had in his heart he passed on to others:

Blessed is the man who endures a trial, because when he has been tried, he will receive the crown of life, which he has promised to them who love him (James 1:12).