by Reza Aslan
Bernheim outlines the role of dynastic succession and its use among the early Christian church in James, Brother of Jesus, 216–17. It is Eusebius who mentions that Simeon, son of Clopas, succeeded James: “After the martyrdom of James and the taking of Jerusalem which immediately ensued, it is recorded that those apostles and disciples of the Lord who were still surviving met together from all quarters and, together with our Lord’s relatives after the flesh (for the most part of them were still alive), took counsel, all in common, as to whom they should judge worthy to be the successor of James; and, what is more, that they all with one consent approved Simeon the son of Clopas, of whom also the book of the Gospels makes mention, as worthy of the throne of the community in that place. He was a cousin—at any rate so it is said—of the Savior; for indeed Hegesippus relates that Clopas was Joseph’s brother” (Ecclesiastical History 3.11; italics mine). Regarding the grandsons of Jesus’s other brother, Judas, Hegesippus writes that they “ruled the churches, inasmuch as they were both martyrs and of the Lord’s family” (Ecclesiastical History 3.20).
It should be noted that the famous statement of Jesus calling Peter the rock upon which he will found his church is rejected as unhistorical by most scholars. See for example Pheme Perkins, Peter, Apostle for the Whole Church (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 2000); B. P. Robinson, “Peter and His Successors: Tradition and Redaction in Matthew 16:17–19,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 21 (1984), 85–104; and Arlo J. Nau, Peter in Matthew (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1992). John Painter demonstrates that no tradition exists concerning Peter’s leadership of the Jerusalem church. Such traditions that exist are only concerning Rome. See Painter, “Who Was James?” 31.
Some scholars think that Peter was the head of the church until he was forced to flee Jerusalem. See, for instance, Oscar Cullman, Peter: Disciple. Apostle. Martyr (London: SCM Press, 1953). But that view is based mostly on an erroneous reading of Acts 12:17, in which Peter, before being forced to flee from Jerusalem, tells John Mark to inform James of his departure to Rome. Cullman and others argue that this is the moment in which leadership of the Jerusalem church transfers from Peter to James. However, as John Painter demonstrates, the proper reading of Acts 12:17 is that Peter is merely informing James (his “boss,” if you will) of his activities before fleeing Jerusalem. There is nothing in this passage, or for that matter, in any passage in Acts, which suggests Peter ever led the Jerusalem church. See Painter, “Who was James?” 31–36.
Cullman also claims that the church under Peter was far more lax in its observance of the law before James took over and made the observance more rigid. The only evidence for this view comes from Peter’s conversion of the Roman Cornelius. While this is a story whose historicity is doubtful, it still does not prove a laxity of the law on the part of Peter, and it most definitely does not indicate Peter’s leadership of the Jerusalem assembly. The book of Acts makes it abundantly clear that there was a wide divergence of views among Jesus’s first followers over the rigidity of the law. Peter may have been less rigid than James when it came to observance of the law, but so what? As Bernheim notes: “There is no reason to suppose that the Jerusalem church was less liberal in 48/49 [than it was] at the beginning of the 30s,” James, Brother of Jesus, 209.
Wiard Popkes details the evidence for a first-century dating of James’s epistle in “The Mission of James in His Time,” The Brother of Jesus, 88–99. Martin Dibelius disagrees with the first-century dating. He believes that the epistle is actually a hodgepodge of Jewish-Christian teachings that should be dated to the second century. See Martin Dibelius, James (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976). It is interesting to note that James’s epistle is addressed to “the Twelve Tribes of Israel scattered in the Diaspora.” James seems to continue to presuppose the fulfillment that the tribes of Israel will be restored to their full number and Israel liberated. Scholars believe that the reason so much of James’s epistle has echoes in the gospel of Matthew is that embedded within the gospel is a tradition, often referred to as M, that can traced to James.
Bruce Chilton writes about the Nazirite vow that Paul is forced to undergo in “James in Relation to Peter, Paul, and Jesus,” The Brother of Jesus, 138–59. Chilton believes that not only was James a Nazirite, but Jesus was one, too. Indeed, he believes the reference to Jesus as the Nazarean is a corruption of the term Nazirite. Note that Acts 18:18 portrays Paul as taking part in something similar to a Nazirite vow. After setting off by ship for Syria, Paul lands at Cenchreae, in the eastern port of Corinth. There, Luke writes that, “he had his hair cut, for he was under a vow.” Although Luke is clearly referring to a Nazirite vow here, he seems to be confused about the nature and practice of it. The entire point of the ritual was to cut the hair at the end of the vow. Luke gives no hint as to what Paul’s vow may have been, but if it was for a safe journey to Syria he had not reached his destination and thus had not fulfilled his vow. Moreover, Paul’s Nazirite vow is not taken at the Temple and does not involve a priest.
John Painter outlines all of the anti-Pauline material in the Pseudo-Clementines, including the altercation at the Temple between Paul and James, in “Who Was James?” 38–39. Painter also addresses Jesus’s expansion of the Law of Moses in 55–57.
The community that continued to follow the teachings of James in the centuries after the destruction of Jerusalem referred to itself as the Ebionites, or “the Poor,” in honor of James’s focus on the poor. The community may have been called the Ebionites even during James’s lifetime, as the term is found in the second chapter of James’s epistle. The Ebionites insisted on circumcision and strict adherence to the law. Well into the fourth century they viewed Jesus as just a man. They were one of the many heterodox communities who were marginalized and persecuted after the Council of Nicaea in 325 C.E. essentially made Pauline Christianity the orthodox religion of the Roman Empire.
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