The Testimony of James
Steward over the Assembly
The disciples said to Yeshua, "We know that you will depart from us. Who is to be our leader?" Yeshua said to them, "Wherever you are, you are to go to Yakov HaTzaddik, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being." (Thomas 12)
James the brother of the Master occupied the office of “bishop” (episkopos, ἐπίσκοπος) over the assembly of Yeshua. The title appears several times in New Testament Greek to indicate overseers or elders of a congregation. Most of the original twelve apostles went out far from Judea in their various apostolates. They left the governance of the Assembly of Yeshua under the stewardship of James and the elders. As the younger brother of the Master and the oldest of His remaining siblings, James naturally represented the family of Yeshua and, therefore, the monarchy of the house of David. The family of the Master looked to James as the head of household and the steward holding the throne of David until the Master's return. All of Yeshua's disciples looked to him as the head of the assembly.
In the year 62 CE, a corrupt Sadducean priesthood put James to death. Josephus provides a short summary of the story of the death of James in Jewish Antiquities 20. His telling of the story describes how the Sadducees illegally convened a Sanhedrin and condemned James to death. A second-century Messianic Jewish chronicler named Hegesippus also recorded the story. An excerpt from the fifth book of his Memoirs of apostolic teaching appears in Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History 2.23. Hegesippus records the martyrdom of James as it was remembered according to the traditions of the Jewish believers. The two versions of the story complement one another and provide a vivid description of the events surrounding the death of James the Righteous. The Sent Ones harmonizes both versions of the story.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
HaTzaddik
The English name James corresponds to the Hebrew Yaakov (i.e., Jacob), a common name among Jews in the first century. Hegesippus explains that “there were many men named James (i.e., Yaakov),” but the brother of the Master was distinguished by the appellation HaTzaddik (הצדיק), which means “The Righteous.” The title implied exceptional piety and scrupulous observance of Torah:
He has been called "The Righteous" by everyone from the time of our Savior to the present day. For there were many men named Yaakov. He was holy from his mother's womb. He drank no wine, nor strong drink, nor did he eat flesh. No razor came upon his head. He did not smear himself with oil, and he did not use the bathhouse. (Hegesippus)
Like Samson, Samuel, and John the Immerser, James was a lifelong Nazirite. His mother, Mary, conceived him after she had given birth to the Master. She dedicated him to the service of the LORD before he was born. While she was pregnant with him, she strictly observed the Nazirite prohibitions (cf. Judges 13:I-7). All his life, he never tasted wine, nor did he ever cut his hair.
James practiced strict vegetarianism. Judaism considers intentional abstention from wine and meat as a mild form of fasting. Unlike a total fast, abstention from wine and meat can be sustained indefinitely. For example, Daniel the prophet abstained from wine, meat, and anointing oil until he completed three weeks of mourning (Daniel 10:2-3). James abstained from those luxuries in anticipation of the coming siege and exile. After the fall of Jerusalem, many Jews adopted the same measures to mourn the destruction of the Temple.
James observed several ascetic disciplines similar to the Essenes. Like the Essenes, who refused to use olive oil for cosmetic or hygienic purposes "he did not smear himself with oil." In general, he avoided luxuries. He immersed himself in a mikvah daily, but he never entered the bathhouses. Like the Essenes, he did not wear clothing made from animal hair. He wore only a white linen garment.
Hegesippus says that James was known as both the Righteous One and Righteousness "in accordance with what the prophets declare concerning him." By this he means that when the Scriptures used the words "righteous one" or "righteousness," the early believers interpreted those passages in reference to James. For example, the LORD says that Messianic Jerusalem will be established "with righteousness" (Isaiah 54:14), that is, with James the Righteous. Another prophecy says, "I will make righteousness your overseers" (Isaiah 60:I7). James was the overseer of the assembly. By using "righteousness" as a title for James, the early Jewish believers found numerous prophetic references to the brother of the Master. After the death of James, the following texts took on new meaning:
How the faithful city has become a harlot, she who was full of justice! Righteousness (i.e., James) once lodged in her, but now murderers. (Isaiah I:21)
[The LORD] looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness (i.e., James), but behold, a cry of distress. (Isaiah 5:7)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Bulwark of the People
Hegesippus also says that James was called "Bulwark of the People." In his role as intercessor, James protected the people by forming a protective wall of prayer around Jerusalem.
According to Hegesippus, James attained a special, priestly prerogative. Ordinarily, only priests and Levites were allowed to enter the court of the priests. Only priests could enter the Sanctuary proper. James was neither a priest nor a Levite, but his lifelong Nazirite status granted him some type of special access within the sacred precincts that exceeded the ordinary laymen. James seems to have followed the model of Samuel the prophet, another lifelong Nazirite who "ministered before the LORD, as a boy wearing a linen ephod" (I Samuel 2:18). His exceptional piety and good reputation with influential Pharisees probably helped him obtain the privilege. It seems that he enjoyed special access to the Temple's courts, where he implored God on behalf of the nation.
Hegesippus says, "He alone was permitted to enter the holy place for he did not wear woolen garments, but linen garments." In imitation of the priesthood, he did not wear woolen garments: "It shall be that when they enter at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and wool shall not be on them while they are ministering in the gates of the inner court and in the house" (Ezekiel 44:17).
The assembly of believers prayed daily in the Temple at the times of sacrifice, but for the most part, they assembled in Solomon's Colonnade in the outer courts. James went alone into the Temple's inner courts, where he daily knelt in prayer, interceding on behalf of Jerusalem and the Jewish people.
James knew the predictions of Yeshua. He knew that a terrible doom hung over the city and the nation, but he did not abandon Jerusalem and the Jewish people to that doom. Hegesippus says, "He was in the habit of entering alone into the Temple, and was frequently found upon his knees, begging forgiveness for the people." He continued to invoke God in prayer, daily seeking after forgiveness for the sins of the nation. He was often found kneeling in the Temple courts, beseeching God on behalf of the Jewish people. James spent so many hours on his knees in prayer that "they became hard like those of a camel." A camel's knees bend in a distinctive collapsing motion as they drop their chest down hard to the ground, comparable to prostration in the Temple. The knees and chest of a camel are protected with thick pads of skin to shield them from the heat of the desert sands. The adult camel's kneepads appear cracked and calloused.
So long as James continued to pray on behalf of the people, he shielded the city as the "Bulwark of the people." After he died, the siege came quickly.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
The Testimony of Ya’akov
Due to his exceptional piety and good reputation, James had credibility with people from all sects of first-century Judaism. They looked to him as a wise and saintly sage. James taught that those who wanted to enter into the kingdom and eternal life needed to pass through the gate of Yeshua: "For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matthew 7:14). They asked him, "What is the gate of Yeshua?" In Hebrew, the question would have had a double meaning: "What is the gate of salvation?" James replied by testifying about his brother, explaining that Yeshua is the risen Messiah "who is coming to give every man according to his deeds."
Even some Sadducees became disciples of the Master. When a Sadducee became a believer, his faith in Yeshua demanded a complete renunciation of Sadducean theology. As Hegesippus explains, the Sadducees believed neither in a resurrection nor a coming Messiah nor did they believe in the final judgment. The effective testimony of James alarmed the Sadducees.
They began to regard him as a serious threat. They blamed him for defections from their own ranks: "As many as believed did so on account of James." From the Sadducean point of view, James led a particularly noxious sect of Pharisaism. Every Jew that James convinced to believe in Yeshua became a proponent of Pharisaic theology and an opponent of the Sadducees. They knew that Jews from all sects of Judaism held James in high esteem. His good reputation among the people lent credence to the sect of the Nazarenes.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Commotion in the Sanhedrin
Angst about James and the Yeshua movement came to a new crescendo when "even many of the rulers believed," and leaders among the sages openly cast their allegiance with Yeshua. The Sadducees feared that the mass popularity enjoyed by James the Righteous removed the public stigma that was once attached to the Yeshua movement. Prominent people no longer felt reluctant to identify with the marginal sect.
Sadducean leaders like Ananias son of Nebedeus and Annas son of Annas tried to bring their concerns to the Pharisees of the Sanhedrin. (Henceforth in his narrative, Hegesippus refers to the Pharisees as the chief antagonists and actors in the martyrdom of James. Not only is that unlikely, but Josephus contradicts it. Most scholars agree that Hegesippus uses the common gospel terminology "scribes and Pharisees" to describe first-century Jewish leadership in general. A careful reading makes it clear that, although he calls them Pharisees, he is actually speaking about the Sadducees who "did not believe either in a resurrection or in One who is coming to give to every man according to his deeds.") The Sadducees voiced their concerns in the Sanhedrin. They declared, "There is a danger that the whole people will be looking for Yeshua as the Messiah." They tried to convince the Sanhedrin to take direct action against the believers, but the Pharisees objected. In those days, the high priest Ishmael the son of Fabi and the Nasi Simon the son of Gamliel controlled the Sanhedrin.
So long as the Pharisees held both the high priesthood and the presidency over the Sanhedrin, the Sadducees had no real hope of passing legislation against the believers. The attempt to do so led to a ruckus that divided on party lines. Hegesippus says, "There was a commotion among the Jews and scribes and Pharisees."
Not long after that, a series of events tipped the balance of power in favor of the Sadducees.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Chanan Ben Chanan
King Agrippa II built a new story atop his palace in Jerusalem. The view from the new upper room allowed the king to recline at his table while watching the priesthood conducting the sacrificial services in the Temple. The high priest, Ishmael the son of Fabi, did not like the idea of King Agrippa and Queen Bernice gazing into the Temple's inner courts as they lounged around, sipping drinks in their dining room. He ordered the immediate construction of a wall to obstruct the king's view. King Agrippa commanded the high priest to take down the wall. He refused.
The king complained to the procurator Festus. Festus backed up Agrippa's authority and ordered the wall removed. The high priest still refused. Festus arrested Ishmael and several other principal men of the priesthood for defying his orders. Like Paul of Tarsus, Ishmael the son of Fabi appealed to Rome. Festus sent Ishmael and nine men of the priesthood to Caesar for a decision about the wall.
To everyone's surprise, Nero overturned the demolition order. The new wall in the Temple was going to stay. Neither the king nor the procurator expected Nero to contradict their authority. Perhaps to console Agrippa, Nero detained the high priest Ishmael and a few of his colleagues as court hostages in Rome.
At the same time, Festus died suddenly and unexpectedly, leaving the position of procurator empty. He had governed Judea for two years. The Romans immediately dispatched a message to Caesar. The trip to Rome took several weeks. When the news arrived, Nero appointed Lucceius Albinus to take the empty post, but several months would pass before the new procurator could arrive in Judea. Until Albinus arrived, the governorship remained empty.
The Sadducees saw the opportunity to fill the temporary power vacuum. They prevailed upon King Agrippa to appoint Annas the son of Annas to the high priesthood. They probably offered the king a generous bribe. Agrippa accepted the bid:
Annas, who was also himself called ... Annas the younger, who, as we have told you already, took the high priesthood. He was a bold man in his temper, and extremely insolent. He was also from the sect of the Sadducees, who are very harsh in judging offenders, much more harsh than the rest of the Jews, as we have already observed. (Antiquities 20:198-199)
Annas the younger was the youngest son of Annas ben Seth, the man behind the crucifixion of the Master. Five of the sons of Annas ben Seth occupied the office of high priest during the first century:
The story has it that this elder Annas (ben Seth) was a most fortunate man, for he had five sons who had all performed the office of a high priest to God. He himself had also enjoyed that dignity much earlier. Something like this had never happened to any other of our high priests. (Antiquities 20:198)
Annas the younger inherited his father's vendetta against the disciples of Yeshua, but he lacked his father's subtlety and political savvy. He had a reputation for impudence and ruthlessness. He acted more brashly than any of his brothers, or even his brother-in-law Caiaphas. Josephus observes that he was a leading Sadducee, and he notes that the Sadducees were notorious for their harsh jurisprudence and brutal punishments. Annas took that a step further and hijacked the Sanhedrin.
In those days, the Romans had taken away the Sanhedrin's authority to execute a death sentence. The Sanhedrin needed to obtain permission from the procurator before they could put anyone to death. Annas the younger took advantage of the temporary absence of Roman authority. Using his new authority as high priest, he ordered James the brother of the Master arrested along with several prominent members of the sect. The arrests came shortly before Passover:
Therefore, because Annas had this type of personality, he took advantage of the opportunity. Festus was now dead, and Albinus was still on the way. Annas assembled the Sanhedrin of judges, and he brought before them the brother of Yeshua, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some of his companions. When he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the Torah, he delivered them to be stoned. (Antiquities 20:200)
Then he assembled a Sanhedrin of his own choosing, carefully eliminating the Pharisees and anyone with pro-Pharisaic or pro-Nazarene sentiments. He brought James and his companions to stand trial before a Sanhedrin of Sadducees-very similar to the special court in the house of Caiaphas that condemned the Master. He accused them of being "breakers of the Torah." Josephus reports that the Pharisees, "the most fair-minded of the citizens and those who were the most careful not to break the laws" disagreed with both the charges and the proceedings (Antiquities 20:201). The charges had no credibility. James was called James the Righteous precisely because of his scrupulous observance of the Torah. The Jewish believers in Yeshua were "zealous for the Torah."
Annas pinned his hopes on a blasphemy charge.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Pinnacle of the Temple
The Sadducees did not ask James to testify before the court. They wanted something more public. Passover of 62 CE was about to begin. Crowds of pilgrims arrived in Jerusalem from all corners of the land and from the Diaspora. In addition, God-fearing Gentiles who revered Yeshua attended the festival. The Sadducees sternly warned James to cooperate with them. They prevailed upon him to restrain the people who had strayed after Yeshua, believing that He was the Messiah. They offered flatteries to him about his righteousness, wisdom, and impartiality and urged him to set aside hopes in his crucified brother:
We adjure you, restrain the people, for they have gone astray in regard to Yeshua, as if he was the Mashiach. We adjure you to persuade all these that have come to the feast of Pesach concerning Yeshua. For we are confident in you and testify, as do all the people, that you are righteous and do not show partiality. You must persuade the multitude not to go astray concerning Yeshua. For all the people trust in you, as do we also. (Hegesippus)
The implication was clear. James knew that if he did not cooperate with them, they would certainly condemn him to death. The Torah prescribes stoning as the punishment for blasphemy.
James did not have the option of remaining silent. The priests charged James, under oath, to testify. The Mishnah states, "If [a judge] says: I adjure you, I impose upon you, I bind you by oath... by any of the divine names, or by some other divine attribute, so they are obligated to testify" (m.Shevuot 4:13). James knew that the Torah required him to speak (Leviticus 5:1). They told him he must do so from the highest point of the Temple: "Stand therefore on the pinnacle of the Temple where you will be clearly seen and your words will be heard by all the people. For all the tribes, with the Gentiles also, have come together on account of the Passover." If he wanted to save his life, he needed to stand on the pinnacle of the Temple on the day of Passover Eve and publicly recant his faith in Yeshua before the myriads of pilgrims ascending to the Temple Mount.
The pinnacle of the Temple was presumably the same spot at which the Temple crier stood each morning to watch for the light of dawn to fall on the far-off hills of Hebron so that he could give the signal for offering the morning sacrifice. The top of the royal portico that Herod the Great built in the Temple's outer courts provided the dramatic height. The southeast corner of its roof looked down a seemingly straight drop to the bottom of the Kidron Valley far below. Josephus describes the height with a little bit of embellishment:
This portico is more worthy of description than any other under the sun, although the valley was extremely deep so that if one looked down into the depth from on top [of the Temple Mount] its bottom could not be seen, the vastly higher elevation of the portico stood upon that height. If anyone looked down those combined heights [into the valley] from the top of the roof, he would feel dizzy, and he could not see to the bottom of such a great depth. (Josephus, Antiquities 15:412)
More than thirty years earlier, Satan brought the Master to the same location and tempted Him to invoke divine intervention and heavenly protection while leaping from the height. He tempted Him to avoid human injury and harm while simultaneously establishing His messianic identity in the eyes of all Jerusalem. In other words, he offered the Master a shortcut around the cross and the exile. Satan said, "If you are the son of God Then he invoked a promise from the Psalms:
For He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, that you do not strike your foot against a stone. (Psalm 9III-12)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Testimony of James
On the day of Passover, when the hosts of Israel approached the Temple Mount to participate in the sacrifice of the Passover lambs, the Sadducees led James up to the top of the portico. He looked down over the crowds that filled the Kidron Valley Road on their way into the city. He could see Levitical shepherds driving flocks for the Passover sacrifices and Jews from all compass points converging on the Temple.
To the east he saw the Mount of Olives where a steady stream of pilgrims descended the hill. Thirty years earlier, his brother had ridden down the same road on the back of a donkey, surrounded by acclamations and shouts of "Hosanna." To the southwest, he saw the broad, paved street that ascended like a stairway from the Pool of Siloam, now crowded with pilgrims coming up from immersion. A little further to the west, he could see the Upper City, the upper room of the Cenacle, the great height of King Agrippa's dining room, and over the line of the city, the towers of King Herod's palace. To the north, the Court of the Gentiles stretched out below him, already beginning to fill with people anticipating the hour of sacrifice. The perch gave him an amazing view of the Temple itself, where the Levites and the priesthood prepared for the day's work. As his eyes traveled over the crowds, he marveled at "how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Torah" (Acts 21:20). The myriads of the Master's disciples prepared for the Passover sacrifice so that they could keep the Seder that night in remembrance of the Master.
One of the men who had led him to that place called out with a loud voice, speaking to James but addressing the multitudes below. He shouted, "Righteous One, in whose word we should trust. Tell us, what is the gate of Yeshua? For the people have been led astray after Yeshua, the crucified one!"
James lifted up his voice to address the masses below him, "Why do you ask me concerning Yeshua, the Son of Man?" Then he made his statement of testimony, modeling it after the same statement for which Caiaphas had condemned the Master (Mark 14:62). He said, "He Himself sits in heaven at the right hand of the Great Power, and is about to come upon the clouds of heaven."
The crowds below heard the Righteous One's testimony and responded with an enthusiastic shout, "Hosanna to the Son of David" (Cf. Psalm 118:25).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
You Will Not Strike Your Foot
The authorities realized their error, "We have made a mistake in allowing such testimony to Yeshua." In a panic, they agreed to throw him down immediately "in order to dissuade [the people] from believing." They cried out to the crowds below, "Oh! Oh! The Righteous One has also erred!" Torah mandates stoning the blasphemer: "The one who blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall certainly stone him" (Leviticus 24:16). The Sadducees agreed, "Let us stone James the Righteous." Hegesippus says that the martyrdom of James fulfilled the prophecy in Isaiah that says, "Let us take away the righteous man, because he is troublesome to us: therefore they shall eat the fruit of their deeds" (Isaiah 3:10 LXX).
The Mishnah carefully describes how the Sanhedrin conducted a stoning, but the Sadducees did not follow the Pharisaic protocol it prescribes. Josephus commented on the death of James by saying, "The Sadducees ... are very harsh in judging offenders, much more harsh than the rest of the Jews." Nevertheless, the death of James generally conforms to the method of stoning described in the Mishnah. Prior to the stoning, a herald announced the name of the person and the crime he committed. The story told by Hegesippus includes those public announcements. The Mishnah says that the witnesses began the stoning by pushing the victim from a precipice. In the story told by Hegesippus, the witnesses threw James down from the dizzying height of the pinnacle of the Temple.
James struck the ground where the foundation stone of the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount's retaining wall rises from the crest of the Kidron Valley. Miraculously, James the Righteous survived the fall unhurt, as it says, [His angels] will bear you up in their hands, that you do not strike your foot against a stone" (Psalm 9:12), and "A righteous man falls seven times, and rises again" (Proverbs 24:16).
The Sadducees did not expect James to survive the fall, but they stationed witnesses at the base of the wall to finish him off if necessary: "The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst" (Deuteronomy 17:7). The Sadducees may have hired a handful of cronies to make sure James was dead and to take charge of the body. They did not want the body mysteriously disappearing. They did not want his followers to claim that he had risen from the dead. The Mishnah instructs, "If he died from the effects of the first fall, nothing more was to be done. If not, the second witness took a boulder and dropped it on his chest" (m. Sanhedrin 6:4):
They decided to throw him down from the height, and they cast him down ... They seized him and struck him as they dragged him upon the ground. They stretched him out and placed a stone on his abdomen. They all placed their feet on him, saying "You have erred!" (Second Apocalypse of James)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Last Prayer for Jerusalem
James broke away from his assailants and fell to his calloused knees. They began to pelt him with stones. Echoing the words of the Master on the cross, he prayed, "Forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." To his last breath, the holy tzaddik continued to beseech the LORD on behalf of Jerusalem and the Jewish people.
A certain priest happened to be on hand. He was not part of the plot against James, nor did he belong to the sect of the Sadducees. He identified himself as a Rechabite, an ascetic sect of Judaism with its roots in the First Temple Era. The Rechabites did not drink alcohol or engage in agriculture, and they maintained a nomadic lifestyle. In Jeremiah 35, the LORD used the Rechabites to deliver a prophetic sign of the coming siege: "Behold, I am bringing on Judah and on all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the disaster that I have pronounced against them" (Jeremiah 35:17). Hegesippus mentions that the priest was a Rechabite to allude to that passage and Jeremiah's prophecies about the coming destruction of the Temple. (According to Sifrei, Numbers 78, a family of priests did identify themselves as Rechabites.) The Rechabite priest tried to stop the stoning. He shouted, "Stop! What are you doing?" As he attempted to interpose himself between the stone throwers and the victim, he protested, "The Tzaddik prays for you!"
One of those standing nearby happened to be a laundry man called a fuller (fullo). Taking up his fuller's club, the fuller approached James as he prayed. He delivered a deadly blow to the tzaddik's head.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Tomb and Ossuary
The men responsible for finishing James off quickly attended to his body. Several tombs were near at hand in the Kidron Valley. They prepared the body, according him all proper dignities, and closed him inside the tomb only a few hours before Passover began. The people of Jerusalem and the disciples of the Master went to their seders that night with sorrowful hearts.
The disciples and brothers of the Master later returned to the tomb and erected a monument to mark the place. Hegesippus told his readers that "his monument still remains by the Temple." Outside the city wall, someplace along the lower slopes opposite the Mount of Olives, a small, nondescript monument marked the location of the tomb.
A year after his death, family members opened the tomb and collected his remains. They placed his bones in an ossuary, a stone bone box used in late Second Temple Judaism for secondary burial. The names of the deceased are often inscribed on the exterior of the ossuary. Archaeologists and antiquity hunters have found dozens of ossuaries from the late Second Temple Era.
In 2002, an antiquities collector announced the discovery of a first-century Jerusalem ossuary bearing the inscription "Yaakov bar-Yosef achui diYeshua," which means "James the son of Joseph the brother of Yeshua." In March of 2012, an Israeli court deemed that there is no compelling evidence that might indicate the ossuary a forgery.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Ya’akov and the Seige
The narrative in Memoirs concludes by connecting the death of James with the siege of Jerusalem. Hegesippus says that the Roman general Vespasian began his siege immediately after James died. He implies that James' continual, daily prayers protected the nation and staved off destruction. When those prayers fell silent, the Romans came against Jerusalem immediately. In reality, the Jewish Revolt commenced four years after the death of James.
A lost version of Josephus' Jewish War made the same connection: "These things happened to the Jews to avenge James the Righteous, who was a brother of Jesus, who is called the Christ. For the Jews slew him, although he was a most righteous man" (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2.23.20.). The Jewish believers of Jerusalem saw a direct correlation between the death of James and the fall of the city as well. One can easily imagine how they might have interpreted the following text from Isaiah in regard to the death of James and the devastation of Jerusalem:
The righteous one (i.e., James) perishes, and no man takes it to heart; and devout men (his colleagues) are taken away, while no one understands. For the righteous one (James) is taken away from evil, he enters into peace; they rest in their beds, each one who walked in his upright way. (Isaiah 57:I-2)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Message to the Sadducees
A few years before his death, James wrote an epistle containing a brief condemnation of the wealthy, Sadducean elite. He chastised the wealthy for self-indulgence, materialism, mistreatment of the poor, and injustices against hired laborers. He warned them of a coming day of judgment when miseries would descend upon them: "Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you" (James 5:I). James based the rebuke on the Master's words, "Woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep" (Luke 6:24-25).
The passage continues with a variation on the Master's words, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy" (Matthew 6:19). James warned, "Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure!" (James 5:2-3).
James lived in anticipation of the "last days," and he lived a life of austere asceticism in preparation for the coming judgment on the nation. By contrast, the wealthy Sadducees "lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure." James said, "You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter" (James 5:5).
James concluded the rebuke with a cryptic reference to the death of the Master. He used the subtle allusion to make it clear to his readers that he had the Sadducees in view. He did not need to name them and risk inciting their wrath. His readers knew who had condemned and put to death their righteous Master. Retrospective to James' death, however, the passage ironically reads as a prophecy of his own martyrdom. He said to the Sadducees: "You have condemned and put to death the righteous one; he does not resist you" (James 5:6).
Annas the younger did not stop with James. Josephus says that Annas arrested "James and some of his companions. And, when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the Torah, he delivered them to be stoned" (Josephus, Antiquities 20:200). According to the Talmud, the Sanhedrin arrested, tried, and executed five prominent disciples of Yeshua. It seems most reasonable to assume that the five prominent disciples mentioned in the Talmud died in connection with James the Righteous: "Our Rabbis taught, 'Yeshu had five disciples, Mattai, Nakai, Netzer, Buni, and Todah'" (b.Sanhedrin 43a).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
The Prushim Object
Those who seemed the most fair-minded of the citizens and those who were the most careful not to break the laws [of Torah] disliked what was done. They sent a message to the king [Agrippa II], asking him to send a message to Chanan that he should act so no more, for what he had already done was unjustifiable. (Josephus, Antiquities 20:20I/iX.I)
Josephus says that the "most fair-minded of the citizens" who were "the most eager not to break the laws" objected strongly to the actions taken by Annas the younger and his Sadducean Sanhedrin. At that point in history, the Pharisees had formed, at the very least, a theological allegiance with the believers. Moreover, the Pharisees wanted the Sanhedrin of Annas dissolved. They decried the murder of James and his colleagues as a travesty and injustice, and they objected to Annas assembling a Sanhedrin that excluded them. They immediately sent a formal complaint to King Agrippa II, telling him about the actions Annas had taken during his three months in office. They begged Agrippa to order an immediate stop to the executions. They said, "Send him a message ... that he should act so no more, for what he has already done is unjustifiable."
King Agrippa was probably in Jerusalem for Passover at the time. He agreed to investigate the complaint and Annas and the Sadducees. But the fair-minded, law-abiding citizens did not leave the matter with the king. They did not know if they could trust Agrippa to do the right thing, especially when bribes might play a role. A separate delegation of Pharisees and/or disciples left Jerusalem and traveled overland toward Alexandria, Egypt. The new procurator had already sailed from Rome to Egypt and was now making his way overland toward Judea. The delegation intercepted Albinus while he was still traveling. They told him about how Annas the younger had illegally convened a Sanhedrin without Roman consent and carried out death sentences in defiance of Roman law. Albinus realized that the high priest had broken the law-not just Jewish law but Roman law. He composed a threatening letter to Annas, ordering him to dissolve his Sanhedrin and to desist from any further executions. If he did not, he could expect punishment (Antiquities 20:202).
Meanwhile, King Agrippa investigated the situation in Jerusalem. He immediately removed Annas the younger from the office of high priest. He had held the high priesthood only three months. Ironically, the king replaced the corrupt Annas son of Annas with a high priest named Yeshua.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.