James the Brother of Jesus

I have been reading Robert Eisenman's "James the Brother of Jesus" recently. He makes the case that James was the leader of the Christian church after Jesus died, until his own death in AD 62. Since that time, however, his role got downplayed, as Jesus became ever more divine. It was awkward for God incarnate to have a brother, so James was redacted from the narrative.

Eisenman draws on the Dead Sea Scrolls to a large degree, and this is generally regards as suspect, as he has to ignore the dating of the documents to make it work. Nevertheless, the rest of his argument seems to be well regarded, and I found it pretty convincing.

Five years later (Jul/24): I now think Eisenman has it wrong. A better explanation:

We have James, the Brother of John, who was an original disciple, and became leader of the church. Then we have James, the Brother of Jesus, a pious man who rejected Jesus claims when Jesus was alive, but became convinced later, perhaps after having a vision, and gained standing due to his family connection and his pious nature, and so became head of the church in AD 44, until he was murdered in AD 63. 

I have edited this page to reflect this updated view.

James in Paul

When Paul was writing, James was the leader of Christianity, and Jesus was considered a man chosen by God to be the messiah, the prototype for the coming resurrection. Paul makes clear Peter was subordinate to James in Galatians.

Galatians 1:19 I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother.

Galatians 2:9 James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars...

Galatians 2:12 For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.

From these verses we know for sure that James was the brother of Jesus, that he was one of the top three, the pillars, and that Peter (Cephas) deferred to him.

Paul also mentions James here:

3 For I handed down to you [b]as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He appeared to [c]Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 After that He appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; 7 then He appeared to [d]James, then to all the apostles; 8 and last of all, as [e]to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. 

Note that Paul has Jesus appear to James after the Twelve; this is because James was not one of them. I also wonder if that was a later addition to the creed.

James in Josephus

Even Josephus mentions James:

... Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrim of judges, and brought them the brother of Jesus who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others [or some of his companions]. And when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned...

Scholars seem reasonably sure this was the brother of Jesus, and the text is authentic to Josephus. This is dated to about AD 63.

James in Thomas

This non-canonical gospel says James was the leader of the church after Jesus was gone.

The disciples said to Jesus, 'We know that you will depart from us. Who will be our leader?' Jesus said to them, 'Where you are, you are to go to James the Just, for whose sake heaven and earth came into existence'

I think this is wrong, but it may just be mixing up which James is which. It was James the Elder who became leader.

James in the Synoptic Gospels

Eidenman claims that by the time Mark was written, James' status had diminished, and he was largely edited out or re-written so he was no longer Jesus' brother.

More likely in my view is he was just not a disciple, so was there. What we do see in Mark 6:3 and Mat 13:55 is mention a brother called James who is clearly not a disciple.

Mark 6:3 Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph,[a] Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

James in John

Eisenman claims that by the time John was written, James has been erased from history altogether - the last gospel does not even include the name at all! More likely the author just wanted to skip the bit about Jesus' family rejecting his claims.

James in Acts

There are several mentions of a James in Acts, the most interesting in Acts 12.

Acts 12:1 It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. 2 He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword.

Peter is also arrested, and then we read:

Acts 12:17 Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. “Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this,” he said, and then he left for another place.

Clearly two men called James are here! Later chapters talk of a James who is leader of the church meeting Paul.

According to here, this event is dated to AD 44, and the first verse refers to a different James, James the Elder. That book claims he was the first leader of the Jerusalem church, and that James, the brother of Jesus, was appointed to replace him. The latter James was the second leader, but the first bishop of the church.

Other James

James the Son of Zebedee

One of the Twelve, this is someone else.

James, the son of Alphaeus

Another one of the Twelve, this seems to be someone else, but is less clear.

James the Less

This guy only gets mentions as the son of one of the women at the empty tomb, but some people identify him with James, the son of Alphaeus. A further stretch identifies both with James, the brother of Jesus. His mother is Mary, but the fact that she is not called the mother of Jesus makes this unlikely to be that James.