When Saul (Paul) was "yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord", (Acts 9:1) he went to the high priest and asked for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that he might find other followers of "the Way" and bring them as prisoners into Jerusalem.
On the way there, he saw and heard Jesus Christ in a blinding vision and was converted to Christianity. He immediately began preaching in the synagogues of Damascus that Jesus was the Son of God. (Acts 9:20)
This turnabout confounded strict Jews and Jewish Christians alike, for they both knew that Paul had persecuted the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem.
Naturally, when Paul returned to Jerusalem the disciples that he had been persecuting were afraid of him. However, Barnabas brought him to the apostles and elders and bore witness to his conversion, saying that he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. After that, Paul was accepted, "And he was with them coming and going out at Jerusalem." (Acts 9:28)
Now when Paul was preaching to the Gentiles in Antioch, "certain men" began teaching that, "Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved." (Acts 15:1)
This problem went to the heart of the new faith. Did the Gentiles have to become Jews before they could become Christians? Paul and Barnabas said no and it was decided that they should go up to Jerusalem to meet with the apostles and elders about this very question.
Paul describes the Jerusalem council meeting in Galations: (2:9) "And when James, Cephas, (Peter) and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, (Gentiles) and they unto the circumcision." (Jews) Galations (2:9)
However, there was a sect of Pharisees there who believed in Jesus as the Messiah, but who also opposed the welcome of Gentiles who did not observe the Law. (Torah) They said, "That it was needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses." (Acts 15:5)
Peter disputed with them, saying: "God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us. And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith."
Fortunately, James, the leader of the Jerusalem Church, was held in great respect by both traditional Jews and Jewish Christians. He decisively resolved the matter, saying: "Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God." (Acts 15-19)
He also said that the apostles and elders and brethren should send out letters to believers saying: "Certain (men)who went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment." (Acts 15: 24)
The letter did suggest that Gentiles abstain from meats offered to idols, from things strangled, and from fornication. "From which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well."
James clearly recognized the legitimacy of Gentile Christianity, and he gave his approval to the work of Paul and Barnabas. However, his personal ministry was focused on winning over Jews to Christianity, and he brought a large number of them to the Messiah.
Many biblical scholars identify this same James as the author of the New Testament (NT) Epistle of James. They have dated the letter between A.D. 40 and 50, before the Apostolic Council at Jerusalem, and before the writings of Paul. This would make it the earliest NT document - The "First Epistle to the Christians". Just over 3 pages long, the Epistle of James can be found after the letters of Paul and before those of Peter.
Martin Luther denounced the letter of James as "a right strawy epistle" (made of straw) and excluded it from the Canon. "At the University of Wittenburg, we fire our stoves with the epistle of James," he said. "It teaches Christian people and yet does not once notice the Passion, the Resurrection, the Spirit of Christ. The writer names Christ a few times, but he teaches not of Him, but speaks of general faith in God."
T. Carson, a Biblical scholar, says that the lack of Christian doctrine in James is not as great as Luther describes. "James is by nature a moralist rather than a theologian. He is not so much concerned with the correct verbal expression of Christian truth as with its living expression."
Another Biblical commentator, R.V.G. Tasker, writes: "Whenever Christians are tempted to settle down to a self-centered religion, and become oblivious of the social and material needs of others; or whenever they deny by their manner of living the creed they profess, and seem more anxious to be friends of the world than friends of God, then the Epistle of James has something to say to them which they reject at their peril." (Illustrated Bible Dictionary,)
Commentator Fred G. Zaspel agrees, saying: "James preserves more of Christīs teaching than all the other epistles combined...there are at least 10 parallels to Jesusī sermon on the mount and for almost everything we read in James we can recall some statement of Jesus which may have suggested it."
T. Carson adds: "The sins and weaknesses James denounces are the very ones for which Jesus scourged his countrymen, particularly the Pharisees."
Luther also argued that the Epistle of James contradicted Paul by emphasizing Christian works rather than faith. James says: "What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say to them, depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; nothwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." (James 2: 14-17)
According to the New Catholic Encyclopedia, "Lutherīs view that Jamesī teaching on faith and works contradicted Paulīs doctrine of justification by faith alone has been generally abandoned."
Jewish historians Josephus and Hegesippus, both of Palestine, record that James was executed at the instigation of the high priest, Ananias, and the Sanhedrin, a judicial council made up of Sadducees and Pharisees.
They commanded James to proclaim from one of the galleries of the Temple of Jerusalem that Jesus was not the Messiah, but he cried out that Jesus was the Son of God and Judge of the World. His enraged enemies hurled him to the ground, and stoned him. A passing fuller (laundryman) ended his suffering with a blow from his club.
According to a Bible commentary written by Frederick Abbott Norwood, "the domination of the Jerusalem (Christian) church ended with the death of James the Lordīs brother (A.D. 62) and the fall of Jerusalem, (A.D. 70) and because Paulīs letters gained circulation and the gospels were written."
On the way there, he saw and heard Jesus Christ in a blinding vision and was converted to Christianity. He immediately began preaching in the synagogues of Damascus that Jesus was the Son of God. (Acts 9:20)
This turnabout confounded strict Jews and Jewish Christians alike, for they both knew that Paul had persecuted the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem.
Naturally, when Paul returned to Jerusalem the disciples that he had been persecuting were afraid of him. However, Barnabas brought him to the apostles and elders and bore witness to his conversion, saying that he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. After that, Paul was accepted, "And he was with them coming and going out at Jerusalem." (Acts 9:28)
Now when Paul was preaching to the Gentiles in Antioch, "certain men" began teaching that, "Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved." (Acts 15:1)
This problem went to the heart of the new faith. Did the Gentiles have to become Jews before they could become Christians? Paul and Barnabas said no and it was decided that they should go up to Jerusalem to meet with the apostles and elders about this very question.
Paul describes the Jerusalem council meeting in Galations: (2:9) "And when James, Cephas, (Peter) and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, (Gentiles) and they unto the circumcision." (Jews) Galations (2:9)
However, there was a sect of Pharisees there who believed in Jesus as the Messiah, but who also opposed the welcome of Gentiles who did not observe the Law. (Torah) They said, "That it was needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses." (Acts 15:5)
Peter disputed with them, saying: "God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us. And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith."
Fortunately, James, the leader of the Jerusalem Church, was held in great respect by both traditional Jews and Jewish Christians. He decisively resolved the matter, saying: "Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God." (Acts 15-19)
He also said that the apostles and elders and brethren should send out letters to believers saying: "Certain (men)who went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment." (Acts 15: 24)
The letter did suggest that Gentiles abstain from meats offered to idols, from things strangled, and from fornication. "From which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well."
James clearly recognized the legitimacy of Gentile Christianity, and he gave his approval to the work of Paul and Barnabas. However, his personal ministry was focused on winning over Jews to Christianity, and he brought a large number of them to the Messiah.
Many biblical scholars identify this same James as the author of the New Testament (NT) Epistle of James. They have dated the letter between A.D. 40 and 50, before the Apostolic Council at Jerusalem, and before the writings of Paul. This would make it the earliest NT document - The "First Epistle to the Christians". Just over 3 pages long, the Epistle of James can be found after the letters of Paul and before those of Peter.
Martin Luther denounced the letter of James as "a right strawy epistle" (made of straw) and excluded it from the Canon. "At the University of Wittenburg, we fire our stoves with the epistle of James," he said. "It teaches Christian people and yet does not once notice the Passion, the Resurrection, the Spirit of Christ. The writer names Christ a few times, but he teaches not of Him, but speaks of general faith in God."
T. Carson, a Biblical scholar, says that the lack of Christian doctrine in James is not as great as Luther describes. "James is by nature a moralist rather than a theologian. He is not so much concerned with the correct verbal expression of Christian truth as with its living expression."
Another Biblical commentator, R.V.G. Tasker, writes: "Whenever Christians are tempted to settle down to a self-centered religion, and become oblivious of the social and material needs of others; or whenever they deny by their manner of living the creed they profess, and seem more anxious to be friends of the world than friends of God, then the Epistle of James has something to say to them which they reject at their peril." (Illustrated Bible Dictionary,)
Commentator Fred G. Zaspel agrees, saying: "James preserves more of Christīs teaching than all the other epistles combined...there are at least 10 parallels to Jesusī sermon on the mount and for almost everything we read in James we can recall some statement of Jesus which may have suggested it."
T. Carson adds: "The sins and weaknesses James denounces are the very ones for which Jesus scourged his countrymen, particularly the Pharisees."
Luther also argued that the Epistle of James contradicted Paul by emphasizing Christian works rather than faith. James says: "What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say to them, depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; nothwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." (James 2: 14-17)
According to the New Catholic Encyclopedia, "Lutherīs view that Jamesī teaching on faith and works contradicted Paulīs doctrine of justification by faith alone has been generally abandoned."
Jewish historians Josephus and Hegesippus, both of Palestine, record that James was executed at the instigation of the high priest, Ananias, and the Sanhedrin, a judicial council made up of Sadducees and Pharisees.
They commanded James to proclaim from one of the galleries of the Temple of Jerusalem that Jesus was not the Messiah, but he cried out that Jesus was the Son of God and Judge of the World. His enraged enemies hurled him to the ground, and stoned him. A passing fuller (laundryman) ended his suffering with a blow from his club.
According to a Bible commentary written by Frederick Abbott Norwood, "the domination of the Jerusalem (Christian) church ended with the death of James the Lordīs brother (A.D. 62) and the fall of Jerusalem, (A.D. 70) and because Paulīs letters gained circulation and the gospels were written."
