James

James, the son of Alphaeus, the “1st. half-brother of the L-rd,” who is also called the "Less" or perhaps "Younger," His name means “Truthful Supplanter,” he is described as the chairman of the Messianic church of Jerusalem, exceeding in rank was Peter and John. Each time in the New Testament where the name of "James" appears, after the official roster of the Apostles is listed in the first chapter of Acts, it refers to James, the brother of Y’Shua, he was the spokesman for the Apostles. At the conference where Paul and Barnabas received a special commission to preach to the Gentiles, Paul certainly mentions him as having been the first and only Apostle with whom he personally conferred three years after his conversion, except for Peter.Prayer was his constant business and delight. He seemed to live upon it and to trade in nothing but the frequent returns of converse with heaven. When the Christians began to canonize the New Testament in the 4th century – that is, to authoritatively determine which books would be included and which would not – the status of the letter of James was questioned. There were three major reasons that some later Christians questioned the letter of James:
1. The first has to do with what James said and did not say about his brother Y’Shua. He only mentioned the name of Y’Shua two times in a passing way and either reference could easily be removed without affecting the content of the letter or the points James was making (1:1; 2:1).
2. In addition, the letter lacked any reference to Paul’s view of Y’Shua as the divine Son of G-d, His atoning death on the cross, or His glorified resurrection. How could a New Testament document that lacked such teachings of Paul’s really be considered ‘Christian’?
3. The other factor that put the letter in disfavor with some was that James directly disputed Paul’s teaching of salvation by faith without the deeds of the Law while strongly upholding the positive nature of the Torah as well as its enduring validity:
James 2:14, 17. What does it profit, my brothers, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him?....So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
James 1:25. For whoever looks into the perfect Torah, the Torah of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer that forgets but a doer that acts, he shall be blessed in his doing.
James 2:10. For whoever keeps the whole Torah but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
James addresses his letter to the Twelve Tribes in the Dispersion. This is a direct reference to the scattered Twelve Tribes of Israel over which Y’Shua had promised they would rule. The letter reflects an early Palestinian Jewish cultural context. He is referred to the local meeting or assembly of Christians as a Synagogue, reflecting his understanding of the movement as fully a part of Judaism (2:2), not to start a new religion. The letter reflects numerous Aramaic and Hebrew expressions.
James taught the practice of anointing the sick with oil, carrying the same message as Y’Shua and John the Baptizer. Also that one is forgive of sins and justified before G-d through repentance and prayer – that is directly calling upon G-d, he wrote that confession of sins and prayer were the way to salvation in 5:15-16. This is in keeping with the general teaching of the Hebrew Bible regarding forgiveness of sins. Judaism teaches salvation that all human beings are justified by grace, fining forgiveness from their sins by repentance and prayer – calling upon the name of the L-rd (Joel 2:32).The letter of James contains the most direct possible link to the teachings of Y’Shua Himself. It is also important to note that James did not directly quote Y’Shua or attribute any of these teachings to Y’Shua by name – even though they are teachings of Y’Shua.
For James the message is not the person of Y’Shua but the message that Y’Shua proclaimed – The Gospel of the Kingdom of G-d with its full political and social implications. Y’Shua, Himself always pointed back to the Father, not holding up himself. James’s letter lacks a single teaching that is characteristic of Paul’s and it draws nothing at all from the tradition of Mark. He wanted to tell it in the Hebrew way just as his Brother did, without all the bells and whistles or add-ons, remember he grew up with his Brother and had front row seat.
What is most amazing about the letter of James is that the ethical content of its teaching is directly parallel to the teachings of Y’Shua that we know from the Qumran source. The Qumran source is the earliest collection of the teachings and sayings of Y’Shua that scholars date to around the years A.D. 50. The lost gospel of Qumran consists of about 235 verses that are mostly but not entirely the sayings of Y’Shua. The Qumran source takes us back to the original teachings of Y’Shua minus much of the theological framework that the gospels subsequently added. Found in the 2nd century in the Book of Jubilees. The most striking characteristic of the Qumran source in terms of reconstructing Christian origins is that it has nothing of Paul’s theology, particularly his Christology or view of the Messiah.
The letter of James, short as it is, contains no fewer than thirty direct references, echoes, and allusions to the teachings of Y’Shua found in the Qumran source!
James saw Y’Shua as a model to follow. As Y’Shua’s successor James sought to emulate Y’Shua’s faith, His ethical teachings, and His courage in the face of evil.
It is surely an irony of history that the high priest Annas, who had presided at the trial of Y’Shua, was behind the murder of James, also at the season of Passover in the year A.D. 62. The successor to Festus, the enemies of James decided to dispatch him. A council of Sanhedrin was hastily summoned. They charged James and others with transgressing the Jewish Law and delivered them to be stoned. They plotted to set the scribes and Pharisees to in snare him. They told him they had a mighty confidence in him and that they would that he might correct the error and false opinion the people had of Y’Shua. To that end he was invited to go to the top of the Temple where he might be seen and heard by all. There they demanded, 'Tell us, what the institution of the crucified Y’Shua is?' The people below, hearing it, glorified the blessed Y’Shua. The Scribes and Pharisees perceiving now that they had overshot themselves and that instead of reclaiming the people had confirmed them in their error, thought there was no way left but presently to dispatch him, that by his sad fate others might be warned not to believe him. Wherefore, suddenly crying out that James the just himself was seduced and had become an imposter, they threw him down from the place where he stood, the southeast wall of the Temple complex and fell into the Kidron Valley.. Barely alive, though bruised, he was not killed by the fall, but recovered so much strength, as to get upon his knees and pray to heaven for them.
They began to load him with a shower of stones until one more mercifully cruel than the rest with a fuller's dub beat out his brains. Thus died, about 24 years after Messiah’s ascension, He was buried in that area, not far from the Temple itself, upon the Mt. of Olives in a tomb which he had built for himself. Y’Shua was crucified outside the eastern wall of Jerusalem, both He and His brother James died in very close proximity to each other, both at Passover, and both at the hands of Annas family of priests.James death, like that of Y’Shua, was a fulfillment of prophecy. Isa. 3:10 says: “Let us bind the Just One, for he is a burden to us.” It is chilling to note that James himself, probably with the brutal death of his brother Y’Shua in mind, wrote in his letter in 5:6: “You have condemned and murdered the Just One and He does not resist you”. He likely had no idea how prophetic his words would prove to be regarding his own death.Agrippa II held court, and complained about the murder of James. Agrippa had Annas stripped of the priesthood that he had only held for three months. Hegesippus wrote that James was holy from his mother’s womb and like his kinsman John the Baptizer neither drank wine nor ate any meat. James was believed by all men to be most righteous and thus called ‘Just’ by all men from Y’Shua’s time to his own.