"James the Just": What is the origin of the phrase?
Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2021 3:04 am
Re: Seeking the earliest usages of the phrase "James the Just"
Hegesippus
"James, the Lord's brother, succeeds to the government of the Church, in conjunction with the apostles. He has been universally called the Just, from the days of the Lord down to the present time. For many bore the name of James; but this one was holy from his mother's womb...
So they went up and threw down the just man, and said to one another: "Let us stone James the Just." And they began to stone him...
And after James the Just had suffered martyrdom, as had the Lord also and on the same account, again Symeon the son of Clopas, descended from the Lord's uncle, is made bishop, his election being promoted by all as being a kinsman of the Lord."
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/t ... ippus.html
Saying 12, Gospel of Thomas
The disciples say to Jesus, "We know that Thou wilt leave us: who will <then> be the great<est> over us?" Jesus says to them: "Wherever you go, you will turn to James the Just, for whose sake heaven as well as earth was produced."
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/t ... mas12.html
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Hegesippus and Gospel of Thomas provide the two earliest usages of the phrase "James the Just" that I am aware of.
And then there is this early reference to James the Lord's brother which is followed obscurely by a reference to "the just":
From "Refutation of All Heresies" (Hippolytus)
"These are the heads of very numerous discourses which (the Naassene) asserts James the brother of the Lord handed down to Mariamne. In order, then, that these impious (heretics) may no longer belie Mariamne or James, or the Saviour Himself, let us come to the mystic rites...
And concerning this (nature) they hand down an explicit passage, occurring in the Gospel inscribed according to Thomas, expressing themselves thus: He who seeks me, will find me in children from seven years old; for there concealed, I shall in the fourteenth age be made manifest. This, however, is not (the teaching) of Christ, but of Hippocrates, who uses these words: A child of seven years is half of a father. And so it is that these (heretics), placing the originative nature of the universe in causative seed, (and) having ascertained the (aphorism) of Hippocrates, that a child of seven years old is half of a father, say that in fourteen years, according to Thomas, he is manifested.
...And this, (the Naassene) says, is what is declared in Scripture, The just will fall seven times, and rise again. Proverbs 24:16; Luke 17:4 For these falls, he says, are the changes of the stars, moved by Him who puts all things in motion."
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050105.htm
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Are there more early usages I should consider as I try to reconstruct the origin of the phrase "James the Just"?
Hegesippus
"James, the Lord's brother, succeeds to the government of the Church, in conjunction with the apostles. He has been universally called the Just, from the days of the Lord down to the present time. For many bore the name of James; but this one was holy from his mother's womb...
So they went up and threw down the just man, and said to one another: "Let us stone James the Just." And they began to stone him...
And after James the Just had suffered martyrdom, as had the Lord also and on the same account, again Symeon the son of Clopas, descended from the Lord's uncle, is made bishop, his election being promoted by all as being a kinsman of the Lord."
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/t ... ippus.html
Saying 12, Gospel of Thomas
The disciples say to Jesus, "We know that Thou wilt leave us: who will <then> be the great<est> over us?" Jesus says to them: "Wherever you go, you will turn to James the Just, for whose sake heaven as well as earth was produced."
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/t ... mas12.html
-------------------
Hegesippus and Gospel of Thomas provide the two earliest usages of the phrase "James the Just" that I am aware of.
And then there is this early reference to James the Lord's brother which is followed obscurely by a reference to "the just":
From "Refutation of All Heresies" (Hippolytus)
"These are the heads of very numerous discourses which (the Naassene) asserts James the brother of the Lord handed down to Mariamne. In order, then, that these impious (heretics) may no longer belie Mariamne or James, or the Saviour Himself, let us come to the mystic rites...
And concerning this (nature) they hand down an explicit passage, occurring in the Gospel inscribed according to Thomas, expressing themselves thus: He who seeks me, will find me in children from seven years old; for there concealed, I shall in the fourteenth age be made manifest. This, however, is not (the teaching) of Christ, but of Hippocrates, who uses these words: A child of seven years is half of a father. And so it is that these (heretics), placing the originative nature of the universe in causative seed, (and) having ascertained the (aphorism) of Hippocrates, that a child of seven years old is half of a father, say that in fourteen years, according to Thomas, he is manifested.
...And this, (the Naassene) says, is what is declared in Scripture, The just will fall seven times, and rise again. Proverbs 24:16; Luke 17:4 For these falls, he says, are the changes of the stars, moved by Him who puts all things in motion."
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050105.htm
------------
Are there more early usages I should consider as I try to reconstruct the origin of the phrase "James the Just"?