Re: "James the Just": What is the origin of the phrase?
Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2021 3:14 am
Re: "Does anyone know what Hegesippus means here? What had the prophets declared regarding James the Just?"
My interpretation assumes that the sayings of gThomas are utterances declared by people who 1) were familiar with gMark and Galatians and 2) were regarded by those who record and repeated their words as having the gift of prophecy.
The James of Galatians 2:9 who saw Paul's gift and who led the pillars in extending the right hand of fellowship, doing so even in the presence of an uncircumcised Greek--the James of Acts 15 who spoke against burdening the Gentile converts with the burden of circumcision--was "the just James" of gThomas. Mary of "the James" in Mark 16:1 at the empty tomb along with Mary Magdalene and Salome was his mother. He had originally became widely known as "the just James" to distinguish him from "the lesser James" of Mark15:40. The James of "some from James" the Lord's brother of Galatians 1:19 and 2:12 was "the lesser" of these two Jameses. The different Gospel being preached by some from this lesser James was criticised in Galatians 2:16: "...all flesh will not be made just by works of the law." The opposition to Paul voiced by the circumcision party of Acts 15 was anonymously expressive of those from this lesser James. Mary, the mother of the "the lesser James" was the birth mother of Jesus "according to the flesh." But by the time of Hegesippus, who spoke under the influence by Acts of the Apostles, the opposition between the two Jameses in gMark and Galatians had been glossed over and it was thought that each of the three mentions of James in Galatians referred to one and the same person--"James the Just."
My interpretation assumes that the sayings of gThomas are utterances declared by people who 1) were familiar with gMark and Galatians and 2) were regarded by those who record and repeated their words as having the gift of prophecy.
The James of Galatians 2:9 who saw Paul's gift and who led the pillars in extending the right hand of fellowship, doing so even in the presence of an uncircumcised Greek--the James of Acts 15 who spoke against burdening the Gentile converts with the burden of circumcision--was "the just James" of gThomas. Mary of "the James" in Mark 16:1 at the empty tomb along with Mary Magdalene and Salome was his mother. He had originally became widely known as "the just James" to distinguish him from "the lesser James" of Mark15:40. The James of "some from James" the Lord's brother of Galatians 1:19 and 2:12 was "the lesser" of these two Jameses. The different Gospel being preached by some from this lesser James was criticised in Galatians 2:16: "...all flesh will not be made just by works of the law." The opposition to Paul voiced by the circumcision party of Acts 15 was anonymously expressive of those from this lesser James. Mary, the mother of the "the lesser James" was the birth mother of Jesus "according to the flesh." But by the time of Hegesippus, who spoke under the influence by Acts of the Apostles, the opposition between the two Jameses in gMark and Galatians had been glossed over and it was thought that each of the three mentions of James in Galatians referred to one and the same person--"James the Just."