James the Just: A Messianic Jewish Role Model

Maybe you’ve heard of him: St. James the Just, first Bishop of Jerusalem and brother of Jesus Christ. Sounds like a very non-Jewish kind of guy, right? You’d probably expect a guy like this to wear fancy robes, a miter hat, wear crosses around his neck, and speak Latin, right? The all too common presumption is that anybody dubbed a Christian saint could not also be an Orthodox Jewish Tzaddik (scrupulously faithful to the Torah and Jewish life). But that’s exactly what we find in the person of Ya’akov Ha Tzaddik, James the Just. He loved the Torah, the Jewish people, the God of Israel and His Messiah Yeshua (Jesus of Nazareth).

Unfortunately, many people forget that primitive Christianity was originally a sect of Judaism in the first century. Jesus (whose original Aramaic name is Yeshua) was Jewish as were all the apostles. He did not come to abolish the Law of Moses, turn against the Jewish people, or start a new religion. He came to proclaim the Kingdom of Heaven (Malchut haShamayim) and make salvation available to all the nations, beginning with Israel. So it is no wonder that His first followers were all Jewish. In fact, it was some years before Gentiles began accepting this message. As their numbers increased, a decision had to be made on what was to be expected of Gentiles who followed Yeshua.

It was at this decision-making meeting that a man named James spoke up and gave the final word:

"It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath" (Acts 15:19-21).

For the Gentiles receiving this letter, the message was clear: You don’t have to become Jewish to be a follower of Yeshua, but there are basic standards, rooted in Torah, which every believer should follow. The further implication is that the Gentiles should seek to learn from Moses and the Jewish people, and grow in their faith beyond these minimal requirements, for “Moses…is read…every Sabbath.”

But who was this James to give such a summary ruling? By all rights we would expect Peter to have been the leader. But something obviously changed in the leadership structure of the early believers by Acts 15. Somehow this James/Ya’akov character was now the Overseer of the Jerusalem-based Messianic Jewish community (Jews who accepted the message and messiahship of Yeshua). How did this occur? The answer isn’t clear, but there’s some things we do know.

Though the exact relationship between Ya’akov and Yeshua has been debated, the most common translation is “the Lord’s brother” (Gal. 1:19). He was likely the oldest of the brothers listed in Mark 6:3. Several accounts give us clues that his family was very Torah-observant. His parents kept the laws of brit milah (circumcision), pidyon ha ben (redemption of the firstborn son), and Pesach (Passover) [see Luke 2:21,23,41]. They also kept Shabbat (Sabbath), regularly attending synagogue (Luke 4:16). Ya’akov was a descendent of King David, and his uncle Zechariah was a priest in the Temple. His cousin Yochanan (John) was a prominent prophet who called the people to repentance and public mikveh (immersion in water) [see Matthew 3, Luke 3]. This Yochanan was also obedient to Torah, and ultimately was executed by the government when he rebuked King Herod Antipas for violating Leviticus 18:16. Where did Yochanan learn such devotion to Torah? Luke 1:6 tells us that his parents were “upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly.” Without a doubt, Yochanan, Yeshua and Ya’akov (John, Jesus, and James) all were raised in homes that were faithful to Torah and took Jewish life & practice very seriously. So we should not be surprised to find Ya’akov later in life being called the Tzaddik (just or righteous one). King Solomon himself said, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it” (Proverbs 22:6).

In his early adulthood, Ya’akov was not counted among the followers of Yeshua, but at some point came to believe. He also was one of the many who encountered Yeshua personally after He was raised from the dead (1 Cor. 15:7; Acts 1:14). Some twenty years later, in Acts 15, we see him as the preeminent leader of the Yeshua movement in Jerusalem. In Acts 21 he is noted as having encouraged the Apostle Paul to demonstrate his allegiance to Torah by endorsing the Nazarite vow and being purified in the Temple.

When he writes his epistle “to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations” (James 1:1) who are “believers in our glorious Lord Yeshua” (2:1) this indicates his leadership among the believing Jewish communities abroad, not just at Jerusalem. Unlike other letters by the apostles which deal with Jewish-Gentile relations within the churches, Ya’akov’s letter doesn't, which may indicate that his original recipients were not a mixed audience. Instead he speaks about practical righteousness: the way we treat one another, how we use our tongue, how we care for the needy, and how to persevere under difficult situations. Much of the letter is a drash (exposition) on how to “love your neighbor as yourself,” a Torah command from Leviticus 19:18. The letter reflects his Hebraic framework, as he draws lessons from the lives of Abraham, Job, and Elijah, and refers to Torah in positive terms. His use of the Greek term συναγωγη (synagogue) in 2:2 may imply that Jewish followers of Yeshua had their own synagogues, distinct from those who didn’t believe.

According to some of the accounts* outside of Scripture, James was called the Tzaddik (the Just or Righteous one) because of his strict devotion to God and intercession for the people. He was known as a man of prayer who wore only linen, lived by the Nazarite code, and was a vegetarian. He was highly regarded by all for his deep piety and wisdom, and advocated ritual purity and fidelity to Jewish law. He was martyred around 62 C.E. during Passover, and was heard praying for his attackers as he died.

Ya’akov Ha Tzaddik represents an era of Jewish & Christian history that currently is being re-examined by scholars. He seems to have been the figurehead of the early Nazarene movement, a curious sect of Judaism that believed Yeshua was the Messiah. As Church and Synagogue went their separate ways, those who followed in the steps of Ya’akov’s Messianic/Christian Judaism over the next few centuries barely made it in the history books. Ultimately rejected by both historic Judaism and the emerging Gentile Christianity, the Nazarenes did leave a legacy though worth emulating. What little we know about their movement may greatly affect future Jewish/Christian relations for the good as a new generation of modern Nazarenes emerges. The modern Messianic Jewish movement so closely identifies with this ancient group, and if the Nazarenes are a role model for the contemporary Messianic Jews, then so is Ya’akov.

*Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 20.9.1(c. 90 C.E.) and
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, ii. 23 (c. 325 C.E.)