James or Paul: Who Possesses the True Teachings of Jesus?

From Robert Eisenman (Professor of Middle East Religions, Scholar of the Bible), James The
Brother of Jesus, Ebook Version, 34-35:
Let us assume that a Messianic leader known as Jesus did exist in the early part of the first
century in Palestine. Furthermore, let us assume that he had brothers, one of whom was called
James. Who would have known the character Jesus better? His closest living relatives, who
according to tradition were his legitimate successors in Palestine, and those companions
accompanying him in all his activities? Or someone who admits that he never saw Jesus in his
lifetime, as Paul does, and that, on the contrary, he was an Enemy of and persecuted the early
Christian community, and came to know him only through visionary experiences that allowed
him to be in touch with a figure he designates as Christ Jesus in Heaven? The answer of any
reasonable observer to this question should be obvious: James and Jesus Palestinian
companions. But the answer of all orthodox Church circles has always been that Pauls
understanding of Jesus was superior and that he knew him better than any of Jesus other
Apostles or companions. Furthermore, it is claimed that the doctrines represented by James and
the members of Jesus family generally were defective in their understanding of Pauls Christ
Jesus and inferior to boot. Given the fact that the Christianity we are heirs to is largely the legacy
of Paul and like-minded persons, this is just what one would have expected and it should
surprise no one.
James is the Brother of Jesus as witnessed by Paul
Galatians 1:18-20 Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with
Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days. I saw none of the other apostles--only James, the
Lord's brother.
James is the Pillar of the Jerusalem Church
Galatians 2:19 James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas
the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we
should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.
James is Authority over Jerusalem Council Proceedings and Gives Final Judgment
Acts 15:13, 19-21 - When they finished, James spoke up. "Brothers," he said, "listen to me
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 the law of
Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on
every Sabbath."
James is Appointed by Jesus as His Successor

Gospel of Thomas, Saying 12 The disciples said to Jesus, We know you will leave us. Who
is going to be our leader then? Jesus said to them, No matter where you go, you are to go to
James the Just, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being.
Clement of Alexandria (2nd century Church Father): Peter and James and John after the
Ascension of the Savior did not struggle for glory, because they had previously been given honor
by the Savior, but chose James the Just as Overseer of JerusalemAfter the resurrection
the Lord [Jesus] gave the tradition f knowledge to James the Just, and John and Peter, these
gave it to the other Apostles, and the other Apostles to the Seventy. (Reported in Eusebius,
Church History, 2.1.3-4)
Hegesippus (early 2nd century, Jewish-Christian scholar): The succession of the Church
passed to James the brother of the Lord, together with the Apostles. He was called the Just
by all men from the Lords time until ours, since many are called James, but he was holy from
his mothers womb. (Reported in Eusebius, Church History, 2.23.4)
Eusebius (4th century Christian historian): James whom men of old had surnamed Just for his
excellence of virtue, is recorded to have been the first elected to the throne of Oversight of the
Church in Jerusalem. (Eusebius, Church History, 2.1.2)
Eusebius (4th century Christian historian): James, who as the Sacred Scriptures show, was
generally called the brother of Christ, was the First to receive the Episcopate of Jerusalem from
our Saviour himself. (Eusebius, Church History, Book 7)
- Robert Eisenman, (James The Brother of Jesus, Ebook Version, 344)
The Psuedo-Clementine Recognitions (1.43): The Church of the Lord which was constituted in
Jerusalem multiplied most plentifully and grew, being governed with the
most Righteous ordinances by James, who was ordained Bishop in it by the Lord.
- Robert Eisenman, (James The Brother of Jesus, Ebook Version, 352)
The Succession of James to Jesus is the same succession model as Shia Islam
The one, supported in what came to be known as Shiite Islam, represents this as being a family
Caliphate, that is a succession within the family of the Prophet - the word Caliphate in Arabic
actually meaning succession. This is, of course, analogous to the claims of those supporting
James in early Christianity.
- Robert Eisenman, (James The Brother of Jesus, 294 Ebook Version)
The Doctrine of James held by Ebionite Jewish-Christians recognizes Jesus as a Prophet of God
That Muhammad is called the Prophet, too, turns out not to be without resonance in early
Christianity. That is because for Jewish Christianity - what we have been calling Ebionitism
above - the True Prophet ideology was a significant one The True Prophet ideology is also
to be found in the Dead Sea Scrolls or at least the prophecy on which it is based. This prophecy
from Deuteronomy 18:15ff. is among the Messianic proof-texts found at Qumran, and is the

basis of the idea that a Prophet would succeed the heritage defined by Moses in the Old
Testament. For those of an Ebionite frame of mind, and some Christians succeeding to it, Jesus is
that Prophet. For Islam, succeeding to this, Muhammad is not only the True Prophet, he is the
Seal of the Prophets as well. He is also, following Pauls ideology, another Apostle to the
Gentiles, the Arabs being another one of such Peoples. This doctrine appears to have come
down through Jewish Christianity and the Ebionites, to the teacher or prophet at the
end of the first century or the beginning of the second known as Elchasai, and the Elchasaites
following him, described in all early Christian heresiologies. 22 Through them and other
Ebionite-style, daily baptizing groups in Northern Syria, the doctrine came through Mani and the
Manichaeans in the third and fourth centuries - particularly in the marshes of Southern Iraq
where we shall see the group known as the Sabaeans of the marshes were known to have
existed - down to the Prophet Muhammad and Islam in the seventh. In a very real sense, for
their respective followers, both Jesus and Muhammad are True Prophets. In Islam, the
succession to the Prophet developed in the two manners we have just described. In early
Christianity prefiguring this, the process seems to have been similar. Both streams can be
brother the one of direct succession or appointment and the other, election.
- Robert Eisenman, (James The Brother of Jesus, 294-95, Ebook Version)
Paul claims to receive divine revelation from Jesus (whom he never met in person) and teaches a
gospel not based on the authority of the Apostles of Jesus
Galatians 1:1 - Paul, Apostle, not from men, nor through [any] man, but rather through Jesus
Christ and by God [the] Father, who raised him from [the] dead.
Galatians 1:11-17 - I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is
not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I
received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my previous way of life in
Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in
Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the
traditions of my fathers. But when God, who set me apart from my mother's womb and
called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among
the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. I did not go up to
Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I
returned to Damascus.
Paul knows next to nothing about the person, ideology, and life of Jesus, except as an
individual he feels he is in direct touch with in Heaven via a mechanism he and Acts refer to
as the Holy Spirit. This being, whom Paul calls Christ Jesus, often appears to be a carbon
copy of Paul himself. So dubious did his claims regarding him appear to his opponents - and this
within the Church, not outside it - that Paul was even mocked in his own lifetime as either a
man of dreams or a Liar.
- Robert Eisenman, (James The Brother of Jesus, 122, Ebook Version)
Paul referred to his message of the heavenly exalted Christ and the gift of forgiveness and
eternal life made available by his death on the cross as my gospel. He pronounced a formal
curse upon anyone who preached any other gospel than the one he preached (Galatians 1:6-

9). He called his gospel a revelation of a secret hidden for ages, but now revealed to him by
the heavenly Christ as the apostle to the Gentiles. Since he realized he could never effectively
make the case that Jesus in the flesh had taught what he was preaching, his only possible
defense was that the heavenly Christ had now revealed these things to him as a final
word. Paul seldom mentioned anything that Jesus taught and said little about Jesus life other
than his death on the cross. The message that Jesus had preached became transformed, for Paul,
into Jesus as the message.
- James D. Tabor, (The Jesus Dynasty, 263)
Paul believes he is equal to the Super-Apostles James, Cephas, and John
1 Corinthians 9:1 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?
Are you not the result of my work in the Lord? Even though I may not be an apostle to others,
surely I am to you! For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
2 Corinthians 11:5 I do not think I am in the least inferior to those "super-apostles."
2 Corinthians 12:11 I have made a fool of myself, but you drove me to it. I ought to have
been commended by you, for I am not in the least inferior to the "super-apostles," even
though I am nothing. I persevered in demonstrating among you the marks of a true apostle,
including signs, wonders and miracles.
Paul is against observing the Law of Moses, while James is staunch in the Law
Letter of James 2:10: For whoever shall keep the whole Law, but stumbles on one
[small point], shall be guilty [of breaking] it all.
Acts 5:1-6 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let
yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if
you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to
every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who
are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away
from grace. For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we
hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing
that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
In the Koran, too, we also have, perhaps even more impressively, actual evocation of James
directives to overseas communities as presented in the Book of Acts reproduced almost verbatim.
In fact, these become in effect - unlike in Christianity in the West - the basis of all Islamic
dietary Law thereafter.
- Robert Eisenman, (James The Brother of Jesus, 494, Ebook Version)
Paul says the faith of those who keep dietary laws is weak

Romans 14:1 - Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable
matters. One persons faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats
only vegetables [James and his family were vegetarian].
Paul is summoned by the Leadership of the Jerusalem Church because he is preaching against
the Law of Moses
Galatians 2:2-6 I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those
esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I
wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain. Yet not even
Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. This
matter arose because some false brethren had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we
have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves [slaves refers to those who keep the Law, see
above]. We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be
preserved for you. As for those who were held in high esteem--whatever they were makes no
difference to me; God does not show favoritism--they added nothing to my message.
Galatians 2:9 James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas
the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we
should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.
Galatians 2:11- When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he
stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the
Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the
Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other
Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. When
I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of
them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you
force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? "We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles
know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we,
too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the
works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
Paul is confronted by James and the Church Elders because he told Jews to forsake the Law
Acts 21:17-25 - When we arrived at Jerusalem, the brothers and sisters received us warmly. The
next day Paul and the rest of us went to see James, and all the elders were present. Paul greeted
them and reported in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. When
they heard this, they praised God. Then they said to Paul: "You see, brother, how many
thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law. They have been
informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses,
telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs. What shall
we do? They will certainly hear that you have come, so do what we tell you. There are four men
with us who have made a vow. Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their
expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everyone will know there is no truth in
these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law. As for the

Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision that they should abstain from food
sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality."
Paul invented the concept of eating the Body and Blood of Christ from Roman paganism
From James D. Tabor (New Testament Scholar, Chair of Religious Studies, UNC), The Jesus
Dynasty, 203-205:
At every Jewish meal, bread is broken, wine is shared, and blessings are said over each
but the idea of eating human flesh and drinking blood, even symbolically, is completely
alien to Judaism. The Torah specifically forbids the consuming of blood, not just for
Israelites but anyoneThis general sensitivity to the very idea of drinking blood precludes
the likelihood that Jesus would have used such symbolsSo where does this language originate?
If it first surfaces in Paul, and he did not in fact get it from Jesus, then what was its source?
The closest parallels are certain Greco-Roman magical rites. We have a Greek papyrus that
records a love spell in which a male pronounces certain incantations over a cup of wine that
represents the blood that the Egyptian god Osiris had given to his consort Isis to make her
feel love for him. When his lover drinks the wine, she symbolically unites with her beloved
by consuming his blood. In another text the wine is made into the flesh of Osiris. The
symbolic eating of flesh and drinking of blood was a magical rite of union in Greco-Roman
culture. We have to consider that Paul grew up in the Greco-Roman culture of the city of Tarsus
in Asia Minor, outside the land of Israel. He never met or talked to Jesus.
The title Didache [2nd century Christian manuscript] in Greek means Teaching and its
full title is The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. It is a type of early Christian instruction
manual probably written for candidates in Christian baptism to study. It has lots of ethical
instructions and exhortations but also sections on baptism and the Eucharist the sacred
meal of bread and wine. And that is where the surprise comes. It offers the following blessings
over wine and bread:
With respect to the Eucharist you shall give thanks as follows. First with respect to the cup: We
give you thanks our Father for the holy vine of David, your child which you made known to us
through Jesus your child. To you be the glory forever. And with respect to the bread: We give
you thanks our Father for the life and knowledge that you made known to us through Jesus
your child. To you be the glory forever.
Notice there is no mention of the wine representing blood or the bread representing flesh. And
yet this is a record of the early Christian Eucharist meal!