Theologia et Vita

One of the more remarkable accounts preserved in early Christian literature concerns the martyrdom of James, the brother of our Lord, traditionally known as James the Just . His death, generally dated to AD 62, is especially interesting because we possess testimony from both Christian and non-Christian historical sources. James was not always a believer. Indeed, John's Gospel tells us that Jesus' own brothers did not believe in Him during His earthly ministry (John 7:5; cf. Mark 3:21, 31–35). Something changed. Paul records that the risen Christ appeared specifically to James (1 Cor. 15:7), and by the time we encounter him in Acts, James has become one of the principal leaders of the Jerusalem church (Acts 12:17; 15:13–21; 21:18). Paul even identifies him as one of the church's recognized pillars (Gal. 1:19; 2:9).¹ But what became of him? Our earliest surviving account of his death comes from the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, writing toward the end of the first cen...