Acts 15:13

Acts 15:13. And after they had held their peace, James answered. The discussion was closed by a very famous character in the early Church. James, the so-called brother of the Lord (see Galatians 1:19; Galatians 2:9), and the writer of the New Testament epistle which bears his name, who is generally supposed to have presided over this early Council, occupied a peculiar position of authority among the Jerusalem Christians. His history was a strange one. During the Lord's earthly life, James, with the rest of ‘His brethren' seems to have been a disbeliever in His mission. He was converted by that appearance of the Risen One specially related by Paul (1 Corinthians 15:7), ‘After that He was seen of James.' At a comparatively early period of the Church's history he appears to have been selected as the resident head of the Jerusalem community. He possessed two qualifications which marked him out for this peculiar distinction, his relationship after the flesh to the risen Jesus, and his faithful observance of the Mosaic law and ordinances, to which he seems to have added a rigorous asceticism. Hegesippus (in Eusebius, H. E. ii. 23) tells us ‘he was holy from his mother's womb; he drank no wine nor strong drink, neither did he eat flesh; no razor ever touched his head, he did not anoint himself with oil, he did not use the bath; he alone was allowed to enter into the holy place, for he wore no wool, but only fine linen; and he would enter into the temple alone, and be found there kneeling on his knees and asking forgiveness for the people.' This traditionary account, although very ancient, must be accepted with considerable reservation. Still, his surname of the ‘just' or ‘righteous,' by which name he was generally known in the records of the early Church, is a witness that he was, if not the stem ascetic of the tradition above quoted, at least a rigid observer of the Mosaic ritual and law. It has been happily remarked by Dr. Schaff (History of the Apostolic Church, vol. i. book I), that ‘the influence of James was altogether necessary. He, if any, could gain the ancient chosen nation in a body. God placed such a representative of the purest form of Old Testament piety in the midst of the Jews to make their transition to the faith of the Messiah as easy as possible, even at the eleventh hour. But when they refused to hear this last messenger of peace, the Divine forbearance was exhausted, and the fearful, long-threatened judgment broke upon them. He was not to outlive the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. Shortly before it (according to Hegesippus), in the year 69, after having borne powerful testimony to the Messiahship of Jesus, he was thrown down from the pinnacle of the temple and stored by the Pharisees. His last words were, “I beg of Thee, Lord God Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He was buried by the temple.' Eusebius and also Josephus speak of the siege and destruction of Jerusalem being looked upon by many of the Jews as a punishment for what they had done to James the Just.

Saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me. In bringing the discussion to a close, James pointed out that Simon Peter had related how, years before, God had signified His good pleasure in regard to the Gentiles, ‘Out of these, too, would a people be chosen;' and this determination of the Most High agreed with the words of the prophets as, for instance, with the closing sayings of Amos, who wrote of the ultimate calling home of the Gentiles. As neither the ancient prophets nor the more recent declarations of the will of God while plainly announcing this admission of many Gentiles into the pale which enclosed God's people said anything respecting the duty of observing the Mosaic rites and ceremonies, his view, as president of the Council, was: that these strangers ought not to be troubled with these burdens; only, for love's sake not to offend too deeply the tender consciences of scrupulous Jews, with whom they would frequently come in contact, and at the same time to give them a general rule of life which would preserve them from the worst pollutions of the Pagan world around them, he recommended a very few general restrictive rules of life, which these Gentiles might honestly observe without breaking off or even endangering their relations with the world in which they lived and worked.