Re: Did Acts invent a James brother of Jesus who was ALSO a leader?
Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2017 9:38 am
Giuseppe asked:
No, that's not what I think about James, I'm not even sure what that means. In what I posted, I was seriously entertaining the idea that James the brother of the Lord mentioned by Paul was not a blood relative of Jesus but a brother of the Lord in a figurative sense such as that used by Gregory of Nyssa. If that is the case, the James mentioned in Galatians and Corinthians (I was not making your distinction between the Jameses of Gal 1 and 2) could be the same person as James the son of Zebedee and that the author of Acts was wrong in distinguishing James son of Zebedee from the James who was a leader of the Jeruslaem church in Gal 2 and Acts 15. At the moment, I'm just claiming that's an historically plausible theory, not that it is actually the case.
Best,
Ken
I'm an historicist in the sense that at present, I think it more likely than not (but not certain) that the Jesus mentioned by Paul and the gospel authors was a real person who had lived in the past, however much unhistorical material developed about him.If I understand you well, you are historicist and you think that James the carnal brother of Jesus was shown as James son of Zebedee in the Gospels. Is this your view?
No, that's not what I think about James, I'm not even sure what that means. In what I posted, I was seriously entertaining the idea that James the brother of the Lord mentioned by Paul was not a blood relative of Jesus but a brother of the Lord in a figurative sense such as that used by Gregory of Nyssa. If that is the case, the James mentioned in Galatians and Corinthians (I was not making your distinction between the Jameses of Gal 1 and 2) could be the same person as James the son of Zebedee and that the author of Acts was wrong in distinguishing James son of Zebedee from the James who was a leader of the Jeruslaem church in Gal 2 and Acts 15. At the moment, I'm just claiming that's an historically plausible theory, not that it is actually the case.
Best,
Ken