Why just James (=Jacob) had to be the Brother of the Lord

[Giuseppe]

In what follows I already assume a priori that Gal 1:19 is a catholic interpolation.


Jacob is famous to exemplify, behind the story of the bowl of stew in exchange for his birthrigh, the point that who is rich is such because he is loved by god (=YHWH).

Usually, material richness is considered a sign of grace in Judaism.

But that richness is material. As such, it had to be condemned by the Gnostics as coming from the evil demiurge.

For the Gnostics, the material richness is evidence that the rich is loved by the evil demiurge, that he is "friend" of the demiurge.

Just as Abraham was the "friend of God".

And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend.

(James 2:23)

Idem for Jacob himself:

But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend.

(Isaiah 41:8)

Hence who better than an invented guy named James had to be the putative brother of Jesus and rejected by Jesus, just as the his putative mother?

Who better than a real guy named James had to be considered, beyond if true of false, the strongest leader of the Judaizers?

Hence Mary and James are respectively the names of the presumed mother and brother of Jesus because they refer to the ordinary Jewish mother (condemned as such as she gives birth only to obey the creator) and the ordinary name of the "friend of YHWH" (Jacob = James).

[Giuseppe]

The Judaizers knew very well their Gnostic enemies.

They re-valued the material richness by making Jesus himself the icon of the ordinary poor who has to be helped to become rich:

34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

(Matthew 25:31-40)

But the Gnostics hated the Archon of this material world. They were not interested to help the poor to become rich as particular sign of the divine grace.

[Giuseppe]

The episode of the temptations of Jesus in the Wilderness is without meaning, read in the its own value, since even a child (sic) can realize easily who is the bad and who is the good of the episode. But what can any reader gain from a so simple and ridiculous episode?

But really even a so innocuous story has hidden a more complex meaning, a meaning that goes against directly all our old views about the Gospels.

- When the devil promises to Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth, that he gives to whom he wants, in exchange for an act of worship that would be an acknowledgment of the his claim to be the only God, the author of the story gives himself the malicious pleasure of making oppose against him by Jesus a precept of the his own Law enacted in his favor: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'” (Mt 4:10, Lk 4: 8 = Deut 6:13)

(Jean Magne, La naissance de Jésus-Christ, p. 22, my free translation)

Hence the Satan of the story is the euhemerization of the OT god made deliberately just by a devoted worshiper of that same god!

...Just as the man Jesus is the euhemerization of a previous deity.


We are said: no one would denigrate his divinity, reducing it to a mere man (=meaning of euhemerization).

But here we have an example of a pious Judaizer (“Mark”) who reduced deliberately the his same god - the Creator - to the role of Satan himself (!), in order to make clearer that Jesus adored that same Creator, and not another deity foreign to Judaism.

[Giuseppe]

A curious feature of the three temptations by the devil in the wilderness is that Jesus rejects in the same time military glory, priest function and abondance of food. Basically, Jesus rejects the three orders of the ancient society: priests, warriors and peasants. A way to say that he rejects the entire material world.

But that rejection was made in the name of YHWH, the demiurge. Not against YHWH, even if "Mark" knew the Gnostics.

The judaization of a previous Gnostic theme is evident, here, by "Mark".