Our Church of Zion, also known as the Church of the Apostles on Mount Zion, is a the first Jewish-Christian congregation continuing at Mount Zion in Jerusalem in the 1nd century, distinct from the main Gentile congregation which had its home at the Mount Zion.

There have been attempts at identifying the lower, possibly Roman-period layers of the building housing the so-called "Tomb of David" and the Cenacle, as the remains of the house of worship of this is a Jewish-Christian congregation.

Various manipulations and bribes between the Roman and Orthodox church to try to deflect and hide authentic evidence from the Holy Community of Mount Zion. But the testimony of Muslims themselves and archeological findings prove the authenticity of our Holy Community. There is a powerful mafia among the churches in the Holy Land that has manipulated everything, including the Via Dolorosa invented by the Franciscans. Many legends and lying stories to maintain their greed and ego. They almost constantly kill each other in violent fights to maintain the lies they have invented.

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Our First Patriarch יעקב

James the Just ( Hebrew : יעקב ; Greek : Iάκωβος ), who died in AD 62 , also known as James of Jerusalem or James the Lord's brother , was an important figure in the early years of Christianity . The Catholic Encyclopedia concludes that, based on Hegesippus ' account , James the Just is the same as the apostle known as James the Less , and, in line with most Catholic interpreters, is also James, son of Alphaeus and James , son of Mary Mother of  Jesus . He should not be confused, however, with the apostle also known as Santiago Maior  .

James the Just was the leader of the Christian movement in Jerusalem in the decades following Jesus ' death , although information about his life is scarce and ambiguous. Several early sources cite him as being the brother of Jesus . Historians have interpreted this in a variety of ways, as being brother in a "spiritual sense," or literally, meaning that James was actually a relative of Jesus—half-brother, foster-brother, cousin, other relative, and even blood-brother. The oldest surviving Christian liturgy , the so-called Liturgy of St. James , calls him the "brother of God" ( Adelphotheos ) .

With the exception of a handful of references in the Gospels , the main sources for his life are the Acts of the Apostles , the Pauline Epistles , the historian Flavius ​​Josephus , and the Christian author Hegesippus . He is believed to be the author of the Epistle of James in the New Testament , the first of the Seventy Disciples , and the author of the Apostolic Decree of Acts 15 . In the Epistle to the Galatians , Paul of Tarsus describes him on his visit to Jerusalem, where he met James and was with Simon Peter .

His feast is together with that of the Apostle Philip .

Name

James is called "the Just" because of his righteousness and religiosity . The name also helps us to distinguish him from other important early church figures of the same name, such as James the son of Zebedee .

He is sometimes called, in Eastern Christianity , James Adelphotheus, i.e. James, the brother of God (Greek : Iάκωβος ο Αδελφόθεος ), based on reference in the Liturgy of Saint James and in the New Testament .

Life

The canonical writings of the New Testament as well as other early Church sources give us some evidence about James' life and role. Jerome , in his De Viris Illustribus argued that James was not Jesus' brother, but his cousin, the son of Mary of Cleopas , the "sister of our Lord's mother and whom John mentions in his book". [ 5 ] . After the Passion , Jerome wrote, the apostles selected James as Bishop of Jerusalem . In describing their ascetic way of life , De Viris Illustribus cites Hegesippus ' accountabout Tiago from the fifth book of the work "Commentaries", now lost:

“After the apostles, James, the brother of the Lord, called the Righteous, was made leader of the church in Jerusalem. Many indeed are called James. This one was sacred from his mother's womb. He did not drink wine or liquor, he did not eat meat, and he never shaved or anointed himself with creams or bathed. He only had the privilege of entering the Holy of Holies , for he indeed wore no cotton, only linen, and he entered the temple alone and prayed so much for his people that his knees are reputed to have acquired the roughness of those of dents. a camel.”

 

— De Viris Illustribus , Jerome, quoting Hegesippus.

As it was illegal for anyone but the high priest of the temple to enter the Holy of Holies, and even then, once a year during Yom Kippur , Jerome's quote from Hegesippus indicates that James was considered a high priest. Pseudo-Clemente 's "Recognitions" also suggests this .

Jerome also quotes the deuterocanonical Gospel of the Hebrews thus:

“"'Behold, the Lord, after he had given his garments to the priest's servant, appeared to James, for James had sworn that he would never again eat the bread from the moment he drank of the Lord's cup until he could see him, born again from the dead. dead'. A little while later the Lord said, 'Bring a table and bread'. And immediately he added, 'He took bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to James the Just and said to him, " My brother, eat your bread, for the Son of Man has been raised from the dead"'". And so he led the Jerusalem church for thirty years, that is, until the seventh year of Nero .”

 

— De Viris Illustribus , Jerome, quoting the Gospel of the Hebrews.

Paul described James as one of the people to whom the risen Christ appeared ( 1 Corinthians 15:3–8 ). Then, in the same epistle, he quotes James in a way that seems to indicate that he was already married (9:5). In Galatians, Paul lists James with Cephas ( Simon Peter ) and John as being the three "pillars" of the Church ( Galatians 2:9 and who will minister to the " circumcised " in Jerusalem, while Paul and his companions will minister to the uncircumcised (2:12) These terms are generally interpreted to mean Jews and Greeks , who were the majority. However, this is an oversimplification, since in the Roman provincefrom Judea there were already some Jews who were not circumcised and some Greeks, called proselytes or Judaizers , and other peoples, such as the Egyptians, Ethiopians and Arabs who did.

When Peter, having miraculously escaped from prison, must flee Jerusalem because of the persecution of Herod Agrippa I , he requests that James be informed ( Acts 12:17 ). When Paul arrived in Jerusalem to deliver the money he had raised for the faithful, it was James he spoke to, and it was James who insisted that he ritually purify himself in Herod's Temple to prove his faith and deny rumors that he was preaching rebellion. against the Torah ( Acts 21:18 ), the charge of antinomianism .

Council of Jerusalem

Main articles: Council of Jerusalem and Circumcision controversy

While the Antioch Christians were concerned about whether or not Gentile Christians would need to be circumcised to be saved, they sent Paul and Barnabas to meet with the Jerusalem church. James took a prominent role in shaping the Council's decision ( Acts 15:13). James, among whom we know the name, was the last to speak, after Peter, Paul and Barnabas. He then uttered what he called his "decision" (15:19) — the original meaning is closer to "opinion" . He supported everyone in being against the requirement and suggested bans on the consumption of blood as well as meat used in sacrifices and also on fornication .. This became the rule of the Council, agreed upon by all the apostles and elders and sent to all the churches by letter.

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PRIMACY OF יעקב YACOV BROTHER OF JESUS THE FIRST PATRIARCH OF THE CHURCH

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Tradition, supported by scriptural inferences, holds that James led the Jerusalem group as its first bishop or patriarch . This is not necessarily a point against Peter's primacy in the ancient church and, subsequently, in Roman Catholicism . Although James, not Peter, was the first bishop of that group, Roman Catholics believe that the bishop of Jerusalem would not, therefore, be the head of the Christian church, since it was with Peter as the "Rock" ( Kepha ) and "Leading Pastor" .  John Chrysostom opined on the matter: "If anyone should say, 'Why then was it James who received theseat of Jerusalem?' I would answer that He [Christ] made Peter the teacher not of that See, but of the whole world." It has been suggested, for example, that Peter would have entrusted the Jerusalem community to James when he was forced to flee from city  of our Saviour, as if the Lord also preferred it that way, did not fight for honors and chose James the Just as bishop of Jerusalem.

Death

According to a passage in the Jewish Antiquities , by Flavius ​​Josephus , "the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James" met his death after that of the procurator Porcius Festus , before Lucceius Albinus was inaugurated  whose date It is AD 62 The high priest Ananus ben Ananus took advantage of this lack of imperial control to assemble the Sanhedrinwho condemned James "on the charge of violating the Law" and then had him executed by stoning. Josephus further reports that Ananus's act was widely regarded as a judicial murder and would have offended many of "who were considered the fairest people in the city, and strict in the observance of the Law", who even went so far as to meet with the procurator Albinus to ask him to intervene in the matter. As a result, King Agrippa exchanged Ananus  for Jesus, son of  Damneus.

George Albert Wells disputes the identification of James who was executed by Ananus ben Ananus with James the Just, considering the words "who was called Christ" to be a later interpolation.

Eusebius of Caesarea , quoting Josephus' account, preserved the record of passages from the now lost works of Hegesippus and Clement of Alexandria. Hegesippus' account differs somewhat from Josephus' and may have been an attempt to reconcile them by combining them. According to Hegesippus, the scribes and Pharisees came to James for help in eliminating Christian beliefs. The report says:

“They came, therefore, in a company to James, and said, "We beseech thee, restrain the people: for they have gone astray in their opinions of Jesus, as if he were the Christ. of the Passover , about Jesus. For we have all heard your persuasion; for we also, as well as all the people, are witnesses that you are righteous and show no preference for anyone. Convince therefore the people not to entertain erroneous opinions about Jesus: for every the people, and we also, have listened to your persuasion. Take a firm stand, then, on the top of the temple, so that you may be clearly seen by all, and your words may be clearly heard by all. For to commemorate the Passover , all the tribes came here and also some Gentiles.

To the chagrin of the scribes and Pharisees, James boldly testified that Christ "sat in heaven on the right hand of the Great Power and will return on the clouds of heaven" . Then they conferred among themselves, "We were wrong to look for your testimony about Jesus. So let's go up and throw him down, so that they will be afraid and not believe him.

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