Summary: As James the Just was the undisputed leader of Jesus' Vegan Church, Saul/Paul the anti-vegan apostate, in order to kidnap Christianity, had to get rid of him first and foremost. So, around 50 AD, according to Clementine Recognitions (1.69-72), while James the Just was debating in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem with the priest about Jesus' Messianic identity, Saul/Paul, as a Roman secret police officer (cf. Eisenman 2019:219-220), assaulted James with a faggot, cast him down from the top of the Temple, and almost killed him. Saul/Paul then headed towards Damascus, with a view to getting Peter, whom he misbelieved had gone. It's precisely on the way to Damascus that Saul/Paul's self-proclaimed conversion by Christ allegedly took place.
In the years to follow, Saul/Paul, posing as "the Apostle", continuously undermined the Jerusalem Council as administered by James and his deputies Peter and John, until 62 AD, when Paul finally succeeded in aiding and abetting the High Priest Ananus to stone James to death.
1. Paul as the Undisputed Leader of Jesus' Vegan Church
Despite Pauline Christianity's attempt to marginalize James the Just, he still appeared as the undisputable leader at the Jerusalem council of 50 AD and of 57 AD who issued orders (Acts 15:13-21, 21:18). Saying 12 of The Gospel of Thomas reads: "The disciples said to Jesus, "We know you will leave us. Who is going to be our leader then?" Jesus said to them, "No matter where you go you are to go to James the Just, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being."" Clement of Alexandria also writes: "Peter and James [the fisherman] and John after the Ascension of the Savior did not struggle for glory... but chose James the Just as Overseer of Jerusalem" (see Eusebius, Church History 2.1.3).
2. Paul the Anti-Vegan Enemy Attacked James in the Temple
Since James the Just was the undeniable head of Jesus' Vegan Church, Saul/Paul the anti-vegan apostate, in order to kidnap Christianity, had to get rid of him first.
Around 34 AD, according to Peter's account in Clementine Recognitions (1.69-72), the Judaic priests in Jerusalem summoned the Twelve disciples, as headed by Jesus' brother James the Just, together with their followers, to a disputation in the Holy Temple, which lasted seven days. On the last day, just when Caiaphas the Chief Priest and his men were about to be won over to baptism, a guy who's an enemy (a marginal note in one of the manuscripts identifies this enemy as Paul [Eisenman 2019:219]), together with a few other men, suddenly rushed into the Temple and incited the priests against James the Just and his people. The enemy grabbed hold of a faggot from the altar and began to beat up James with it. Many of James' people were injured and even killed on the spot. Then the enemy cast James down from above the steps. The latter fell to the ground and broke his legs. Thinking that James was already dead, Saul/Paul didn't bother to hit him again to make sure.
3. James' Narrow Escape
James' people then rescued him and they hid themselves in Jericho, whence James, while still limping in his shinbone, sent out Peter on his first missionary journey to Caesarea (Clementine Recognitions 1.73). Meanwhile, Saul/Paul secured authorization letters from Caiaphas the Chief Priest -- just like Paul in Acts 9:2 -- and set out for Damascus where he supposed Peter and his men had gone.
4. Saul/Paul's Conversion on the Way to Damascus
It's exactly on the way to Damascus that Saul/Paul claimed that he was converted by Jesus Christ in a vision (Acts 9:3-7, 22:6-10, 26:12-20). The three accounts given by Paul on his conversion are so mutually contradictory that there's good reason to believe that Paul simply made it up (Ali n.d.; Gott n.d.); he was probably a mole sent by the Roman Empire to infiltrate and corrupt from the inside out Jesus' Vegan Church (Voskuilen 2005).
5. The seed of enmity between Paul and James Sown
Thus, the seed of the decades-long enmity between Saul/Paul and the Jerusalem Council as led by James the Just and his deputies Peter and John was already sown in 34 AD.
5.1. Fundamental Differences between Paul & James
There were fundamental theological and ideological discrepancies between Paul the apostate and James the true successor of Jesus the Vegan Christ so that conflicts between the two camps inevitably ensued. Below please find four of the major domains in which the two church leaders significantly differ from each other.
5.1.1. Veganism
According to Eusebius' Church History (23.5), James the Just "was holy from his mother's womb; and he drank no wine nor strong drink, nor did he eat flesh." On the other hand, Paul tells people to eat "anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience" (1 Corinthians 10:25 NIV).
5.1.2. Attitude towards the Political Authorities
James was the Zaddik of the Opposition Alliance in Jerusalem (Robert Eisenman 2019:73; Eusebius, Church History 2.23.12-13); whereas Paul preached, "Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves" (Romans 13:1-3 NIV).
5.1.3. The Mosiac Law
Paul debases, devalues and degrades Moses' Law in at least 37 places in the New Testament, whereas James asserts, "If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself,' you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors" (James 2:8-9 ESV). Paul regularly alleges that the Law is weak, useless, and obsolete "dung", that it is a curse conducive to sinfulness, spiritual imprisonment and death (e.g., Romans 5:20 American Bible in Plain English; Romans 7:13 KJV; Hebrews 7:18-19 Berean Study Bible; Hebrews 8:13 NKJV; 2 Corinthians 3:7 NLV; Galatians 3:23 Weymouth New Testament; Galatians 2:19 NLT; Galatians 3:13 KJV; Ephesians 2:15 NKJV; Philippians 3:4-8 KJV). Contrariwise, Jesus had told them the importance of keeping the whole law, even the least commandments. If they didn’t do so, they would not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:19-20). James therefore stresses, "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it" (James 2:10 NIV).
5.1.4. By Faith or by Works
Paul preaches that salvation comes by faith only, e.g., "And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness" (Romans 4:5 ESV); "For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law" (Romans 3:28 ESV); "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV).
Jesus teaches the exact opposite:- salvation is attained through compassionate and righteous deeds or works based on love for God and love for our neighbors (Luke 10:27 NIV; Matt. 22:37-40 KJV), even for our enemies (Matt. 5:44 KJV), and through prayer cum fasting (Mark 9:29 KJV; Matt. 17:21 KJV), not just having faith.
Similarly, James the Just places a premium on works combined with faith:-
"What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works...You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone" (James 2:14-16, 2:24 ESV).
5.2. Paul and James' Vegan Apostolic Decree
In 50 AD, Paul paid lip service to the vegan apostolic decree (Acts 15:20) issued by James the Just on behalf of the Jerusalem Council (cf. Akers 2020:151-154) (Note 1). Shortly afterwards, Peter paid Paul's church at Antioch a visit. Then Paul yelled at Peter when the latter withdrew from a table of meat-eating Gentiles upon being advised by a delegation sent by James (Galatians 2:11–14). Things came to a confrontation sometime around 56 AD (Tabor 217). With his letters to the Galatians, Corinthians, and Romans, Paul attacked the veganism of Jesus' Jewish Christianity and even the Jerusalem Council itself (Note 2).
6. Paul had a Hand in James' Death!
According to Eisenman (2019:202), during the two-year detention of Paul in Herod's Palace in Caesarea (57 AD to 59 AD), the numerous sessions he had with Felix, as described in Acts (24:26-27), were without a shred of doubt more akin to intelligence reporting than to theological or religious dialogues. Similarly, Paul's lengthy, congenial conference with King Agrippa II, Bernice and Governor Festus in Acts (25:13-27) was highly suspicious. It was likely during the course of these exchanges that James' essential role among the Jewish mass and at the centre of Messianic agitation in the Temple and in Jerusalem was made plain by Paul to his Roman and Herodian overlords. If this is so, then Paul also had a hand in the ’conspiracy' to destroy and bring about the death of James (Eisenman 2019:202).
7. James Finally Got Killed with the Help of Paul
According to Josephus' Antiquitie, "Ananus... assembled the sanhedrim of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned" (Josephus n.d.: Book XX, Chapt. 9.1).
According to Robert Eisenman's (2019:202) interpretation, James is a parallel figure to the Righteous Teacher at Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered; Paul the Liar; and Ananus the Wicked Priest. The Liar conspired with the Wicked Priest to destroy the Righteous Teacher. "Of course, Acts of the Apostles, as usual, reverses this into a conspiracy by the Zealots and the High Priest to destroy Paul!" (Eisenman 2019:202).
8. Two Attacks on James Conflated
The attack on James in 34~40 AD is disguised as the martyrdom of Stephen in the same period in the Acts; and is conflated with the execution of James by way of stoning in 62 AD in early church fathers' accounts, notably, Hegesippus' via Eusebius and Saint Jerome's (Eisenman 2019:219).
The "Stephen" in Acts of the Apostles (Acts 7:54-60), who was allegedly stoned to death for defending his faith in Jesus Christ before the members of a Sanhedrin, "is a fictitious stand-in for the attack by Paul on James in the early 40s", as argued by Eisenman (2019:219). (I would say it's some time between 34 AD and 40 AD). There were actually two assaults on James, one in or before 40 AD, for which Acts substitutes the assault on Stephen; the other assault on James, which results in his death, is the one in the 60s having to do with his Sanhedrin trial, which ends with his stoning.
1st-century Jewish historian Josephus' work Antiquities was the earliest official record still extant to confirm James' death by way of stoning around 62 AD. The 2 assaults on James have been conflated in early church fathers' accounts, like Hegesippus' Memoirs (Book V) via Eusebius' Church History, Clementine Recognitions, and Saint Jerome's On Illustrious Men, into a single attack taking place in the 60s and causing James' martyrdom. All of these accounts involve James' being cast down from the Pinnacle of the Temple, his stoning, and his brains being beaten out with a fuller's club.
9. Conclusion
As well put by Rev. Vincent Arthur Holmes-Gore,
Let the reader contrast the true Christian standard with that of Paul and he will see the terrible betrayal of all that the Master taught. . . . For the surest way to betray a great Teacher is to misrepresent his message. . . . That is what Paul and his followers did, and because the Church has followed Paul in his error it has failed lamentably to redeem the world. . . . The teachings given by the blessed Master Christ, which the disciples John and Peter and James, the brother of the Master, tried in vain to defend and preserve intact were as utterly opposed to the Pauline Gospel as the light is opposed to the darkness. (Holmes-Gore 1946)
In order to kidnap Jesus' Vegan Church and replace it with Pauline Christianity, Saul/Paul spent decades on repeatedly conspiring to brutally murder James and Just -- the direct heir of Jesus the Vegan Christ on earth -- and undermine or even eradicate Vegan Jewish Christianity. Paul finally succeeded, and for two thousand years, most mainstream churches have followed Paul the anti-vegan apostate rather than Jesus the Vegan Christ and His heir cum natural brother James the Just. It is high time we debunked Saul/Paul the traitor and returned to the Vegan Church of Jesus and James.
Notes
1. The apostolic decree issued by James the Just in the Jerusalem conference around 50 AD merely required Gentile converts to merely abstain from BLOOD, strangled animals, FOOD sacrificed to idols, and fornication (Acts 15:20). It is at times claimed that the ban on blood is a reference to a kosher rule. But the decree never tells people to abstain from consuming blood; it just tells the believers to abstain from blood. "'Blood' could refer to violence against either humans or animals" (Akers 2020:152). So much the more, for all sentient beings, life is blood, blood is life. As well put by Prof. Andrew Linzey (1993), "after all, who can take animal life without the shedding of blood? Who can kill without the taking of blood, that is, the life itself?... For the early Hebrews life was symbolised by, even constituted by, blood itself. To kill was to take blood."
2. In those letters, Paul blatantly attacks Moses' Law, e.g., "all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse" (Galatians 3:10 NIV). In particular, in relation to food, Paul, as aforementioned tells people to eat "anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience" (1 Corinthians 10:25 NIV). Those who are strong in faith may eat anything; whose those who are weak eat only herbs (Romans 14:2), "For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure" (Romans 14:20 KJV). Meat here includes but is not limited to animal flesh sacrificed to idols, that is to say, Paul renounces not only the Kosher law but also Christian veganism itself (Akers 2020:149).
In those letters, Paul, of course, does not hesitate to lash out at Jesus' 12 apostles who, emulating Jesus, staunchly uphold Moses' Law. Paul calls them "false apostles, deceitful workers" , transforming themselves into apostles of Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:13-15 NKJV). "Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often" (2 Corinthians 11:22-23 NKJV)); "I have become a fool in boasting...in nothing was I behind the most eminent apostles, though I am nothing. Truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds" (2 Corinthians 12:11-12 NKJV), Paul asserts, seemingly humbly but actually unashamedly arrogantly.
References
• Akers, Keith (2020). The Lost Religion of Jesus. NY: Lantern Publishing & Media/ Woodstock & Brooklyn.
• Ali, Malik (n.d.). "St. Paul The Root of Christian Missionary Deception." https://www.missionislam.com/comprel/deception.htm
• Bruce, F.F. (1958/59). "The Dead Sea Habakkuk Scroll," The Annual of Leeds University Oriental Society I (1958/59): 5–24. http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/ffb/habakkuk_bruce.pdf
• Chen, Chapman (2023). "Was Paul Really Converted by the Vegan Christ?" HKBNews, 6 Mar. https://www.hkbnews.net/post/was-paul-really-converted-by-the-vegan-christ-by-dr-chapman-chen
• Chen, Chapman (2021). "How St. Paul Perverted Jesus' Vegan Teachings." HKBNews, Dec 31. https://www.hkbnews.net/post/how-st-paul-perverted-jesus-vegan-teachings-by-chapman-chen-hkbnews
• Eisenman, Robert (2012). James the Brother of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls I. London: The Way Publishing.
• Eusebius Pamphilius (n.d.). "The Martyrdom of James, who was Called the Brother of the Lord." In Church History. Trans. Arthur Cushman Mcgiffert. https://biblehub.com/library/pamphilius/church_history/chapter_xxiii_the_martyrdom_of_james.htm
• Gott (n.d.). "The Gospel of Paul." The Nazarene Way of Essenic Studies. http://www.thenazareneway.com/The%20Gospel%20of%20Paul.htm
• Holmes-Gore, Vincent Arthur (1946). Christ or Paul? Saffron Walden: C W Daniel.
• Josephus, Flavius (1890). Antiquities of the Jews - Book XX, The Works of Flavius Josephus. Trans. William Whiston. Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson. https://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/ant-20.htm
• Pseudo-Clement (2014). The Syriac Clementine Recognitions and Homilies: The First Complete Translation of the Text. Trans. Joseph Glen Gebhardt. Nashville: Grave Distractions Publications. https://www.academia.edu/9843447/The_Syriac_Clementine_Recognitions_and_Homilies_The_First_Complete_Translation_of_the_Text
• Saint Jerome (n.d.). De Viris Illustribus (On Illustrious Men). https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2708.htm
• Sion, Robert Mt. (2013). Paul the Antichrist. Saarbrucken: Bloggingbooks.
• Tabor, James D. (2012). Paul and James. NY: Simon & Schuster.
• Voskuilen, Thijs (2005) "Operation Messiah: Did Christianity Start as a Roman Psychological Counterinsurgency Operation?", Small Wars & Insurgencies, 16:2, 192-215, DOI: 10.1080/09592310500079940
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