hello and in this episode which i hope you can hear clearly i want to just share with you
a particularly good book one of my favorites is called the brother of jesus and the lost teachings
of christianity by jeffrey j butz who is a ordained lutheran minister in the united states
and professor of world religions at pennsylvania state university and this book obviously about
james is particularly fascinating and i do recommend if you're interested in the earliest
stage of the christian faith : the faith of jesus family james being a brother of jesus of course
and what happened to them and what they believed i do recommend
this book it's not too expensive and it's very readable and lots of good scholarship is mentioned
here i think it's based on his master's thesis at university and i say it's particularly helpful
he obviously mentions james and the brother of jesus and he quotes sources from particularly this
writer eusebius who wrote the history of the church now eusebius was born in 260 a.d
and is the only surviving historical record of the church during its first 300 years
from that period and he draws on lots of primary evidence uniquely that we don't have from
anywhere else and one of the things that comes out of this book by eusebius which but references many
times is that james the brother of jesus after the ascension was elected by the chief apostles peter
james sorry peter john and philip to be the head of the church in jerusalem not peter but james
and also james was famous amongst the jews for being particularly uh rigorous and observant jew
so he really followed the law and was passionate his attachment to the temple in
jerusalem is associated with the temple so he in his sense was the opposite of paul who taught
in ephesians 2 15 as we've seen prison previous videos that the law had been abolished with its
commandments and regulations james who is the head of the church who the part of the family of jesus
and appointed by the apostles taught the opposite and he wasn't really a christian he
was a jew who believed in jesus the messiah the davidic messiah and that was the earliest faith
if you like of the disciples so i just wanted to share with you just a couple of paragraphs from
the end of the book buttz's book 186 page 186 he says some very interesting things about
christians and muslims and jews some summarizing really his research and the implications for
the wall of estrangement that he sees between muslims christians and jews in the world today
so he says as abundance as abundant evidence has shown us after jesus crucifixion his family and
disciples continued to worship together in the temple in jerusalem maintaining manifesting no
difference between their fellow jews except in their belief that jesus was the davidic messiah
unfortunately for these harmonious beginnings pauline christianity this is the the religion
that paul developed increasingly adopted an understanding of jesus that judaism could not
ultimately bear the hellenistic theological belief that jesus was literally god incarnate in human
flesh as the doctrine of the incarnation became ever more central to gentile catholic christianity
an impossible theological wall arose between jews and christians the doctrine of the incarnation is
also the great wall that separates muslims and christians most christians today are completely
unaware that muslims highly revere jesus and honor his teaching even believing in the virgin
birth but like their jewish cousins the strict monotheism of islam could never accept the key
christian dogmas of the incarnation and the holy trinity it is therefore potentially significant
for inter-religious dialogue today that one of the firm conclusions of modern research
into james has revealed is that neither jesus's family nor the apostles nor his jewish disciples
believe that jesus was literally god this is very interesting because he says one of
the firm conclusions of modern research they believe that jesus was the davidic messiah
adopted inverted commas by god as his son at his baptism by john but still a human being that
the earliest christian doctrine was in no way incompatible with jewish doctrine is evidence
above all by the fact that the jews in jerusalem continued to accept jesus followers as fellow jews
in fact they saw them as being particularly rigorous and pious jews so these were not
like paul who about who played fast and loose with the law and said that all you know you
could eat what you wanted and you didn't have to follow the law indeed if you did follow the law
and you were circumcised you would lose your faith so these people james and the family
and the apostles were very very different views than paul and then he continues it is much more
than intriguing that the muslim understanding of jesus is a very much in conformity with the first
christian orthodoxy the original jewish christian understanding of jesus so this is very important
to repeat that he says that the the muslim understanding of jesus is very much in conformity
with the first christian orthodoxy the original jewish christian understanding of jesus wow that's
amazing and there's a whole book to discuss how that is with lots and lots of evidence
and then just one final paragraph which is quite hard to read in a way it it's
so it's so horrific if the implications are extraordinary if jewish christianity had prevailed
over poor line christianity history would likely have been written quite differently it is quite
likely that such atrocities as the crusades the inquisition and the holocaust would never have
transpired if jewish christian understanding of jesus had prevailed jews and christians might
never have parted ways and islam would never have become christianity's perceived enemy
to this day it is the refusal of jews and muslims to accept the full
divinity of jesus that makes them pagan and heathens in the eyes of many christians
so he is saying because what happened was when the gentile pauline christianity evolved it became
very very anti-jewish particularly in the third and fourth and fifth centuries uh with people like
john chrysostom and others the golden mouth that's what it means in english these very famous early
church fathers who were rabidly anti-semitic and their writing was picked up by people like martin
luther and ultimately by the nazis in germany to justify their hatred and persecution of jews
now if jewish christianity had prevailed over paul and christian of course that would not have
happened because jewish christianity by definition is jewish so he wouldn't have attacked the jews
it would have articulated a form of faith that would not have resulted in the the holocaust and
the other pogroms against the jews that the church have been involved with for centuries
and only since the second world war has that changed only in very recent history
have christians stop persecuting the jews in that's in that way so
here we have a christian minister who's a lutheran ordained minister
and professor at a university in the states you can see looking at the historical evidence which i
really recommend you discover for yourself by getting hold of a copy of this book
how similar the muslim understanding of jesus is to the original christian understanding the fact
the understanding of jesus family people like james and his brothers and the apostles so this
is a remarkable book he didn't have to put it that way but his the evidence for him is very clear
that there is this remarkable convergence and similarity between those two so and that's good
for interfaith relationships and breaking down the wall of estrangement between different people now
fundamentalists in the various camps christian fundamentalists hardline muslims and hardline
zionists i'm not going to listen so much to this but perhaps most people will and will come
to a peaceful reproach more reconciliation on the basis of that . until next time