Fact #6. James, the brother of Jesus, a skeptic of Christ, had an experience that radically changed him from a non-believer into a devout follower of Christ.

The New Testament narratives in all four Gospels indicate that Jesus had brothers and sisters. Their names were James, Joseph, Judas (Jude) and Simon along with His sisters who were not identified by name. – Matthew 13:55,56. The New Testament also makes it clear that Jesus was not a son of Joseph by birth but that He was the Son of God through the virgin birth and the miracle process described in Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38; John 1:1,2,14. His mother by birth was Mary who was at the time a virgin. The siblings of Jesus would have been His half brothers and sisters. -Matthew 12:46-50; Mark 3:31-35; Luke 8:19-21; John 2:12; 7:3,5,10; Acts 1:13,14, I Corinthians 9:5; Galatians 1:19.The second fact that the Gospels state is that Jesus’ brothers did not believe in Him. – “For even His brothers did not believe in Him”.- John 7:5. There are other passages that indicate that His brothers thought that Jesus might be crazy or not of a sound mind. – Mark 3;21,31-35;6:3,4.James and his brothers were not believers in Jesus even up to the time of the crucifixion events; however, in Acts 1:13,14, they are included in the listing of believers in Jesus who were in the upper room just prior to Pentecost and the apostle Paul refers to them as Christian leaders in I Corinthians 9:5.This would indicate that a changing event took place in their lives and as result they became believers in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The most likely occurrence would have been the resurrection. In the case of James, there is very good evidence that indicates that he became a strong leader in the church at Jerusalem. Paul refers to James as the Lord’s brother and lists him with the apostles – Galatians 1:19. In Acts 15:12-21 at the very important first church council in Jerusalem, he was an obvious leader. Acts 12:17; 15:13; 21:18. In Galatians 2:9 Paul refers to James, Peter and John as “pillars” in the church. The fact that James was a man of strong faith in Jesus Christ is clearly taught in the New Testament. What caused this change from a non-believer to a strong believer? – The resurrection. Paul states that James had an appearance with the resurrected Jesus Christ. – I Corinthians 15:7 and as a result he became a believer in Jesus. There is also good evidence that Jude the brother of Jesus was a leader in the early church. The book of Jude was probably written by Jesus’ other brother, Jude. The appearance to a known non-believer and the resulting conversion to a believer is excellent evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. James was not “pre- inclined” to believe or pre-disposed to accept the claims of Christ and yet he is an instrumental part of the early church. He ultimately dies as a martyr for his confession of faith in Christ. The fact that James was the brother of Jesus and that he died as a martyr for Christ is mentioned by the Jewish historian Josephus and by two early church fathers – Clement of Alexander and Hegesippus. These two writings have been lost but they were preserved by the 3rd century church historian, Eusebius.

Hegesippus stated regarding James – “James, the brother of the Lord, succeeded to the government of the Church in conjunction with the apostles. He has been called the Just by all from the time of our Savior to the present day; for there were many that bore the name of James. He was holy from his mother’s womb; and he drank no wine or strong drink, nor did he eat flesh. No razor came upon his head; nor did he anoint himself with oil, and he did not use the (public) bath. He alone was permitted to enter into the holy place; for he wore not woolen but linen garments. And he was in the habit of entering alone into the temple and was frequently found upon his knees begging forgiveness for the people, so that his knees became hard like a camel, in consequence of his constantly bending them in his worship of God and asking forgiveness for the people. Because of his exceeding great justice he was called the just…” 15The Jewish historian Josephus says regarding James at his trial before Ananus the high priest – “… so he (Ananus) assembled a council of judges, and brought before it the brother of Jesus, the so-called Christ, whose name was James, together with some others and having accused them as lawbreakers, he delivered them to be stoned.” 16These passages indicate that James was a very pious and sincere Jew who became a believer in Jesus Christ and the result of his faith was ultimately his death by stoning. This presents us with strong evidence of a skeptical individual having an experience based on a personal eyewitness observation of the resurrected Jesus and as a result, converting to faith in Christ and finally giving his life for his confession of faith.  rn