The Mother Church is Jerusalem not Rome Acts 15

The Mother Church is Jerusalem not Rome Acts 15

In Christianity, a mother church is the church "considered as a mother in its functions of nourishing and protecting the believer"

a mother-church, is sometimes taken for an original church planted immediately by the Apostles, whence others were derived and afterwards spread. And in this sense the Church of Jerusalem is called 'the mother-church of all churches in the world.'"

It was in Jerusalem that the Church was established on the day of Pentecost with the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:1-41) and the Gospel of Christ spread from Jerusalem.

Beginning in Jerusalem, the gospel creates ever-widening circles in the world, just as a stone sends out ripples in a pond.

In the first and second century, Christianity consisted of an unknown number of local Churches that in the initial years looked to Jerusalem as its main centre and point of reference

When disproving that Peter is "the first pope" it is customary to turn to Acts 15, where it is stated that James (the Lord's half-brother) was clearly the chief spokesman for the ecclesia at Jerusalem; not Peter. In ch. 8:14 there is equally indisputable proof in regard to the question. Use of the terms "the apostles" and "they" are clear indicators that Peter possessed no supremacy over his fellow apostles. The decision to send Peter and John to Samaria was the result of a consensus discussion among all the apostles. Had Peter held any special authority over his fellows, he would either have elected to travel himself, or would have ruled as to who should be deputed in his place. No such thing occurred. The situation was similar to that recorded in ch. 6:2, "Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said..." This is now the sixth time that the names of Peter and John are linked together in their work in the Truth. This is the last time that John's name is mentioned in the book of Acts.


Eusebius provides the names of an unbroken succession of thirty-six Bishops of Jerusalem up to the year 324. The first sixteen of these bishops were Jewish—from James the Just to Judas († 135)—and the remainder were Gentiles

Jerusalem was the first center of the church, according to the Book of Acts, and the location of "the first Christian church". The apostles lived and taught there for some time after Pentecost. Jesus' brother James was a leader in the church, and his other kinsman likely held leadership positions in the surrounding area after the destruction of the city
The apostles had a regular meeting place in Jerusalem, an upstairs room where they usually stayed (verse 13: τὸ ὑπερῷον; cf. Acts 9:37,39; 20:8).

The bishop’s seat, the symbol of James’ position as leader, was an object of interest, right up to Eusebius’ day. It is clear that in the first centuries of church history, the Holy See was not in Rome, but in Jerusalem: 

Now the throne of James, who was the first to receive from the Saviour and the apostles the the office of a bishop of the church at Jerusalem, who also, as the divine books show, was called a brother of Christ, has been preserved to this day; and by the honour that the brethren in succession there pay to it, they show clearly to all the reverence in which the holy men were and still are held by the men of old time and those of our day, because of the love shown them by God (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History VII 19

James the Just Was the Real Leader of the Early Church! Acts 15:13

James the Just Was the Real Leader of the Early Church!

Gospel of Thomas Saying (12) The disciples said to Jesus, "We are aware that you will depart from us. Who will be our leader?" Jesus said to him, "No matter where you come it is to James the Just that you shall go, for whose sake heaven and earth have come to exist."

The Gospel of Thomas tells us that after Jesus had departed from the disciples they were to go to James the Just as the new leader of the apostles

So who is James the Just or James the righteous?

James Greek equivalent of Jacob, meaning “One Seizing the Heel; Supplanter

Biography

James was the brother of the Lord (Gal. 1:19). A Son of Joseph and Mary, and half brother of Jesus . (Mark 6:3) He may have been next to Jesus in age, being the first named of Mary’s four natural-born sons: James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. (Mathew 13:55;)

It also appears that the Lord’s brethren, James and Jude were married. Paul speaks of the married brothers of Jesus and the oldest gospel, Mark, mentions James, Joses, Judas and Simon as his brothers and besides sisters (Mark vi. 3).
It appears that during Jesus’ ministry James was well acquainted with his brother’s activity (Lu 8:19; John 2:12), but he was not one of the disciples and followers of Christ. (Mt 12:46-50; John 7:5)

He was probably with his non-believing brothers when they urged Jesus to go up to the Festival of Tabernacles, at a time when the rulers of the Jews were seeking to kill him. (John 7:1-10)

James also may have been numbered among the relatives that said of Jesus: “He has gone out of his mind.”—Mr 3:21.

However, after the death of Jesus James was assembled for prayer together with his mother, brothers, and the apostles in an upper chamber in Jerusalem. (Ac 1:13, 14)

It was evidently to this James that the resurrected Jesus appeared personally, as reported at 1 Corinthians 15:7, so convincing this one time non-believer that He was indeed the Messiah. This reminds us of Jesus’ personal appearance to Paul.—Ac 9:3-5.

The Gospel of the Hebrews confirms the account of Paul in 1 Corinthians regarding the risen Jesus' appearance to James:

'Now the Lord, after he had given his grave clothes to the servant of the priest, appeared to James, for James had sworn that he would not eat bread from that hour in which he had drunk the Lord's cup until he should see him risen from the dead.' And a little further on the Lord says, 'bring a table and bread.' And immediately it is added, 'He took bread and blessed and broke and gave it to James the Just and said to him, "My brother, eat your bread, for the Son of Man is risen from the dead."' And so he ruled the church of Jerusalem thirty years, that is, until the seventh year of Nero

Apostle and Bishop

Thereafter James became a prominent member and, an “apostle” and Bishop of the Jerusalem church.

Thus, at Paul’s first visit with the brothers in Jerusalem (about 36 C.E.), he says he spent 15 days with Peter but “saw no one else of the apostles, only James the brother of the Lord.” (Ga 1:18, 19)

Although not one of the 12 apostles, it is evidently this James who was a bishop of the Christian Church at Jerusalem (Ac 12:17)

Peter, after his miraculous release from prison, instructed the brothers at John Mark’s home, “Report these things to James and the brothers,” thereby indicating James’ superiority. (Ac 12:12, 17)

James is styled the "bishop of bishops, who rules Jerusalem, the Holy Church of the Hebrews, and all the Churches everywhere"

Clement to James, the lord, and the bishop of bishops, who rules Jerusalem, the holy church of the Hebrews, and the churches everywhere excellently rounded by the providence of God, with the elders and deacons, and the rest of the brethren, peace be always. (Epistle of Clement to James)

Fragment X of Papias (writing in the second century) refers to "James the bishop and apostle" (Papias of Hierapolis,. Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord. Fragment X).

According to Eusebius (3rd/4th century) James was named a bishop of Jerusalem by the apostles: "James, the brother of the Lord, to whom the episcopal seat at Jerusalem had been entrusted by the apostles".^[40] Jerome wrote the same: "James... after our Lord's passion... ordained by the apostles bishop of Jerusalem..." and that James "ruled the church of Jerusalem thirty years".^[41]

Leadership role

What about the great church meeting in Acts 15?

About 49 C.E. the issue of circumcision came before “the apostles and the elders” at Jerusalem.

Did Peter stand out as the leader in this great meeting? No, Peter did speak, but if you read the whole of that meeting, you will see that in fact James seemed to be the chief of the elders, as he was the one who gave the final decision on the question of circumcision (see Acts 15:19).

After the apostles, James the brother of the Lord surnamed the Just was made head of the Church at Jerusalem. James "ruled the church of Jerusalem thirty years". This James, whom the people of old called the Just because of his outstanding virtue, was the first, as the record tells us, to be elected to be bishop of the Jerusalem church

These verses also demonstrate the fraudulent impostering of the Roman Catholic Church in its claim that Peter was "the first pope." It is obvious that at this crucial gathering Peter accepted a lesser role than that shown, by common consent, to James. Had Peter been "the first pope" he would unquestionably have presided over such an assembly as this.

Acts 15:13  And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men [and] brethren, hearken unto me:

James" — Not the apostle, who had been killed by Herod (ch. 12:2), but almost certainly the Lord's half-brother (ch. 12:17; Gal. 2:9), who appears to be the chief of the elders at Jerusalem (Gal. 1:19; 2:12), and president of the conference, also thought to be married (ICor. 9:5).

Acts 15:19 Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:

"Wherefore my sentence is" — The word krino, "to judge" (as in the Diag.), or "judgment" (RV). As leader of the Jerusalem Church, James spoke with greater authority than Peter and John (Gal. 2:9).

Acts 21:18 And the [day] following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present.

The Lord's half brother (Acts 12:17), who was considered the leading brother of the Church.

Righteous or Just

Why is James called the righteous or James the Just?

Hegesippus records that James was known as the "Righteous One " who continually prayed in the Temple for the forgiveness of the people

James, the Lord's brother, succeeds to the government of the Church, in conjunction with the apostles. He has been universally called the Just, from the days of the Lord down to the present time. For many bore the name of James; but this one was holy from his mother's womb. He drank no wine or other intoxicating liquor, nor did he eat flesh; no razor came upon his head; he did not anoint himself with oil. He alone was permitted to enter the holy place: for he did not wear any woollen garment, but fine linen only. He alone, I say, was wont to go into the temple: and he used to be found kneeling on his knees, begging forgiveness for the people-so that the skin of his knees became horny like that of a camel's, by reason of his constantly bending the knee in adoration to God, and begging forgiveness for the people. (Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History Book II, 23)

from this it would appear that James was a Nazarite

the Lord's brother, later wrote that "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (ch. 5:16).

Early Christian Tradition 

Gospel of Thomas Saying (12) The disciples said to Jesus, "We are aware that you will depart from us. Who will be our leader?" Jesus said to him, "No matter where you come it is to James the Just that you shall go, for whose sake heaven and earth have come to exist."

This statement [logion 12] . . . is also at odds with the orthodox tradition of the succession of Peter. It represents nothing less than the lost tradition of the direct appointment of James as successor to his brother.

This saying is not in opposition to the Gospel tradition were Jesus grants Peter the "keys of the kingdom" it does not mean the keys of leadership but the key of knowledge  see saying 39 Mathew 16:19 Luke 11:52

Acts 15:13  And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men [and] brethren, hearken unto me:
14  Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.
15  And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written,  

It is obvious that James knew of Peter's special commission the Lord had given him ("I will give unto thee the keys [plural] of the kingdom of heaven," Mat. 16:18-19) gave him irrevocably an exclusive responsibility concerning the unlocking of the divine purpose of salvation. Peter would unlock the door of entrance to the kingdom to both Jew and Gentile; a charge which he had faithfully fulfilled (Acts chapters 2, and 10).

 But further, James not only accepted Peter's words in this matter — which would have been fully supported by the other apostles — but quoted from two Old Testament prophets (Amos 9:11-12; Jer. 12:15) to prove that a commission such as that given to Peter was inevitable, according to the divine foreknowledge.

These verses also demonstrate the fraudulent impostering of the Roman Catholic Church in its claim that Peter was "the first pope." It is obvious that at this crucial gathering Peter accepted a lesser role than that shown, by common consent, to James. Had Peter been "the first pope" he would unquestionably have presided over such an assembly as this.











"Wherefore observe the greatest caution, that you believe no teacher, unless he bring from Jerusalem the testimonial of James the Lord's brother, or of whosoever may come after him.29 For no one, unless he has gone up thither, and there has been approved as a fit and faithful teacher for preaching the word of Christ, -- unless, I say, he brings a testimonial thence, is by any means to be received. (The Recognitions of Clement. Book IV. False Apostles. Chapter XXXV)



The Lord had earlier instructed his disciples to go "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Mat. 10:6; 15:24). James later wrote "to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad" (ch. 1:1).

Desposyni

There is therefore little doubt that these 'Bishops' of Jerusalem were in fact a dynastic bloodline, a dynasty claiming sacred legitimacy because of a blood relationship to Jesus, a relationship which an Apostle like Peter could not claim.

From Pella the Jewish Christians remnant is thought to have moved north-eastward, eventually making their way to the Tigris-Euphrates basin. In this relatively safe area they preserved their traditions for centuries. Eusebius and Epiphanius bear witness to the fact that the Jewish Christians survived and that numbers of Jews joined them. And from the historian Julius Africanus (160-240 CE) we learn that the Jewish Christians heirs took pride in their Davidic descent and circulated the genealogy which now stands at the head of Matthew's gospel.

According to this gospel, and to the Apostle Paul, Jesus was the first born of many brothers, and had at least two sisters. In his Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius of Caesaria (340 CE) speaks of grandchildren of Jesus' brother Jude who were living in Galilee during the reign of the Roman Emperor Domitian (81-96 CE). (Eusebius, History, 1:7.)


According to Eusebius, the descendants of Jesus' family (termed Desposyni) became dynastic leaders of various Christian Churches, and continued so up until the time of the Emperor Trajan (98-117 CE).

Jewish Christians communities were apparently still active in north and east Palestine right up until the fifth century, the name of Jesus being used by both Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians in the interest of policy.

Further and further magnified by the Roman Christians, however, Jesus became progressively more symbolic and representative of ecclesiastical concerns. In Nazoraean eyes Jesus continued to be a naturally generated man.

According to the Jesuit historian Malachi Martin, a meeting took place in Rome between Pope Sylvester 1 and what is termed in Greek desposyni - the blood relatives of Jesus - in 318 CE. (Martin, Malachi, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Church, G P Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1981, p. 43). Eight in number, these Desposyni leaders (otherwise known as ‘Nazoraeans’ or 'Nazarenes') made the following demands: (1) that the confirmation of the Christian bishops of Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus and Alexandria be revoked; (2) that these bishoprics be conferred on members of the Desposyni; and (3) that Christian Churches resume sending money to the Desposyni Church in Jerusalem, which was to be regarded as the Mother Church. Having provided sea travel for these Nazoraean leaders as far as the Roman port of Ostia, Sylvester must surely have recognised them as important, but such a barefaced claim to superiority over the Roman Church by these relatives of Jesus must have come as something of a surprise.

What is important here is the fact that Sylvester felt it necessary to consult with these Nazoraean heirs of Jesus. Everything suggests that it was he who initiated the meeting, and that what he thought of as a straightforward exercise in pontifical authority sorely backfired. This suggests, in turn, a certain naivety on Sylvester's part, for from the nature of the demands made it can be deduced that his estimation of the Nazoraean Community was sadly inadequate. Facing up to Sylvester, these church leaders from the East bluntly refused to recognise the Roman Church as the central authority for the whole Christian world. Due to Constantine’s largesse, the Roman Church was certainly in a priviledged position, but as far as these Nazoraeans were concerned, that in no way changed the underlying fact that the Nazoraean Church was the Mother Church. (Ode 38:9-13)

The Apostolic Church of the Nazoraeans was virtually ignored by the early Greek-oriented Church at Rome. Dismissed in 318 with regal curtness, the representatives of this Church were informed that the centre of influence had long since shifted to Rome, that St Peter's bones were not in Jerusalem, but in Rome, and that the admittedly once powerful family dynasty of Jesus was no longer considered apostolically important.

Quite a slap in the face to those of Jesus' own family who, since the time of James the Righteous, had faithfully carried their message of Jesus as God's chosen Messiah to anyone who would listen. And this was the point, their Jesus was not Pope Sylvester's Jesus, or the Jesus of the Nicean Council which would meet with such dire consequences seven years later. Their Jesus was not divine in his own right, he was divine by way of being anointed by God’s Spirit to be the Christ, a quite different proposition from that developed by the Roman Christians.

Jewish Bishops of Jerusalem

Hebrew Bishops of Jerusalem

In first century Jerusalem, Jesus of Nazareth was crucified as a heretic.

He had no wife and no children, but he did leave behind a family – one that can be traced for more than a century after his death.

It is very well known that the very first Bishop (Episkopos, Greek for ‘overseer’) of the Church in Jerusalem, in charge of the ‘administration’ of the believers in that city was James the Just or James the righteous , the brother of the Lord Jesus, of course.


“James, of course, did not believe his brother during his lifetime, but believed -- after the resurrection, Jesus appears to him, that’s the end of any doubts, he becomes a leader in the church, and writes one of the books in the New Testament.”

James was a devout man who was well known in the Jewish temple.

“James was the head of the first Christian community in Jerusalem, and so he was the first Christian bishop.

“According to a Christian chronicler of the early Church, James was cast from the pinnacle of the Temple in c.A.D. 66, and when the fall did not kill him, he was stoned to death”


This is confirmed in The (Second) Apocalypse of James form the from The Nag Hammadi Library


On that day all the people and the crowd were disturbed, and they showed that they had not been persuaded. And he arose and went forth speaking in this manner. And he entered (again) on that same day and spoke a few hours. And I was with the priests and revealed nothing of the relationship, since all of them were saying with one voice, 'Come, let us stone the Just One.' And they arose, saying, 'Yes, let us kill this man, that he may be taken from our midst. For he will be of no use to us.'

And they were there and found him standing beside the columns of the temple beside the mighty corner stone. And they decided to throw him down from the height, and they cast him down.

They seized him and struck him as they dragged him upon the ground. They stretched him out and placed a stone on his abdomen. They all placed their feet on him, saying 'You have erred!'

Again they raised him up, since he was alive, and made him dig a hole. They made him stand in it. After having covered him up to his abdomen, they stoned him in this manner.

When James died, he left the church in Jerusalem without a leader. The local believers got together to elect a new bishop and once again, they decided to keep it in the family.

“The second bishop of the church was Simeon of Jerusalem,, who also was Jesus' brother. In Matthew 13:55, people ask concerning Jesus, "Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joseph, and Simon, and Judas?" while in Mark 6:3 they ask, "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joseph, Judas and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us?"

Simeon became the bishop of Jerusalem at a dangerous time. In A.D. 66, the Jewish War with Rome had just begun, and the city was under siege, just as Jesus had prophesied three decades earlier:

"When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you will know that the time of its destruction has arrived. Then those in Judea must flee to the hills. Let those in Jerusalem escape." (Luke 21:20-21)

Simeon remembered the words of his brother and waited for the right moment to leave the city.

In November, the Roman army unexpectedly retreated from Jerusalem for a few weeks, a military blunder.” But to Simeon, this so-called “blunder” was a miracle. He persuaded his congregation to flee Jerusalem, and they escaped with just the clothes on their backs. Simeon led them to safety in a gentile city called Pella in the hills of modern-day Jordan.


Simeon and his congregation spent the next four years safely in Pella, while back in Jerusalem, the Romans murdered more than a million Jews and took another 97 thousand as slaves.

When the war was over, many of the believers returned to Jerusalem and settled on Mount Zion, near the upper room where they had first received the Holy Spirit and where Jesus had celebrated the Last Supper with his disciples. They built a new Judeo-Christian synagogue on the site where the upper room had once stood.

Simeon served as the bishop of Jerusalem until A.D. 106, when he was arrested and tortured by the Romans. Then, like his brother, Simeon was crucified. He was 120 years old.

According to the early Church historian, Eusebius, himself a Gentile Bishop of a Church in the Holy Land, from 314 to c..338, he provides a surprisingly long list of 13 successive Bishops of Jerusalem between the death of Simeon in 107 A.D. and the second Roman destruction of the Holy City at the end of the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 A.D. and, interestingly, remarks that “they were all Jewish-Christians. But from Mark of Caesarea (135-136) on, all the Bishops of the rebuilt city (Aelia Capitolina) were of non-Jewish origin.”

It is certainly less well known, or better still, hardly known at all that the next thirteen Bishops of Jerusalem, right up to 135 A.D. were also Jews, or as we may prefer to call them in Jewish Christians.

For the next few decades, members of Jesus' family continued to lead the church in Jerusalem.

Nothing is known of them, except their names, which were preserved in early church records.The last known relative of Jesus was Judah Kyriakos, a Greek name that means "Judah of the Christ."

He was the great grandson of Jesus' brother Jude, and the last Jewish bishop of Jerusalem.In A.D. 135, the Roman emperor Hadrian leveled the city of Jerusalem. On its ruins, he built a new city dedicated to the Roman god Jupiter. The records of Jesus' family disappeared, along with the old city of Jerusalem.


The legacy of Jesus' family lives on today.


Two of his brothers wrote books of the Bible, and at least five of his relatives were martyred. They served as the first Christian bishops in history and kept the early church alive in Jerusalem. From there, the message of Jesus- their brother spread to the ends of the earth.