The Jesus Passages in Josephus – a Case Study, part 3h – ”The brother of Jesus, who was called Christ”: Origen’s knowledge; Church Father Eusebius, Hegesippus

Part 1
Part 2a Part 2b Part 2c Part 2d
Part 2e Part 2f Part 2g Part 2h
Part 2i Part 2j Part 2k Part 2l
Part 2m Part 2n Part 2o Part 2p
Part 2q Part 2r Part 2s Part 2t
Part 3a Part 3b Part 3c Part 3d
Part 3e Part 3f Part 3g Part 3h
Part 3i Part 3j
Part 4

This is part 3h of the translation of my treatise Jesuspassagerna hos Josefus – en fallstudie into English.

Den svenska texten.

III. The brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James

Origen’s knowledge of another James passage

Church Father Eusebius


Anyhow, Hegesippus and Josephus were occasionally confused, which incidentally also is the case in Pseudo-Hegesippus’ work which actually was named Iosippus because it was a Latin paraphrase of Josephus’ Jewish War (see Pseudo-Hegesippus). No matter from where Origen got the information, Eusebius in turn read Origen and without doubt found the paragraph there with the information that it came from Josephus. If the passage had occurred also in Eusebius’ manuscript of the Antiquities of the Jews, it should have survived to our time. He reasonably reproduced the passage without saying where it was found, since Origen did not convey that information. Jerome got the same piece of information from either Origen or Eusebius; both of whom he were familiar with. If that information was in the Josephan manuscript which Origen had access to, it could have been inserted there as early as the second century, because the idea that Jesus had biological brothers, in time became increasingly unpopular when the focus shifted to the Immaculate Conception.

According to the above quotation from Eusebius, the church father Hegesippus about the year 170 CE described, James’ death as follows: James was thrown down from the pinnacle of the temple and was then stoned, but survived both events; then a fuller, i.e. one who beat out clothes, beat him to death with a club. Hegesippus writes “that the more sensible even of the Jews were of the opinion that this was the cause of the siege of Jerusalem”. Also Clement of Alexandria, who moreover was Origen’s teacher, was of the opinion that James’ had died this way.[231]

There are accordingly two possible sources for Origen’s statement that the execution of James led to the destruction of Jerusalem, either Josephus or a Christian writer, then most likely Hegesippus. If Origen as he says got his information from Josephus, it was surely a passage which was not written by Josephus – since Josephus could not have said that the Jews were punished by having Jerusalem destroyed because of the execution of this James; and since the text then reasonably also would have survived. The Christians would not have allowed such a passage to get lost if it had been in all the manuscripts. If on the other hand Origen’s memory was at fault and he mistook for example Hegesippus for Josephus, it means that he did not testify that Josephus wrote anything about Jesus and James. Instead, Origen’s statement that Josephus had written the passage came to influence others, such as Eusebius, into believing this. Since the phrase “the brother of Jesus who was called Christ” is identical with the present James passage, Origen’s “mistake” should in such case be the source of also this interpolation.

It is difficult to decide what is the most likely scenario, but since Origen seems to know exactly in what book Josephus writes about John, he also should have known that the things he wrote about James occurred in Josephus (see: Did not accept Jesus as the Messiah).

Roger Viklund, 2011-04-08

[231] Eusebius writes:

“But Clement in the sixth book of his Hypotyposes writes thus: ‘For they say that Peter and James and John after the ascension of our Saviour, as if also preferred by our Lord, strove not after honor, but chose James the Just bishop of Jerusalem.’ But the same writer, in the seventh book of the same work, relates also the following things concerning him: ”The Lord after his resurrection imparted knowledge to James the Just and to John and Peter, and they imparted it to the rest of the apostles, and the rest of the apostles to the seventy, of whom Barnabas was one. But there were two Jameses: one called the Just, who was thrown from the pinnacle of the temple and was beaten to death with a club by a fuller, and another who was beheaded.” Paul also makes mention of the same James the Just, where he writes, ‘Other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother.’” (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2:1:2–4)





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