John I (bishop of Jerusalem) John I (bishop of Jerusalem) John I of Jerusalem was the seventh Bishop of Jerusalem. He was, according to Eusebius, a Jewish Christian born to Jewish parents who kept the Law of the Torah. According to universal tradition, John I replaced the first bishop of Jerusalem Saint James the Just, the ""brother of the Lord,"" who was appointed bishop by the Apostles Peter, St. James (whom Eusebius identifies as James, son of Zebedee) and John. John was well versed in the Law of Moses and as a young man disputed with Christians until he converted with the instruction of St.
Apostles Revelation to John. By the 2nd century AD, association with the apostles was esteemed as an evidence of authority. Churches which are believed to have been founded by one of the apostles are known as apostolic sees. Paul's epistles were accepted as scripture, and two of the four canonical gospels were associated with apostles, as were other New Testament works. Various Christian texts, such as the "Didache" and the "Apostolic Constitutions", were attributed to the apostles. Bishops traced their lines of succession back to individual apostles, who were said to have dispersed from Jerusalem and established churches across great territories.