James is Described as
a Vegan in Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History.
James in "The Ascents
of James" condemned Paul as an Apostate.
Jesus Prophesied that
His Message would be Perverted.
Paul Perverted Jesus'
Teachings.
James in "The Ascents
of James" condemned Paul as an Apostate.
James Associated with
a Rechabite,
Who were similar in some
ways to Eastern Renunciates,
Paul as Antichrist.
James is Described as a Vegan in Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History.
James, the brother of Jesus, is described as one eating no animal food, and is specifically named as one of the apostles who were heirs to Jesus' authority in directing the early spiritual community in Jerusalem after the death of Jesus in Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, an official history of the Catholic Church from the time of Jesus to Constantine.
"Control of the Church passed to the apostles, together with the Lord's brother James, whom everyone from the Lord's time till our own has called the Righteous, for there were many Jameses, but this one was holy from his birth; he drank no wine or intoxicating liquor and ate no animal food (emphasis mine); no razor came near his head; he did not smear himself with oil, and took no [public] baths. He alone was permitted to enter the Holy Place, for his garments were not of wool, but of linen. He used to enter the Sanctuary alone....Because of his unsurpassable righteousness he was called the Righteous...Bulwark of the People." Pp. 99-100. Ecclesiastical History II. xxiii, Eusebius. Translated by G.A. Williamson. Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1953.
Eating "no animal
food" to us indicates not just a vegetarian diet, but a vegan diet, to
which a number of Buddhists as well as Hindus adhere. Like contemporary
advocates of animals' rights, James wore linen, not leather or furs.
And later in Christian history the Albigensians, declared heretics by the
Roman Catholic Church in the thirteenth century, accepted James and Jesus
and their intimates as vegans, and themselves ate no flesh, eggs, or dairy
products.
Peter in the Pseudoclementine
Homilies says
James is the Arbiter
of Jesus Teachings.
Jesus Prophesied that
His Message would be Perverted.
Paul Perverted Jesus'
Teachings.
According to Peter in the Pseudoclementine Homilies, Jesus prophesied the coming of the false prophet. Peter obviously sees that person as Paul. In the Pseudoclementine Homilies Peter's message at Tripoli defers to the authority of James, an authority given to him by Jesus, to arbitrate the correctness of those spreading the messages of Jesus.
Here Peter is warning that Jesus prophesied that his message would be perverted. How does Peter say the early followers of Jesus are to be guarded against such perversion? To Peter, the hand-picked intimate disciple whom Jesus said was to be the rock, as well as to the early community of Jesus' followers, the answer was clear: by following the teachings of James, the brother of Jesus.
"Our Lord and Prophet,
who has sent us, declared to us that the Evil One, having disputed with
him forty days, but failing to prevail against him, promised He would send
Apostles from among his subjects to deceive them. Therefore, above
all, remember to shun any Apostle, teacher, or prophet who does not accurately
compare his teaching with [that of] James...the brother of my Lord...and
this, even if he comes to you with recommendations." Pseudoclementine
Homilies, 11. 35
Jesus states that James
is the heir to his authority in
The Nag Hammadi "Gospel
of Thomas."
The Nag Hammadi
"Gospel of Thomas" also portrays Jesus naming vegan James as the arbitrator
of controversy after he is gone. Jesus regards James as a genuine
representative of divine values. "The Disciples said to Jesus: `We
know that you will depart from us. Who is it that shall be great over us
[meaning after he is gone]?' Jesus replied to them: `In the place where
you are to go [presumably Jerusalem], go to James the Just, for whose sake
Heaven and Earth came into existence.'" Nag Hammadi "Gospel of Thomas,"
Logion 12.
Paul in "Galatians" acknowledges James as head of the Church.
When Paul says
that he is going to see the saints in Jerusalem, and he describes his meeting
with James, the brother of the Lord, in "Galatians," he obliquely acknowledges
that a vegetarian is the head of the spiritual community there. James
is not named as a vegetarian by the NT writers, because that would undermine
or defeat their purpose in portraying a Jesus who for the most part names
all foods clean and therefore condones the meat industry. James,
however, is blatantly documented as a vegetarian by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical
History quoted above. In his epistles Paul's ongoing arguments with
the hand-picked apostles and disciples of Jesus reveals the early battle
between the poor, the Ebionites, who were also the pure, who promoted vegetarianism
and egalitarianism, and the Pauline elitists, those favoring Roman or orthodox
Jewish ways, sexism, slavery, and hierarchical class structures.
James in "The Ascents of James" condemned Paul as an Apostate.
Epiphanius says of the "Ascents of Jacob" (James), a work in which the brother of Jesus argues on the Temple steps against the Jewish hierarchy defending animal sacrifices: "For they set forth certain Ascents and Instructions forsooth in the "Ascents of Jacob," representing him as holding forth against both Temple and sacrifices, and against the fire on the altar...so that they are not ashamed in them even to denounce Paul..." Panarion, xxx. 16.
Jesus' hand-picked disciples saw Paul as an enemy of the truth, an apostate, who, like the false prophets of Judaism earlier and the false scribes of Islam later, turned from the true Way of vegetarianism and egalitarianism and instead created a carnivorous and elitist cult, which the Essenes, Ebionites, and Nazarenes regarded as demonic.
A number
of scholars have seen Paul variously as the antichrist himself and an agent
of Rome. Robert Eisenman in his monumental work James the Brother of
Jesus argues quite convincingly that in the Dead Sea Scrolls the Habakkuk
Commentary's "spouter of lies" and "wicked priest" is Paul. Baigent
and Leigh in their Deception and the Dead Sea Scrolls state that
Paul was a double agent, pretending conversion, yet working for Rome, and
it is hard not to draw these conclusions when one understands that Paul
affirms carnivorism, slavery, sexism, social elitism, and bigotry against
homosexuals. These vices are not at all in line with the Essenes'
and with Jesus' teachings in the Ebionite Gospel of the Nazarenes,
or, for that matter, with statements by Jesus in the New Testament
itself.
Paul's attitude towards
Money, Mammon, is radically different
From that of Jesus and
his original followers.
Jesus said "You cannot
serve both God and Mammon."
Paul boasts about paying
his way.
Jesus and his earliest
followers made a point not to be concerned about their needs,
because they were taken
care of by Deity.
For Paul,
the Romans are a deus ex machina, a force which comes to Paul's rescue
when he is threatened by others desiring to kill him. Paul's house
arrest in Rome reminds one of Mafia dons living in luxury prison apartments
in our own time. Paul states that he paid for his apartment out of
his own money, thereby asserting through his own words that he was nothing
like the Ebionites (the word is derived from ebionim, Hebrew for the poor),
who owned virtually nothing and shared everything communally.
James Associated with
a Rechabite,
Rechabites were similar
in some ways to Eastern Renunciates,
such as Brahmin, Jain,
and Buddhist Monks.
In his Ecclesiastical History Eusebius reports that it was a Rechabite friend who pleaded with those beating James to stop beating him, the brother of Jesus, to stop, thereby documenting the on-going connection between the earliest followers of Jesus and the vegetarian Rechabites. Rechabites lived only in tents or temporary dwellings and refused to invade the earth and disturb, oppress or destroy creatures living there. They did not drink wine, did not dig into the ground, and did not generally stay in city dwellings. Though some Rechabites worked when necessary, they were similar to the renunciates of India, and no doubt lived in or periodically withdrew into the wilderness to fast and pray and regain spiritual energy.
The Rechabites may be likened to Esdras who, at the command of the angel Uriel, goes to live in a field of vegetation and flowers, where no human habitat has been built, so that the land has no experience of human exploitation such as digging into the earth, the home of other creatures.
The works of Robert Eisenman and Matthew Black and others document the wilderness communities of the earliest, pre-Pauline Christians.
Paul as Apostate and Antichrist
A number of scholars have seen Paul variously as the antichrist himself
and an agent of Rome. Robert Eisenman in his monumental work documenting
the Pauline distortion of Ebionite Christianity, James the Brother of Jesus,
argues quite convincingly that in the Dead Sea Scrolls the Habakkuk Commentary's
"spouter of lies" and "wicked priest" is Paul. Baigent and Leigh
in their Deception and the Dead Sea Scrolls state that Paul was a double
agent, pretending conversion, yet working for Rome, and it is hard not
to draw these conclusions when one compares Paul's affirmation of carnivorism,
slavery, sexism, social elitism, and bigotry against homosexuals with the
Essenes' and with Jesus' denunciation of these institutions in the Ebionite
Gospel of the Nazarenes.