Event · AD 62 · Jerusalem — the Temple precinct

James the Just stoned, AD 62

Ananus has James the Just stoned in the interregnum

**The best externally attested death in the archive after the crucifixion**, and the clearest case of two independent traditions describing one event differently.

The opportunity was a vacancy. Festus had died in office and his successor Albinus had not yet arrived, and in that interval the high priest **Ananus II** convened the sanhedrin. Josephus says he was “a bold man in his temper, and very insolent” and of the sect of the Sadducees, “very rigid in judging offenders” — and that the more equitable citizens were so offended by the illegality of assembling a council without the procurator’s consent that they complained to Albinus, **and Ananus was deposed after three months**.

## Two accounts, and they do not describe the same death

**Josephus, *Antiquities* XX.200** — the shorter and the more important for the archive's purposes. James is identified as “the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ”, brought before the sanhedrin, accused as a breaker of the law, and **stoned**. This notice is accepted as authentic by nearly all scholars, including those who reject the *Testimonium* at XVIII.63 entirely: it is incidental, it identifies Jesus in order to identify James rather than the reverse, and “who was called Christ” is the phrasing of a man who does not accept the title.

**Hegesippus, preserved by Eusebius** — far longer and quite different. James is **thrown from the pinnacle of the temple**, survives the fall, prays for his attackers on his knees, is stoned, and is finally killed by a fuller with the club he used for beating cloth. Eusebius also preserves Hegesippus's account of James's reputation — called **“the Just”** by all, holy from his mother's womb, in the temple so often on his knees that they were **“like those of a camel”**.

**The archive gives both and does not reconcile them.** Stoning is common to both. The pinnacle, the survived fall and the fuller's club are Hegesippus's alone; the procuratorial vacancy and the deposition of Ananus are Josephus's alone. A single blended narrative would be more readable and less true.

## What follows from it

James's death creates the succession the archive holds next: after it, according to Hegesippus, those related to the Lord according to the flesh came together and chose **Symeon son of Clopas** for the see of Jerusalem.

The sources for this event

Every source the record rests on, with what it says and what it cannot carry.

Josephus, Antiquities XX.200

c. AD 94

Antiquities XX.ix.1

[Festus being dead and Albinus not yet arrived, the high priest Ananus — “a bold man in his temper, and very insolent”, of the sect of the Sadducees, “very rigid in judging offenders” — assembled the sanhedrin and brought before it **“the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James”**, with certain others, accused them as breakers of the law, and delivered them to be **stoned**. The more equitable citizens objected that a council could not lawfully be convened without the procurator’s consent, and complained to Albinus; **Ananus was deposed after three months.** — This notice is accepted as authentic by nearly all scholars, including those who reject the Testimonium entirely: it is incidental, it identifies Jesus in order to identify James rather than the reverse, and the wording is that of a man who does not accept the title.]

Josephus, *Antiquities of the Jews* — held in this library. English: William Whiston (1737), public domain.

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Hegesippus, via Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History II.23

c. AD 180

Ecclesiastical History II.23

[Hegesippus, writing in the later second century and preserved by Eusebius, gives a much fuller and materially different account. James is called **“the Just”** by all, holy from his mother’s womb, and so constantly in the temple upon his knees that they grew hard **“like those of a camel”**. He is set on the pinnacle of the temple and asked to deny Christ before the people; he confesses him instead, and is **thrown down**. **He survives the fall**, and is stoned while praying on his knees for his attackers — until a fuller strikes him on the head with the club with which he beat out cloth. **The archive prints both accounts and reconciles neither.** Stoning is common to both; the pinnacle, the survived fall and the fuller’s club are Hegesippus’s alone, and the procuratorial vacancy and Ananus’s deposition are Josephus’s alone.]

Eusebius of Caesarea, *Ecclesiastical History* — held in this library. English: A. C. McGiffert, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 2nd series 1 (1890), public domain.

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Figures in this event (6)

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