Hegesippus

And he worked with his hands.

Hegesippus was a Christian writer in the 100s AD.

And Eusebius in the 300s tells a story from Hegesippus that the sons of Jude, one of the brothers of the Lord, the sons of Jude were taken before the Roman emperor Domitian.

The alarming report was that these were the descendants of David and the kindred of Christ and threatened the empire.

And the story says that when Domitian saw their hands, rough, working men's hands, he and the court scornfully and sarcastically dismissed them.

So he makes that mistake a lot or enough to be concerned about.

And because the story he describes is not the story we have from Josephus, it's the story we have from Hegesippus, it seems that Origen also himself did not actually find this in Josephus.

He found it in Hegesippus and mistook the author.

And that's created the sort of assumption ever since.

And even Eusebius says he couldn't find the thing that Origen was referring to, but he found this thing and he quotes Josephus.

According to the generally accepted chronology, the prophetic message of John the Revelator to the churches of Asia was given in the last years of the first century.

among the historians of that period whose writings are not regarded as canonical or scriptural but which are nevertheless accepted as genuine and reliable was hegesippus who flourished nearest the days of the apostles writing of the conditions marking the close of the first century and the beginning of the second asubius cites the testimony of the earlier writer as follows the same author hegesippus relating the events of the times also says that the church continued until then as a pure and uncorrupt virgin whilst if there were any at all that attempted to pervert the sound of doctrine of the saving gospel they were yet skulking in dark retreats but when the sacred choir of apostles became extinct and the generation of those that had been privileged to hear their inspired wisdom had passed away then also the combinations of impious error arose by the fraud and delusions of false teachers These also, as there were none of the apostles left, henceforth attempted, without shame, to preach their false doctrine against the gospel of truth, such as the statement of Hegesippus.

there can be little doubt that the false teachers referred to in the testimony last cited were professed adherents of the church and not outside opponents inasmuch as they were restrained by the influence and authority of the apostles and waited the passing of the authorized leaders as an opportunity to corrupt the church by evil teachings a later writer commenting on the schisms and dissensions by which the church was rent in the later part of the first century the period immediately following that of the apostolic ministry says it will easily be imagined that unity and peace could not reign long in the church since it was composed of jews and gentiles who regarded each other with the bitterest aversion Besides, as the converts to Christianity could not extirpate radically the prejudices which had been formed in their minds by education, and confirmed by time, they brought with them into the bosom of the Church more or less of the errors of their former religions.

Thus the seed of discord and controversy were easily sown, and could not fail to spring up soon into animosities and dissensions, which accordingly broke out and divided the Church.

So Jesus refers to the Son of Man in the third person often.

We're going to get to James, but when James is questioned, according to our only source, Hegesippus, who's preserved, he's an early Christian, Jewish Christian believer, but I think he lived in the Levant, in the Holy Land area.

So I think he's close to some of the early sources.

And he says that James was asked by the high priest Annas, What about your brother? Do you believe in him or not? Is he the way of salvation or not? But he answers very interestingly, the same answer Jesus gave when he was questioned by the priest Caiaphas in the New Testament, the Jewish priest, high priest.