Chizuk Emunah (Pt 2) Under the Microscope: Chapter 88

Galatians 1:18, "Then, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days. But other of the Apostles saw I none, save James, the Lord's brother." Paul represents here, James, the brother of Jesus, as an apostle of Jesus, and he contradicts thereby the statement made by John, chapter 7:5, "For neither did his [viz., Jesus'] brethren believe in Him." We have enlarged on these contradictions in our discussions on Luke 2 and Mark 3.

Galatians 1 and 2 are essential reading for any Christian apologist. Galatians is considered by secular scholarship to be one of Paul's earliest letter, dated in the 40's. In this letter, Paul describes his conversion experience. He says, "I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers."

So that is a quote from a book in the undisputed Pauline corpus, one of the 7 books which even the Mordechai Kaplans of New Testament scholarship believe was genuinely written by Paul. If Paul was not advancing in Judaism and if he was not a persecutor of the church, he would have known it. Therefore, skeptics of Paul are left either having to accept that Paul was a persecutor of the church who then converted or they have to bite the bullet and call Paul a liar.

Laymen often misinterpret Paul's quote that he got his gospel from no one but learned it directly from God. This is not to say that Paul learned nothing about the life of Jesus or the movement which followed him from the followers of Jesus. Paul's mission in persecuting the church would have put him in contact with many members of the early church, and Paul would have needed to understand what the early followers of Jesus believed in order to find out who they were.

Instead, Paul's claim that he received his gospel from no man is better interpreted that God taught him the deeper theological implications of what it means that Jesus died, was buried, and was raised. It means that the execution of Jesus as a criminal was not proof of his failure as Messiah. It means that his death was part of God's eternal plan. It means that God eternally elects and predestines events and people from before the foundation of the world. This is what Paul learned from no man.

Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord's brother. (Galatians 1:18-19)

After three years of isolation, Paul visited Jerusalem with Peter and James. Then fourteen years later, this happens:

When James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. (Galatians 2:9)

In both cases, the closest followers of Jesus welcome Paul and accept him. This is not something that the closest followers of Jesus would do if Paul was preaching anything contrary to what Jesus taught. Again, Paul would have known it if this was not the case. Paul could not have been honestly mistaken about this situation. Again, I say to the anti-missionaries, either accept this as historical fact, or call Paul a liar.

And if Paul is a liar, then what about this passage, also from the undisputed Pauline corpus:

Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. (2 Corinthians 11:24-27)

Who would undergo this kind of hardship for something he knew firsthand to be a lie? Paul was not gaining any personal benefit from this, and would be insane to continue this kind of painful mission for decades if he was lying.

But back to the question at hand: is it a contradiction to say that James the brother of Jesus was not a follower, but in Paul's time, was a follower. Not at all. Remember the appearances in 1 Corinthians 15:

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received:
that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
that he was buried,
that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
and that he appeared to Cephas,
then to the twelve.
Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time,
most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
Then he appeared to James,
then to all the apostles.
Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. (1 Corinthians 15:3-8)

So we have our answer here. Jesus appeared to his brother as the risen Lord. Just as Paul went from being an enemy and a skeptic, James, too, went from being an unbeliever to someone who worshiped his own brother as God in the flesh.

What kind of evidence would it take for you to believe that your own brother is God in the flesh? That is the kind of evidence that James experienced.