This post from our Resurrection series deals with James, the Brother of Jesus, sometimes called James the Just, which differentiates him from the Apostle James. The Gospels offer us no first hand witness testimony of the appearance of the risen Jesus to his brother, and once again, in part at least, we are reliant on the writings of Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians.
Horsham: 23rd July 2026
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance[a]: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas,[b] and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
James: Opposed to Ministry of Jesus
In Matthew 13, we read that Jesus returned to the village of Nazareth where he had grown up. People in the village knew him. They were offended by the teaching of the man they knew as a carpenter (Matthew 13:53-57). His brothers are named here (and in Mark 6:3) as James, Joseph, Simon and Judas. Both gospels tell us that Jesus also had sisters. We know that there was a moment when the family, presumably including James, tried to take Jesus in hand. Such was the intensity of his teaching and the response of the crowds that they thought Jesus had lost his mind (Mark 3:20-21)
James, along with his brothers, appear to have been seriously unenthusiastic if not firmly opposed to the ministry of Jesus.
James: Leader of the Church in Jerusalem
We hear little more of James, Brother of Jesus, in the Gospels, but when he does appear, his character is transformed. His reappearance is in Acts 12, when after his escape from prison, Peter asks that a message should be sent urgently to him. This is the first indication that James has become a senior member of the Church in Jerusalem. We see him again in Acts 15, and then, some years later, the Apostle Paul visited Jerusalem and met with Peter and James (Acts 21:17-19 and Galatians 1:19). Some early Christian documents suggest that James was the first Bishop of Jerusalem. Whilst subject of uncertainty, it is possible that this is the James who authored the book of James.
The 4th Century author Eusebius reports that James died as a martyr around 62AD, but the nature of his death is not known.
End Piece
It’s easy to see why James and his brothers were troubled by the ministry of Jesus. If they publicly supported him, they risked exclusion of the entire family from the synagogue, and in a village the size of Nazareth, this would mean extreme social isolation. We can understand, then, why they would have tried to suppress Christ’s activities at an early stage.
The James of whom we read in Acts is transformed, to the extent that he has become not only a follower of Jesus, but a senior leader of the Church.
We will never be able to be certain how this transformation came about. However, if we were looking for a reason, might it not be that, as reported by Paul, James, the brother of Jesus, experienced the resurrected Christ.