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| The Martyrdom of James the Apostle.
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Chapter
IX.—The Martyrdom of James the
Apostle.
1. “330
Now about that
time” (it is clear that he means the time of Claudius)
“Herod the King331
stretched forth
his hands to vex certain of the Church. And he killed James the brother
of John with the sword.”
2. And concerning this James,
Clement, in the seventh book of his Hypotyposes,332
| 332 On
Clement’s Hypotyposes, see below, Bk. VI. chap. 13, note
3. This fragment is preserved by Eusebius alone. The account was
probably received by Clement from oral tradition. He had a great store
of such traditions of the apostles and their immediate
followers,—in how far true or false it is impossible to say;
compare the story which he tells of John, quoted by Eusebius, Bk. III.
chap. 23, below. This story of James is not intrinsically improbable.
It may have been true, though external testimony for it is, of course,
weak. The Latin legends concerning James’ later labors in Spain
and his burial in Compostella are entirely worthless. Epiphanius
reports that he was unmarried, and lived the life of a Nazarite; but he
gives no authority for his statement and it is not improbable that the
report originated through a confusion of this James with James the
Just. | relates a story which is worthy of mention;
telling it as he received it from those who had lived before him. He
says that the one who led James to the judgment-seat, when he saw him
bearing his testimony, was moved, and confessed that he was himself
also a Christian.
3. They were both therefore, he
says, led away together; and on the way he begged James to forgive him.
And he, after considering a little, said, “Peace be with
thee,” and kissed him. And thus they were both beheaded at the
same time.
4. And then, as the divine
Scripture says,333
Herod, upon the
death of James, seeing that the deed pleased the Jews, attacked Peter
also and committed him to prison, and would have slain him if he had
not, by the divine appearance of an angel who came to him by night,
been wonderfully released from his bonds, and thus liberated for the
service of the Gospel. Such was the providence of God in respect to
Peter.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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