Nearly all our information concerning this worthy is derived from
Eusebius. He was born in Palestine of Jewish parents, and wrote five
books of memoirs or commentaries no longer extant.
As he therein mentions Pope Eleutherius they must have been written
after B.C. 177. The date 185 is a probable one. The work of Hegesippus
appears to have been the earliest attempt to give a history of
early Christianity, and as it is evident he represented the Jewish
anti-Pauline school, which eventually was swamped by the Gentile
element, the loss or destruction of his writings is much to be
regretted. Such fragments as Eusebius has thought proper to preserve
certainly makes one curious for more. The longest fragment concerns no
less a person than the brother of the incarnate God. Eusebius gives it
in the second book of his "Ecclesiastical History," chap, xxiii., from
which we extract the following:--
"James the brother of the Lord, who, as there were many of this name,
was surnamed the Just by all, from the days of our Lord until now,
received the Government of the Church with the Apostles. This Apostle
was consecrated from his mother's womb. He drank neither wine nor
fermented liquors, and abstained from animal food. A razor never came
upon his head" [i.e., He was a Nazarite, see Numbers vi., 2-5; Judges
xiii, 4-7; and xvi., 17. Jesus, we are told in the Gospel, came eating
and drinking, and ordered his disciples when fasting to anoint the
head.] Hegesippus tells us of James, his brother: "He never anointed
with oil" [see James v., 14--17]; "and never used a bath." [In this
latter respect too many holy saints have followed his insanitary
example], "He alone was allowed to enter the sanctuary. He never wore
woollen, but linen garments. He was in the habit of entering the temple
alone, and was often found upon his bended knees and interceding for the
forgiveness of the people; so that his knees became as hard as a camel's
in consequence of his habitual supplication and kneeling before God."
In another fragment he takes to task Paul and those who say "Eye hath
not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the
things which God hath prepared for them that fear him." Hegesippus says
that "those who say such things, lie against the divine scriptures and
our Lord who says, 'Blessed are your eyes which see, and your ears which
hear, 'etc."
All of which is very suggestive of the variety of faith and practice
which existed among primitive Christians.