Clement of Alexandria[36] says that James the Just “was thrown from the
gable [of the temple], and beaten to death by a fuller with a club.”
Hegesippus[37] gives a long and legendary account of the death of James
to the effect that the people of Jerusalem who called James “the Just”
were so enraged when he bore witness to Jesus as the Son of man that
they flung him down from the gable of the Temple, stoned him, and a
fuller clubbed him. “And they buried him on the spot by the temple, and
his monument still remains by the temple.”
But Josephus[38] gives an entirely different and much more credible
narrative of the death of James, placing it about A.D. 62 or 63. He
charges the Sadducees through the high priest Ananus with the death of
James and adds: “Ananus, therefore, as being a person of this character,
and thinking that he had a suitable opportunity, through Festus being
dead, and Albinus still on his journey (to Judaea), assembles a
Sanhedrin of judges; and he brought before it the brother of Jesus who
is called Christ (his name was James) and some others, and delivered
them to be stoned, on a charge of being transgressors of the law.” So he
won a martyr’s crown. He was called “the Just.” He had accused the
wicked rich of killing “the righteous one” (James 5:6).
II
To the Twelve Tribes Which Are of the Dispersion