dogsgod

Acts 12:7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell


Would that be an angel of the Lord God Almighty? One would think so. If so, could Paul be referring to James as the brother of the Lord God Almighty?

show_no_mercy

This ambiguity is due to these tales being written in Greek. Prior to Christianity, the bare phrase "[of] the lord" in Hellenic Jewish writings almost always referred to YHWH. If theses stories were written in Hebrew, then we could tell who they were referring to since they would either use the letters YHWH with vowel points for "lord" if they intended the god of the Jews, or they would simply write out the word "lord" if they were referring to a human being.

In the context of Acts 12:7, I would think that the phrase "angel of the lord" refers to an angel of YHWH, since this phrase (αγγελος κυριου) occurs multiple times in the LXX. And the LXX obviously has no mention of the Jesus of Christianity.

ApostateAbe

Anything is possible. Paul often used the word, "Lord" (κυριου) in both senses, for both God and Jesus. And "angel of the Lord," uses the "God Almighty" interpretation, so Paul could have wrote of meeting James, the brother of God Almighty, in Jerusalem, whatever that may mean. Is that interpretation more probable or less probable than the interpretation that Paul wrote of meeting James, the brother of Jesus, in Jerusalem? The latter interpretation seems to have external evidence: a passage in Mark 6:3, a corresponding passage in the gospels, Matthew 13:55, and the writing of James' death in the writings of Josephus (some mythicists claim it is an interpolation, but if so it would still serve as evidence of early Christian belief). The former translation, though being accepted among mythicists, has considerably less evidence. It is limited to Paul's pattern of using the word "brother" in a religious metaphorical sense to refer to fellow Christians. It is not the same as "brother of the Lord"--the only other time Paul uses that phrase is in 1 Corinthians 9:5, where Paul categorizes "brothers of the Lord" as an elevated group of men but distinct from the apostles and Cephas.

It would seem to be a deal breaker for mythicism, but it wouldn't have to be. If there exists compelling evidence for a mythical Jesus, then this set of evidence can be overridden, like an other argument, and we can safely interpret κυριου in Galatians 1:19 to mean "God." Either way, if mythicists want to be honest, then they are going to have to accept that this set of evidence as a big deficit to their theories. Galatians 1:19 and the multiple attestations to James being the flesh-and-blood brother of Jesus is strong evidence for a human Jesus, one way or the other.

show_no_mercy

"Brother of YHWH" is a proper name in Hebrew.

ApostateAbe

Great, back it up with evidence, see if you can find a use of the phrase corresponding to the time and/or situation, and that may serve to rescue the mythicist interpretation, if only just a little.

show_no_mercy

Ahijah means "brother of Jah (YHWH)"

Ahijah the Shilonite, the Biblical prophet who divided the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah.

One of the sons of Bela (1 Chr. 8:7, RV). In AV (KJV) called "Ahiah."

One of the five sons of Jerahmeel, who was great-grandson of Judah (1 Chr. 2:25).

Son of Ahitub (1 Sam. 14:3, 18), Ichabod's brother; the same probably as Ahimelech, who was high priest at Nob in the reign of Saul (1 Sam. 22:11). Some, however, suppose that Ahimelech was the brother of Ahijah, and that they both officiated as high priests, Ahijah at Gibeah or Kirjath-jearim, and Ahimelech at Nob.

A Pelonite, one of David's heroes (1 Chr. 11:36); called also Eliam (2 Sam. 23:34).

A Levite having charge of the sacred treasury in the temple (1 Chr. 26:20).

One of Solomon's secretaries (1 Kings 4:3).

ApostateAbe

Great, that rescues the mythicist interpretation a little, even though those uses are in Hebrew. A good next step would be to see how the Septuagint translates them in Greek. After that, see if you can find the phrase used in the New Testament, Philo, Josephus, or the early Christian fathers. After that, "brother of YHWH" would not be the same as "brother of the Lord," but it is still something, and you would not have to go quite as far to establish the probability of a non-human Jesus.

aa5874

There are multiple attestations that Jesus was the offspring of the Holy Ghost, the Creator of heaven and earth.

There are also multiple attestations that the character called James the bishop was not the actual brother of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the Son of God.

ApostateAbe

Yes, and that reflects what is in early Christian traditions. Galatians 1:19 is most direct and historical, since it was Paul himself meeting James himself and calling him the brother of the Lord. If there is otherwise ambiguity about what that means, the ambiguity seems to be resolved by the beliefs of Christians reflected in Mark, Matthew and Josephus.
Yes, that's right, and those beliefs seem to come from sources that are considerably later than the earliest sources (Paul, the synoptic gospels and Josephus). The docetists (Marcion) and the believers in the perpetual virginity of Mary (Origen) had an interest in believing that Jesus could not have had literal fleshly siblings.

Toto

Please note that this interpretation is not confined to mythicism.

The LXX treats this as a proper name and transliterates it as Αχιας in 1 Kings 11. You can check other verses using blueletterbible.org

?? But it is exactly the same.