Jesus’ surviving brother James (“James the Just”) assumed the leadership of the local Jerusalem nazirite Orthodox Jewish group upon the death of Jesus. The nazirites were a group within the fold of the Orthodox Jewish Pharisees. They were an ultra–pious, ascetic Orthodox Jewish group. James’s Nazirites internalized the Jesus as Messiah doctrine.

A Jewish nazirite – as per the Torah – typically leads an ascetic life dedicated to spirituality and God. For a 30+ day period of time, they deny themselves wine, cutting their hair, and any contact with corpses or graves. It is possible, as well, that Jesus had been a nazirite Pharisee Orthodox Jew for part of his adulthood, possibly including at the point of his execution.

The Christian world tries to label this (James the Just) group as the embryonic or early Christian Church. Respectfully, it was not. Notwithstanding attempts to label this Jewish synagogue–centered group as –

the “Mother Church”

the “Jerusalem Church”

the “Old Church”

the “Nazarene Church”

it was simply not a church. Its theology and practice were antithetical to the Church.

Usage of the term Jewish Christians is as well, a severe distortion of the historical record and of the Orthodox Jewish reality of these nazirites. Jewish and secular historians who take the bait and employ misleading nomenclature do no justice to their craft.