The Nazirites after the death of James the Just
As the authentic heir to Jesus, integrity–laden and stature–filled James the Just and his Orthodox Judaism in Jerusalem – were a barrier that neither Paul nor his Pauline Greek associates could penetrate while James was alive.
Upholding Jewish law and theology, James the Just and the 33–62 CE version of his Nazirites were an implacable roadblock.
With the deaths in 62 CE of both James (in Jerusalem) and Paul (in Rome), the (non–Jewish) Greek Paulines had ‘running room’ to politically launch a new religion. They would co–opt the legacy of the Orthodox Jewish martyr, the rabbinic Jesus of Nazareth. The rudimentary parameters of the new religion had been percolating since roughly 50 CE.
The nazirite group of James, hitherto the center of gravity of the heirs to the Jesus legacy, would need to be brushed off the political scene. And the sooner the Greek Paulines could ‘edit’ the nazirite legacy, the better.
