Bible Study this Tuesday, 21 FEB 2012 Ya'akov Chapter 2

Like the title says, we will be having another bible study this Tuesday, 21 FEB 2012.

It starts at 7:00pm, and will last a couple hours.

This week, we are going over the 2nd chapter of James, or Ya'avov in Hebrew.

So far, we have learned:

1.  James was not his name, it was Ya'akov. King James liked "James" better than using the actual translation, which is Jacob. (James in the Greek=Iakobos; in the Hebrew=Jacob)
2. Ya'akov (James) was the brother of Yeshua (Jesus)
3. He was the leader of the synagogue in Jerusalem - yes, the Jewish synagogue in Jerusalem. In fact, he remained the leader of it until his death (see number 4).
4. According to Eusebius, James was taken to the pinnacle of the Temple, and thrown off after refusing to denounce Yeshua's  messiahship. 
5. Eusebius also said that Ya'akov prayed so much for the people in his life, believers and unbelievers, that his knees were hard like a camel's, thus earning him the name "Camel Knees." Or something similar. 
6. One more important thing to note about what Eusebius relayed; he said that Ya'akov had a good reputation, as a righteous, just man, among both Jews, and Gentiles.
7. The importance of #6 lies in the fact that if he were the leader of the synagogue, and teaching that the Law had "been done away with," he would not have had a good reputation among the Jews. Especially those who went to the synagogue of Jerusalem.  So, we can assume that he was not teaching against doing the Law, or Torah.
8. James says that faith without works is dead. "Works" in a Hebraic context, in the 1st century expecially, is a Hebraic idiom for Torah obedience, or walking out the Commandments - today we say, "How is your walk, Joe?" and if Joe is a Christian, he understands that you are referring to his walk with the Lord. 
9. James is NOT writing in opposition to Paul. Not in the least. Regardless of what the "Church Fathers" have to say about it, the two were in agreement. One is referring to how we attain salvation, and the other is referring to how we live after receiving that salvation. We will explain more on this later.

...and that is my short outline of what we have gone through so far.

Mo, we are truly missing you there!