James son of Zebedee is executed
About this date: Placed shortly before Agrippa I's death in 44 CE, following Acts 12's sequence. The passage gives a Passover setting for Peter's subsequent imprisonment, not an exact execution date for James.
Acts reports that Herod Agrippa I executes James, the brother of John, and then imprisons Peter. Eusebius preserves both the scriptural account and a later story about James's accuser.
Historical context
Agrippa's rule brings an episode of royal pressure on the Jerusalem church. The brevity of Acts's report differs from the expanded memory transmitted through later Christian writers.
Key points
- This James is the son of Zebedee and brother of John.
- James the brother of Jesus, whose death Josephus records under Ananus, is a different person.
- The account of an accuser converting and sharing James's execution is attributed by Eusebius to Clement of Alexandria.
People
- James son of Zebedee
- John son of Zebedee
- Herod Agrippa I
- Peter
Scripture
- Acts 12:1–19 — James's execution and the narrative of Peter's imprisonment and escape.
Sources and further reading
- Acts: Agrippa's action against the church
Keep James's brief death notice distinct from Peter's longer story. - Church History: James and Clement's tradition
Eusebius identifies Clement as the transmitter of the accuser story.