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of Revelation and the Fourth Gospel. The statement that he was killed "together with James his brother" may be due merely to the (not infrequent) confusion of the two Jameses.
Paul's decapitation in Rome occurred not more than a year or two later, and was followed there in 64, according to very ancient and trustworthy tradition, by the martyrdom of Peter. The death of all the principal leaders explains why the Jerusalem church when it reassembled after the overthrow of city and temple in the year 70, put forward no more prominent candidates for the leadership than a certain Symeon, son of Clopas, one of the group of 'relatives of the Lord' who are traceable "until the time of Trajan," and a certain unknown Thebuthis. Symeon, according to Eusebius, who takes his account from Hegesippus (165), was the representative of "those of the apostles and disciples of the Lord that were still living, together with the Lord's relatives." Thebuthis is said to have sprung from one of the heretical Jewish sects and to have organized a schism in consequence of his disappointment. All we can be sure of is that Jerusalem 'down to the time of Trajan' continued to regard itself as the seat of apostolic authority and arbiter of orthodoxy, on account of its succession of disciples and relatives of the Lord. Among the latter the leading, if not the only, representatives of the seed of David, when "search was made" in the persecution under Domitian (81-95), were two grandsons of Jude, the Lord's brother. Jude himself, then, was no longer living. Luke (c. 100), Papias (145), and Hegesippus (165) successively exhibit the growing authority of the "tradition handed down," especially that of "the apostles and elders in Jerusalem." But what Papias records of the traditions of these "elders" does not rise above the level of Jewish midrash, and the epistles which bear the names of James and Jude have little intrinsic value, and enjoyed from the beginning only the most meagre acceptance. At Rome tradition attaches to the name of Peter, but besides the bare fact of his martyrdom "at the same time with Paul" (64-5) it has little of value to relate. We cannot safely go beyond the tradition reported by Porphyry that Peter fed the lambs (at Rome) for a few months before his martyrdom, and that reported by Papias that Mark, who had been Peter's assistant, compiled there the Gospel which bears his name, basing it upon his recollections of Peter's preaching. Of this vitally important work (c. A.D. 75) we must speak in another connection. We are concerned at present with writings which directly reflect the development of Christian life and doctrine in this sub-apostolic period, especially that in the Pauline mission-field.