James was the half brother of Jesus. They shared the same daddy. Joseph of Arimethea. He was the one that YaHuShuWaH and the Apostles ordained to follow in the Messhiach’s footsteps. Not Peter. He was the first Pastor in the Jerusalem “Church”. When he was later stoned to death it was their cousin Simeon that then led the flock. Joseph had a brother named Clopas which was a pretty unique name and he and his wife (Another Mary) had only this one son Simeon.

The original church was made up of James, Justus, Zaccheus, Tobias, Benjamin, John, Mathias, Philip, Seneca, another Justus, Levi, Ephrem, Joseph, and Jude. This was after the original Apostles had been killed. This church lasted until 132AD until the Bar Kochba Revolt and then they were scattered and ran into the Hills of Judea like Jesus warned that they would have to do. (Matt 24:16). They fled to a place in Jordan called Pella. This original group was called the Desposynoi because they were the HEIRS. Desposynoi=Heirs.  Several of them were close family members of Yahushuwah including Joseph, Simeon, and his brothers James and Jude. They were all Jews and no Gentiles were even in the church for the first 10 YEARS! 

When Hadrian conquered Jerusalem in 117AD they ran the Jews out of Jerusalem and forbid them to remain inside the city for 100 years! This was when Mark took over and became the first non-Jewish Pastor in Jerusalem. All of these first churches were Jewish Synagogues. The head of the synagogue was called the “President or the Nasi”. (Nazi?)  This lasted until 150 AD according to Justin Martyr (a non-Jewish historian of the time).

The Church Officers-  (only 120 members per congregation were allowed.)

At the top we had the President or Nasi like I said.

Three Presidents made up a TRIBUNAL. These were 3 righteous leaders who settled legal matters as Judges as well as acted as their respective Synogogue rulers.

The Chazan– an overseer that stood behing the pulpit and PRAYED. This person was an expert in the LAW of MOSES. He did not read the LAW but was there to make sure the reading was done correctly. He selected 7 readers each week who were also well versed in scripture. This person was referred to as THE ANGEL OF THE CHURCH.

THE SEVEN-The 7 readers consisted of one priest, one Levite, and 5 lay people.

The Almoners or Parnasin- Three men who helped minister to the sick, distribute alms, and who also were scholars of the scriptures. They were also known as Gabbay Tzedekah or ELDERS. It is believed this is where the office of DEACON came into being.

The Announcer- or Shaliach – an APOSTLE.  They would shout out the message to others that was being delivered from the pulpit.I think it’s interesting to note that they never did anything original. They were just the TRUMPETERS of the message.
YaHushuWaH addressed them when he stated for them to shout from the rooftops what they heard in secret.

The Maggid– the migratory EVANGELIST.

The Batlanim-Each church had 10 of these and they were also scholars that had the financial means to back the church. The financiers.

The Meturgan– A language expert who could translate into many dialects.

Rabbi’s- PROPHETS. They read the Word, Preached and Exhorted & Corrected the congregation

All church members had to either be born Jews or Converts to JUDAISM. There were only 120 members per group and they called themselves Followers of “The Way”, Nazarenes, Messianites, or IESSAIOI (Greek for followers of IESOUS).

There had to be 10 people present in order to have “Church. i.e a quorem.”

The word “CHRISTIAN” was never used till 50 years later in Antioch.  Acts 11:26.

THE AGE FACTOR-THE ELDERS

You had to over 40 be to considered as having Understanding. You had to be over 50 yrs old to have anything to do with counseling or training the YOUTH!

The last relatives of Yahushuwah

As I said before Yahushuwah had 4 brother and he had at least 2 sisters. One was Salome and another possible Mary? His brother Jude had two children. One was named Zoker and the other one was another James. They owned a FARM in Nazareth. This is historical record. The last known relative of “Jesus” was a Conon- who was a gardner in Magydos in Pamphlylia in Asia Minor. This is also historically documented with a tile in Nazareth at the Church of the Annunciation which has the inscription on it- “Gift of Conon-Deacon of Jerusalem.” He had a cult following supposedly after he was martryed by Crucifixion also.

There is no record of Jesus having any children with Mary Magdalene. I wouldn’t rule it out though. I will ask YaHuWaH to show me this.

As you can see though, this was a tight knit group of Jews and the main focus was NOT on evangelism or going to the Gentiles– AT ALL. Paul took over all that many years later, after the original group was about wiped out. Many went underground though and their decendents – the ELECT HEIRS to the Davidic line to the thrown, are resurfacing now for these Endtimes.

We are the ENDTIMELECT.

Shalom.