“[The Roman governor] Festus was now dead, and [his successor] Albinus was still upon the road. So [the high priest] Ananus assembled the Sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of that Jesus who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some of his companions. And when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned.” (62 AJ) [Flavius Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, 20.200]

Author: Again, is this Josephus, or is this a Christian scribe inserting some Christian history into what is essentially Jewish history written by a Jew? The early Jewish Christians has antagonized the Jewish establishment by seeking to convert Jews to their new form of Judaism based on the assertion that finally the Messiah had come in the form of Jesus, the proof of which is that Jesus was raised from the dead.
Note that these first Christians do not assert that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God, because he had great wisdom to teach to the world. This Jewish form of Messiah-ship is based on physical miracles and not values and wisdom. Even here what Jesus wanted is not followed. His challenge not to be identified with material things, but to seek and live spiritual values, has already gone out the window with these first Jewish Christians. Such is life! What you want you do not get. What you do not want takes you over.

The ancient quote is highly interesting in that it shows the Jewish establishment killing James, another member of the Jesus family who is not in any way a Jewish, military revolutionary. James was known as a 'righteous man' who prayed in the temple every day and wore white. Why would he be killed by the High Priest? He must have, like Jesus, his brother, opposed the Temple religion of ritual killing of animals and taking money from the poor and becoming rich. Both James and Jesus were of the movement to make the Temple a temple of God, whereas King Herod who had rebuilt the Temple had made it into a money-making machine to which tourists came from all over the world to worship and donate money. James also was killed by Jews. Just the act of stoning somebody is quite barbaric. When we look at the Jews of Jesus' and James' day, unlike in our day, we can see in them such a high level of violence. There were a number of 'crimes' that Jews could be stoned to death by their fellow Jews for. This is the low level of regard for human life that characterized the Jews and Romans of that day that Jesus was standing up against with a new Higher Standard of behavior towards ones species based on a new religion of love.

At this time there appeared Jesus, a wise man. For he was a doer of startling deeds, a teacher of the people who receive the truth with pleasure. And he gained a following both among many Jews and among many of Greek origin. And when Pilate, because of an accusation made by the leading men among us, condemned him to the cross, those who had loved him previously did not cease to do so. And up until this very day the tribe of Christians, named after him, has not died out. [Flavius Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, 18.63-64, John Meier revised translation]

Author: Did Josephus write any of this? Not in his style! His writings were quite pro Jewish and pro Roman. Both the Jews and the Romans opposed the early Christians. Josephus would have known that Nero in 64 J.E. (Jesus Era) had the Christians persecuted and thrown to the lions. Josephus wrote many years after this. Scholars think the passage on Christians was inserted by scribes of the early Church who also copied Josephus' books for the general public. It was in the interest of the early church to seek legitimacy among the people and the elite.