Jerusalem at this time was still very much the center of the Jesus movement. James, the brother of Jesus himself, was the acknowledged and unrivaled leader; he would retain that role until he was murdered by hard-line activists in AD 62. Peter and John, the two remaining members of the three who were closest to Jesus in his last days (John’s brother James had been killed by Herod Agrippa in the early 40s), and James seem to have formed a new kind of triumvirate; “James, Peter, and John,” as we saw earlier, could be spoken of as “pillars,” the sustaining structure of the “new Temple.” They
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