Discovering the Jewish Roots of the Letter of James: Part of the Discovering the Jewish Roots SeriesJerusalem: 62 CE. Ya'akov haTzadik (James the Righteous) was thrown from the Jerusalem Temple and then beaten to death with a club. This devout man was so revered that the Jewish sect known as the Essenes placed his teachings in their library alongside the other revered Jewish writings, including the Torah Journey through the pages of the most Jewish book in the entire New Testament, from the culture of first century Judaism and the language of Jesus