Roman society valued things with a long history. They liked antiques and antique philosophies. They wanted pedigree. Judaism had a pedigree. It stretched back long before there was a Rome and so Rome put up with the idiosyncracies of Judaism until 70 CE with the exception of plural marriage. Rome saw the sects of Judaism as one church, not 21 churches and so they did not make great distinctions between the sects based upon the distinctions that the sects made between themselves.
The Nasorean Movement as I have said before started between 168 BCE and 97 BCE. No one today can be sure as to when the Teacher of Righteousness began his exile and when he began to form a new philosophy within Judaism. However, by the time of Yeshua, three young men had been prepared to be the Three Pillars of the Nasorean movement; they were Yohannan (John) called the Baptist who was to be the High Priest, Yeshua bar Yotsef (Jesus) who was to be the King, and Ya'akov (James the Just) who was to be the Prophet. When Yohannan was executed, many of his disciples remained loyal to his teaching of strict asceticism and obedience to the Essene theology. Many more of his disciples came over to Yeshua who had discovered during his faith crisis that he was Melchizedek returned. Melchizedek was considered Divine and a Heavenly Being by the Essenes. The followers of Yohannan became the Mandaeans of today and even now they call there leadership, Nasoreans, but the followers of Yeshua coalesced around the apostles and especially the Apostle James Alphaeus called the Just One after Yeshua's death.
While the Apostles were alive, Paul and his heresy were not successful. The Apostolic tradition was Jewish with the addition of belief in Yeshua as the Meshiach. The idea of a succession was completely different for the early church, because when an Apostle began to travel and to spread the faith, another was appointed to sit on the Apostolic Council in Jerusalem. Eusebius records there names in his Ecclesiastical History as Richard Bauckham argues in his Jude and the Relatives of Jesus in the Early Church. Thus, the Apostolic Succession took place during Ya'akov's 34 year reign, by replacing the Apostles who were now gone from Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the source and center of the Nasorean movement and of the true faith.
After the destruction of Jerusalem and the removal of the church leadership to Pella, Antioch, Rome, Alexandria and even Byzantium began to have significance in establishing norms upon which the church would function. As James Tabor has said, with the destruction of Jerusalem, being a Jew fell into disfavor in Rome and gentile believers sought to separate themselves from any Jewish taint. One of the first things to go was the Sabbath. After making the initial decision to break with Judaism, in its form as the Nasorean sect, the Paulines created a doctrine which became known as supercessionism which said that the Pauline heresy superceded Judaism. The idea was contrary to the teachings of the Apostles and the stated teachings of Jesus. It even contradicted the later teachings of Paul in Romans 11. Nonetheless, this idea further separated the Apostolic Church that descended from Jerusalem and the apostles from the false and unJewish teachings of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria.
In the late second century, a Pauline theologian who lived in Africa, one of the most famous, Tertullian, became a follower of Montanus and Prisca and Priscilla, a prophet recognized by the Church and later anathemized when he started teaching that Prophets were superior to Bishops. The Didache had already settled this issue. Prophets are superior to Bishops. Tertullian considered that issue settled as well. The Church responded that the Bishops were the successors to the Apostles and that their succession was the only legitimate church. Tertullian responded in the following way: he wrote the Pope of Rome, who was his Patriarch, that the early bishops were in communion with Jerusalem and each other, an idea he called Communio. He said that the early Bishops also had traditio, for him that traditio or tradition was probably the teachings of Origen and eventually Arius. They certainly were not the teachings of the Apostles, for the Pauline Heresy had deviated too much from Judaism at that time to find the true Tradition of the Apostles. Lastly, and most tellingly, he argued that Peter and the Apostles had potestas or charismatic power. They could heal, teach with power, prophesy, perform miracles, raise the dead, and do the things that Yeshua had done. Montanus could do those things as well. Tertullian said that the Pope was wrong to support Montanus as he was well within the Apostolic tradition. From his writing, the ancient churches: the Nestorians, the Monophysites, the Orthodox, the Romans, the Anglicans, and the Lutherans derive the doctrine of Apostolic Succession.
While I do not deny that there is a valid Communio or Communion of the Bishops in these churches with the Apostles, I deny that they have either Tradition or Power and therefore while not denying the possibility of Apostolic Succession, I do deny that anyone has it today.
The Nasoreans would allow their Patriarch to be ordained by a Bishop within the Communion of the Apostles. As we have a Jewish tradition, consistent with the early Church in every way, we have Tradition already. As our Patriarch regularly heals the sick, casts out demons, and performs miraculous acts, and whereas, he has raised the dead and picked up the snakes, and multiplied objects, he has performed all the acts of Potestas or Power. We teach that our Patriarch if ordained would be the beginning of a new Apostolic Succession.
However, it would be unfair of us not to mention another form of succession, one which a particular church has, and to note that although that church lacks tradition, it does have a succession of importance. Likewise, there is another church, an ancient church, which maintains much of the ancient tradition and many of its bishops may have performed some acts of Power. It wish to mention without fully commenting on them. The first church was founded by a Prophet and in accordance with Ephesians 2 can claim that it rests upon the foundations of the Temple not made with hands in that its Prophet was ordained a Bishop and laid hands on the subsequent bishops of his Church. That church is called the Church of God in Christ. The other church likewise mainly composed of black people is Ethiopian Coptic Tahwedo Orthodox Church which maintains many of the Jewish traditions including the kosher rules.
To reiterate, I believe in Apostolic Succession. I deny that any bishop in the world has it. I propose a method to re-establish it.
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