Introduction to James

What type of book is it?

James is unique among the letters of the New Testament in one very important respect: it has very little teaching (unlike the letters of Paul, or Peter). In fact, while it is written to Christian Jews (1:1) and is therefore a letter, it has more similarities with some Old Testament books than it does the other letters of the New Testament. The clue to this is found in two verses in the first chapter: James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. James 1:22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. James becomes clearer as a book when we think of it in terms of Old Testament wisdom literature, such as we find in Proverbs or Job. The biblical understanding of wisdom is about applying the principles of knowing God to the practical realities of everyday life. So, while knowing what we believe is important, putting it into practice is just as important (2:17). So our two key verses help us to see that wisdom is something that a gift of God and which we can ask him for; and that wisdom is about hearing from God and acting upon it. It is, therefore, a little different from Old Testament wisdom, which we are encouraged to seek out or acquire (Proverbs 18:15). The letter [of James] is not an abstract epistle designed for posterity or intellectual reputation. It is a gritty in-your-face pastoral letter zippered up at times with some heated rhetoric.
Scot McKnight, The Letter of James p.61

Who wrote James?

That might seem a strange question, but there are a number of possibilities. There are four James mentioned in the New Testament. Two of these are not heard of very often, they are James

James aim is to set forth the theonomic life in its essentials, that is, life lived according to Gods Law.
James Adamson, The Epistle of James p.20

the son of Alphaeus, who was one of the disciples (Mark 15:40), and James the father of Judas (Luke 6:16) so we can rule them out fairly swiftly! It is very unlikely that the letter could have been written by James, Johns brother as he was martyred in about AD 44 (Acts 12:22). That leaves the brother of Jesus who does not seem to have accepted who Jesus was until after the resurrection (Mark 3:21). However, Jesus clearly appeared to him specifically (1 Corinthians 15:7) and he became a leader of the Jerusalem church (Acts 12:9, Galatians 1:19), seemingly after the original apostles have to leave the city as a result of persecution following the martyrdom of James the brother of John. Some people have argued that it was a different person altogether who simply took the name James in order to write the letter, I think we can dismiss that idea fairly swiftly as well. There are a number of reasons to accept that the writer was James, Jesus brother, and this has been the traditional - and generally accepted - view of the church. One of these are the links that we can find between James and the three Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) and especially between James and the teaching of Jesus. It is possible that the letter is a collection of James sermons or homilies which he later brings together into this letter for wider distribution.

Jesus Teaching in James

Some parallels taken from Matthews Gospel, adapted from Exploring the New Testament, p. 254

Who was it written to?

James gives us a clue in the very first sentence of the letter: he was writing to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations. In other words, he was writing to Jewish Christians who were in house churches throughout the Roman Empire outside of Palestine. This helps explain why he refers to the Old Testament such a lot, and why he uses the pattern of Hebrew wisdom literature as his way of teaching.

Matthew 5:11-12 5:48 7:7-11 10:22, 24:13 5:20,22 7:24,26 5:3,5 22:36-40 7:1 25:34-35 7:16-18 6:24 5:8 23:12 6:19-21 5:11-12 5:33-37 18:15

James 1:2 1:4 1:5, 17; 4:2-3 1:12 1:20 1:22-23 2:5 2:10-12 2:13 2:14-16 3:12 4:4 4:8 4:10 5:1-3 5:10 5:12 5:19-20

When was it written?

James was martyred in AD 61 or 62, so if we accept that he was the author, it must have been written prior to this date. The question is, how much earlier? There are two major issues which tie in to this. Firstly, the letter makes no reference to the Council at Jerusalem (Acts 15) which seems a little strange as this was such a momentous event in the history of the early church and had such a bearing on how Jewish Christians should relate to Gentiles (a theme which would fit in well with James discussing issues of relationships between rich and poor). This suggests the letter must have been written between the time of the first dispersal of Christians (Acts 8:1) and the Council or between roughly AD 33 and AD 48. However, another important theme is the meaning of true faith. James uses the story of Abraham and Isaac to show that true faith is about action and not just about belief. Some have seen in this a response to the excesses of some teachers who took Pauls teachings concerning justification too far. If this is true, it is unlikely the letter was written before Pauls letter to the church in Rome (about AD 57). Both of these positions are held by conservative evangelical scholars (Donald Guthrie for instance holds to the former, F F Bruce to the latter). Whichever we choose, and I hold to the former, makes little difference to the way in which we will read, understand and apply the letter.

What is it about?
We have already mentioned that James is a wisdom book: it is about how we live out our faith as Gods people in Gods world. But it has a number of themes which it is worth mentioning and can be seen in the breakdown of the book below (adapted from Peter Davids, The Epistle of James p. 27-28). 1. 2. Introduction: 1:1 Opening Statement: 1:2-27 2.1. Testing, Wisdom, Wealth: 1:2-11 2.2. Testing, Speech, generosity: 1:12-27 3. The Excellence of Poverty and Generosity: 2:1-26 3.1. No partiality: 2:1-13 3.2. Generosity: 2:14-17 4. The Demand of Pure Speech: 3:1-4:12 4.1. Lack of anger: 3:1-12 4.2. Wisdom: 3:13-18 4.3. Pure prayer: 4:1-10 4.4. Lack of condemnation: 4:11-12 5. 6. Testing through Wealth: 4:13-5:6 Closing Statement: 5:7-20 James tells [the] one true Story of Gods redemption in moral, wisdom, and prophetic keys rather than in the more didactic, soteriological keys one finds i n P a u l , P e t e r, a n d Hebrews.
Scot McKnight, The Letter of James p.6-7

To think about
Martin Luther described James as a strawy epistle as he found little of salvation by faith within it. His particular problem was the way that James uses the story of Abraham and Isaac in 2:14-26. You might like to explore this a little by reading Romans 3:20, 28; Romans 4 and James 2:14-26. And comparing and contrasting the way Paul and James deal with Genesis 15:6. In what ways might they be considered contradictory? Can you find a way to reconcile them?

In conclusion
James does not point out sin just to moralise and definitely not to condemn, he does it so that his readers may respond in repentance and thus be brought back from [their] wandering (5:20). We might reflect on our own actions and ask ourselves where we need to respond in repentance. We might also consider our attitude to those of our brothers and sisters who fall into sin, do we condemn or do we bring them back to the truth (5:19)?

Copyright 2012 Simon Marshall

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