The Book of James

The Book of James, written by James the brother of Jesus.

In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he talks about his meetings with James and refers to him as a pillar of the church. His first meeting happened in 38 AD, the second in the late 40s AD. Along with Acts 15, which describes the First Council of Jerusalem, we see in the Scriptures just how important James was to the early church.  Paul also lists the people who received personal appearances by Jesus after His Resurrection; a list James was on.

Clement of Alexandria tells us that after the Ascension, Peter, James and John did not think so highly of themselves as to take on the leadership of the church, but elected James, the Lord’s brother, as Overseer.  The Apostolic & Church Fathers are also universal in their belief that James, the Lord’s brother, wrote this book. Later scholars did not.

Now, Jesus’ brothers did not believe in Him until after the Resurrection.  He made a special appearance to his brother James during those forty days.  His brothers were there in the Upper Room praying and waiting for the Promised Holy Spirit (Acts 1:14).  They were there at Pentecost and were filled with the Holy Ghost and spoke in other languages (Acts 2:1).  So, when James opened his letter, identifying himself as a Servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, he was proclaiming his transformation.  He had always been a servant of God, but now he was also a servant of Jesus, his own brother, and calls Him the Messiah.

Jesus had said, “before Abraham was, I am.”  They all knew what that meant. God existed from the Beginning, having created everything. The Hebrew people were set apart as God’s special possession. What we call their ‘religion’ was actually God showing the world how he expected people to live.  Jewishness was not the beginning of God nor just some religion. Everything in the Law pointed to the Messiah. This was not news to any Jew. 

In the view of the first believers, there was no ‘us and them’, in the sense of who could know Jesus as Messiah.  All Jews were in the same position; the Messiah had come for them all. The Law had been fulfilled and was now written on their hearts (Jer 31:33).  Living this new life, from the law written on their hearts, was the focus of James’ new church.  They shared their possessions, they actually had no needy persons among them (Acts 4;34). They prayed and worshiped and broke bread together (Acts 2:42-47). Everyone was accepted and included.

But there was certainly ‘us and them’ when it came to who believed and who didn’t. Make no mistake.

And so, quite suddenly, Stephen the Deacon was martyred and the believers were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Only the Apostles were left in Jerusalem. So James, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote his epistle.  It is full of wisdom on how to live out this Law that was now in their hearts. And who did he write to?  To the Twelve Tribes of Israel, scattered throughout the world, because the Messiah was for them all.  His job, as the Overseer, was to care for them, teach them sound doctrine and show them how to live in Christ.  The Apostles had their own job, prophets and teachers had theirs. This was James’ role.

There are a group of people called New Testament Scholars. One does not even need to be a believer to be a New Testament scholar. I have come across many of their views in my studies.  I don’t think it’s unfair to say that they are coming from a biased point of view. It seems like their goal is to prove that these books were not written by eyewitnesses, not written by the traditional authors, and not by anyone anywhere near the events they portrayed.  I see endless arguing on who copied from whom, who couldn’t possibly have known Greek, and who could not have traveled to where. In the case of the book of James, they argue about why he sounds so much less Christian than Jewish. 

The New Testament scholars propose that Christianity spread by word of mouth only and much later, things were written down.  But I do not believe that is possible.  The writings of the Apostles and Disciples were instrumental in the growth of the church and the refutation of heresies.

What I see in James is the heart of God to His people. Going from all their outward acts of the Law to the inward presence of the Messiah is a big deal.  They needed the instruction then, from their Overseer, and we need it now in our daily lives. ‘Christian’ was not a thing; everyone was just Jewish. A rabbi’s job was to interpret the Torah so that the people knew how to live. There was no New Testament for James to interpret. What he could do was interpret his brother’s words so that the believers knew how to live.

Among those who do believe that James the Just wrote this book, there is still plenty of division on when he would have written it.  All agree that he wrote it before he died, but that’s as much consensus as we can get. That’s ok.  What I have tried to show here is that the internal evidence points to a very early time.  There is no mention of Gentiles being in the church.  Jewish things are not explained for the benefit of outsiders.  The church structure, in James, is very primitive.  If he had written at a later time, this book would not have fit.  People had traveled and spread the Gospel, there were Overseers in other places, Gentiles were a regular part of the churches and heresies were creeping in.

But at the beginning, when they were just learning about Jesus as the Messiah, they were learning the basic lessons on how to live from the Law in their Hearts.  This is the foundation of being a Christian.

Eusebius: Ecclesiastical History, Book VI.II.1 (Eusebius, quoting Clement)