The Epistle of James
The
Epistle of James or the Book of James. The author identifies himself as
"James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ",
traditionally understood as James the Just, the brother
of Jesus.
Framed within an overall theme of patient perseverance
during trials and temptations, the text condemns various
sins and calls on Christians to be patient while
awaiting the imminent Second Coming. The epistle was
addressed to "the twelve tribes scattered abroad" (James
1:1), which is generally taken to mean a Jewish
Christian audience. The object of the writer was to
enforce the practical duties of the Christian life. The
vices against which he warns them are: formalism, which
made the service of God consist in washings and outward
ceremonies, whereas he reminds them (1:27) that it
consists rather in active love and purity; fanaticism,
which, under the cloak of religious zeal, was tearing
Jerusalem in pieces (1:20); fatalism, which threw its
sins on God (1:13); meanness, which crouched before the
rich (2:2); falsehood, which had made words and oaths
play-things (3:2-12); partisanship (3:14); evil speaking
(4:11); boasting (4:16); oppression (5:4). The great
lesson which he teaches them as Christians is patience,
patience in trial (1:2), patience in good works
(1:22-25), patience under provocation (3:17), patience
under oppression (5:7), patience under persecution
(5:10); and the ground of their patience is that the
coming of the Lord drawing nigh, which is to right all
wrong (5:8).
The author identifies himself in the opening verse as
"James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ".
From the middle of the third century, patristic authors
cited the Epistle as written by James the Just, a
relation of Jesus and first Bishop of Jerusalem. Not
numbered among the Twelve Apostles, unless he is
identified as James the Less, James was nonetheless a
very important figure: Paul described him as "the
brother of the Lord" in Galatians 1:19 and as one of the
three pillars of the Church in 2:9. He is traditionally
considered the first of the Seventy Disciples. John
Calvin and others suggested that the author was the
Apostle James, son of Alphaeus, who was often identified
with James the Just. If written by James the Just, the
place and time of the writing of the epistle would be
Jerusalem, where James was residing before his martyrdom
in 62.
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