The Epistle Of JamesSýnishorn

James' greeting: James 1:1

Although we know that the Holy Spirit inspired the Scriptures, many books in the Bible, like James, also identify their human authors. The more we know about biblical authors, then the better prepared we are to understand and interpret what they wrote.

Listen again to 1:1, James' short salutation:

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings (James 1:1).

We shouldn't miss how James described himself here. He called himself "a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ."

James could have introduced himself as the leader of the church, or even as the brother of Jesus. Instead, he chose to make the point that he was the servant of God and Christ. This dual reference may be James' personal statement of humility, a theme he touches on later in the book. Here he exemplified that humility by making it clear that he was the servant of his brother, Jesus.

Theologians often spend a great deal of time and energy trying to learn as much as possible about the author of a particular biblical book. But discovering the identity of the original audience is just as important. If we want to interpret correctly what a biblical writer was saying, it helps us to know who the writer's original readers were and what they were facing at that particular time in history. As we saw earlier, in James 1:1, James identified his readers as:

The twelve tribes scattered among the nations (James 1:1).

This seems to be a reference to Jews who lived outside of Israel. And, in 2:1, James addressed his audience as:

Believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ (James 2:1).

Taken together, these verses indicate that James' original audience was made up, primarily, of Jewish Christians who lived outside of Palestine.

Did Jesus' brother James write this epistle?

In the days of the apostolic church, the whole question of authority was very significant. Who has the authority to teach and lead this new community of followers of Jesus Christ? There were various writings that were circulating, various claims of authority, and one of the criteria that emerged that was very significant was that of being an eyewitness to the ministry of Jesus. Those who were eyewitnesses of his ministry, who spent the time with the Lord himself were considered to have a righteous claim to the authority to teach in the early church. Now, James, the brother of Jesus, of course, was an eyewitness to his ministry, but more than that, had been an eyewitness really to the whole of his life, and that did play a significant role in the weight that the teaching of James and the weight that James' letter was given in the early church. [Rev. Dr. Michael Walker]

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