James background

James

Author: James
See Reflection.
Also see Ecclesiastical History by Eusebius, Book 3, Chapter 25, Verse 3.

Date: Possibly 50 A.D. (1)

Language: Greek

Place: Not known

Purpose: To exhort the believer to good behavior, which is what God wants.

What kind of book?: Teaching Epistle to Jewish followers of Jesus wherever they happened to be.

Reflection: The popular assumption that the author of James & Jude were the "brothers"(they were not physical brothers obviously) of Jesus is not documented. People assume that because Jude states he is the brother of James at the start of his letter. Yet both could have been apostles! The apostle Thaddaeus, whose nickname was Judas, and who was probably called Jude to distinguish him from Judas Iscariot, was the son of a James (Luke 6:16), thus it is more likely that he would have a brother named James. I saw a commentary once that asked why he would make special mention of his brother if he was an apostle! Good question. But if he had been the "brother" of Jesus, why would he not mention him instead of his earthly brother. I tend to lean toward apostolic authorship, since I think that had they been the "brothers" of Jesus, it is more likely that early Christian historians would have made specific mention of that. Yet the early Christian historians had doubts about both of these books being Scripture in the first place, so maybe that is because they did not come from one of the Apostles. Professor Tafoya said that there still is a loose apostolic connection. That makes sense since the converted "brothers" of Jesus were eyewitness of Jesus, and it is documented by early historians that the "brother" of Jesus, James "the just" was the Bishop of the Jerusalem church until his being murdered.
[This is a similar reflection that I am going to use for Jude, because the argument is tied together.]
Hunter Irvine
(1) J.B. Phillips, Letters To Young Churches (New York: The Macmillian Company, 1947).