Unveiling the Authorship of the Book of James
“A right strawy epistle …”
Martin Luther
Was it James, James, James or James who
wrote James?
James the son of Zebedee (Matthew 10:2-3)
AKA the brother of John
James the son of Alpheaus (Matthew 10:2-3)
James the half-brother of Jesus (John 7:5)
James the father of Judas (Luke 6:16)
Was it James, James, James or James who
wrote James?
James, the son of Alphaeus and James the son of Zebedee
were both apostles.
The writer of James identifies himself as a servant of God but
not as an apostle.
James is probably written about 62 to 68 AD
James, the son of Zebedee was killed by Herod Agrippa about
44AD
So now we have only 3* choices, James the son of Alphaeus,
James the half-brother of Jesus or James the father of Judas.
* In reality, only 2
We know the author of this book identifies himself as “a bondservant” of Jesus
rather than an apostle.
We know from scripture that James the brother of Jesus became a “pillar” in the
church.
Galatians 2:9; 1:19
1 Cor 15:5, 7
We know that James the brother of Jesus was not a believer during Jesus’ public
ministry and therefore would not have been selected as one of the 12.
John 12:46-50, Luke 8:19-21, John 7:1-5 – Jesus’ relationship with his earthly
family was strained and His brothers did not believe
James the son of Alphaeus and James the brother of Jesus
are not the same person, no matter what Jerome might say.
John 19:25 lists 4 women at the cross. “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His
mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene”
The first pair is kindred and not named and is paralleled by the second pair which is
not kindred and is named. Hebrew writers often wrote in such way and John never
named himself, his brother James, or his mother, neither did he ever name Jesus’
mother who likely was his aunt.
Perpetual Virginity has the mother of Jesus and Mary the wife of Clopas as sisters, but
it seems unlikely that parents would name two daughters with the same name.
The Greek language has different words for brother and cousin and to argue that one
can be substituted from the other in Matthew 13:55 is without lexical support.
“adelphos” Brother
“anepsios” Cousin
Why is this important to the study of the book of
James?
Joh 19:26-27 When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple
whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, "Woman, behold your
son!“
Then He said to the disciple, "Behold your mother!" And from that hour
that disciple took her to his own
home.
Written to Jewish Christians scattered about and in contact with worldly
employers and acquaintances.
Not a formal theological treatise but rather a commonsense approach to life
issues and application of Christian principles
The Christian Book of Proverbs
The Gospel of Common Sense
“A right strawy epistle …”
Martin Luther
Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
Does God want us to be Happy?
Jas 1:2 My brethren, count it all
joy
when you
fall
into
various
trials
,
Jas 1:3 knowing that the
testing
of your faith produces
patience
.
Jas 1:4 But let patience have
its
perfect work, that you
may be
perfect
and
complete
,
lacking nothing
.
Chapter 1:
Verse 2 “JOY” and “TRIAL”
Verse 3 “TESTING” and “PATIENCE”
Verse 4 “PERFECT” and “COMPLETE” and
“LACKING NOTHING”
Perfect “telios” G5056 complete, of full age
Complete “holokleros” from G3650 & G2819, complete in every part,
entire, whole
Why did James use 2 different yet similar words to describe patience?
Lacking Nothing – when used together these 2 words create a term that
is from racing – no race is ever won until the entire distance is covered.
Not speed but endurance.
Joy “chara” G5463 gladness and rejoicing, translated as JOY 51 times in
the NT.
Happy “Makarios” G3107 is better translated “blessed” and is used 44
times that way and only 6 times as happy (happier)
Trial “peirazo” G3984 test, proving, examine, tempt
Testing and Patience proves the genuineness of our faith and the
knowledge that our faith will hold up (or not)
Faith’s Proving Ground
Are You Listening?
Pride & Prejudice
Faith on Fire
Forest Fires, Rudders on Big Ships and the
Tongue
Wisdom & Worldliness
The Center of Our Universe
Give me Patience and give it to me RIGHT
NOW!
The Power of Prayer
Martin Luther. German theologian, professor, Augustinian monk and a key figure in the “Protestant Reformation”. He lived in the 1400 and 1500’s. He wrote 95 points of dispute and supposedly in an act of defiance nailed the document to the castle church door in Wittenberg, Germany. It is more likely that he walked calmly to the door and posted his theses in the same manner as everyone else posted their lost dog posters as the door also served as the community bulletin board. Luther was one of a few key figures in history that we owe thanks to for their tireless effort to bring the scriptures to the public or as the Catholic Church called us, the “laity”. There were others over a span of about a thousand years who were adamant that scripture belonged to all men.
Jerome (300’s)
John Wycliffe (1300’s)
Gutenberg (1400’s)
William Tyndale, Erasmus, Martin Luther (1500’s)
In this case though, Luther is wrong because Luther was a faith only guy and the epistle of James convicts Martin Luther. It is hard to buy in to “faith without works is a dead faith” when you are a faith only guy. Every time I read James, I think about Martin Luther’s description and how that a man like Martin Luther, who dedicated his life to study of the Word and to fighting the Catholic church on behalf of all people, could be so wrong about this. And the answer is that we all can be this wrong when we carry our biases into our Bible study. We study to find truth, not to justify our actions.
There are 770,430 English words in the New King James Bible and those words are inspired but without context we can miss the lesson. In any textual Bible study we must look for context of the scripture in question. We go to where we want to study, we read the passage, we read the verses before and after the passage and we develop context. These are things we all know. We look for context from the type of message being delivered, to whom it is being delivered, the timing of when it was written, and the writer who penned the words. In the case of James, I want to spend a little bit of time identifying which James we believe to be the author of this epistle because I believe it has a significant impact on our context.
Sidebar:
Many of your Bibles have a synopsis at the start of each book. I believe these are excellent teaching tools and can help to shed much light on the inspired words that follow. AP has a book written by Dave Miller that is a brief summary of every book in the Bible, I recommend his book. Context is everything and we talk about it all the time. Know the context of the scriptures we are reading.
Exploring the intricate discussion on the authorship of the Book of James, this analysis delves into the identities of various James figures in scripture, highlighting the significance of understanding the writer's context and background.
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Presentation Transcript
A right strawy epistle Martin Luther
Was it James, James, James or James who wrote James? James the son of Zebedee (Matthew 10:2-3) AKA the brother of John James the son of Alpheaus (Matthew 10:2-3) James the half-brother of Jesus (John 7:5) James the father of Judas (Luke 6:16)
Was it James, James, James or James who wrote James? James, the son of Alphaeus and James the son of Zebedee were both apostles. The writer of James identifies himself as a servant of God but not as an apostle. James is probably written about 62 to 68 AD James, the son of Zebedee was killed by Herod Agrippa about 44AD So now we have only 3* choices, James the son of Alphaeus, James the half-brother of Jesus or James the father of Judas. * In reality, only 2
We know the author of this book identifies himself as a bondservant of Jesus rather than an apostle. We know that James the brother of Jesus was not a believer during Jesus public ministry and therefore would not have been selected as one of the 12. John 12:46-50, Luke 8:19-21, John 7:1-5 Jesus relationship with his earthly family was strained and His brothers did not believe We know from scripture that James the brother of Jesus became a pillar in the church. Galatians 2:9; 1:19 1 Cor 15:5, 7
James the son of Alphaeus and James the brother of Jesus are not the same person, no matter what Jerome might say. John 19:25 lists 4 women at the cross. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene The first pair is kindred and not named and is paralleled by the second pair which is not kindred and is named. Hebrew writers often wrote in such way and John never named himself, his brother James, or his mother, neither did he ever name Jesus mother who likely was his aunt. Perpetual Virginity has the mother of Jesus and Mary the wife of Clopas as sisters, but it seems unlikely that parents would name two daughters with the same name. The Greek language has different words for brother and cousin and to argue that one can be substituted from the other in Matthew 13:55 is without lexical support. adelphos Brother anepsios Cousin
Why is this important to the study of the book of James? Joh 19:26-27 When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, "Woman, behold your son! Then He said to the disciple, "Behold your mother!" And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.
Written to Jewish Christians scattered about and in contact with worldly employers and acquaintances. Not a formal theological treatise but rather a commonsense approach to life issues and application of Christian principles The Christian Book of Proverbs The Gospel of Common Sense A right strawy epistle Martin Luther Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
Does God want us to be Happy? Jas 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, Jas 1:3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. Jas 1:4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
Chapter 1: Verse 2 JOY and TRIAL Verse 3 TESTING and PATIENCE Verse 4 PERFECT and COMPLETE and LACKING NOTHING
Joy chara G5463 gladness and rejoicing, translated as JOY 51 times in the NT. Happy Makarios G3107 is better translated blessed and is used 44 times that way and only 6 times as happy (happier) Trial peirazo G3984 test, proving, examine, tempt Testing and Patience proves the genuineness of our faith and the knowledge that our faith will hold up (or not) Perfect telios G5056 complete, of full age Complete holokleros from G3650 & G2819, complete in every part, entire, whole Why did James use 2 different yet similar words to describe patience? Lacking Nothing when used together these 2 words create a term that is from racing no race is ever won until the entire distance is covered. Not speed but endurance.
