James' position in the church makes it probable that he would have had occasion to write letters to the brethren. He grew up with Jesus, was converted after Jesus' resurrection, immediately began associating with the apostles, and became the presiding elder of the Jerusalem church. This James was very prominent in the New Testament church. After all, what do we know about Jude? So perhaps this is the James who wrote the book of James, though again we might expect him to identify himself as an apostle.Įarly church tradition ascribes the book to James the brother of Jesus. If this James wrote the book, however, we might expect James 1:1 to read "James, an apostle of Jesus Christ."Īnother of Jesus' apostles was "James the son of Alphaeus." Just because we know nothing about this man does not mean he could not have written this book. Since John wrote several books, perhaps his brother also wrote the book of James before his death, after the Jewish believers were scattered around a.d. One is James the brother of John, who was martyred around a.d. Who wrote it? There are three prominent men named James in the New Testament. 49, the time of the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15. In the light of these factors, most scholars believe that the book was written early, before a.d.
Also, James refers to the meeting of the church as "synagoguing" (James 2:2). The book makes no mention of any Gentile controversy, and thus was probably written before that controversy broke out and the Jewish church came to be divided between the faithful and the Judaizers. The book of James is addressed to Jewish Christians scattered abroad.