OVERVIEW: In his letter to the churches, James identifies himself as a servant of Christ sent to the Jews of the Diaspora. In the early church it was customary to assume that New Testament books had been written by apostles or under the close supervision of an apostle, and two of the original twelve were called James. One of these was the brother of John and son of Zebedee, and the other was the son of Alphaeus. The first of these was the associate of Peter and John and became the first head of the church at Jerusalem, where he was martyred about A.D. 44. The second disappeared from view after the resurrection of Jesus. Some of the Fathers assumed that one of these two wrote this letter, though they were not sure which one. Most Fathers, though, concluded that it was another James, the one who appears in the New Testament among the brothers of Jesus. This James was head of the Jerusalem church from A.D. 44 to 62 and is a much more plausible candidate for authorship than either of the others. The assumption then was that this James, whose authority derived from his close kinship with Jesus, was writing from the Jewish capital to those Jews who had left Palestine and were scattered across the Roman world. The fact that he refers to himself as a “servant” was regarded as a sign of his humility and as standing in sharp contrast to the usual letter-writing practice of the time. Today the authenticity of James is still questioned, but most scholars recognize that it must be one of the earliest New Testament writings. The authorship of James the brother of Jesus continues to find its defenders and must be regarded as plausible, even if it cannot be proved now any more than it could be in patristic times. To be a slave of Christ is, for the apostles, greater than having command of all the kingdoms of the world (DIDYMUS, OECUMENIUS). This is a voluntary servanthood (HILARY OF ARLES). James wrote this letter to those suffering persecution (BEDE).
THE MARTYRDOM OF JAMES. JOSEPHUS: Caesar sent Albinus to Judea as procurator when he was informed of the death of Festus. But the younger Annas, who as I said had received the high priesthood, was headstrong in character and audacious in the extreme. He belonged to the sect of the Sadducees, who in judging offenders are cruel beyond any of the Jews, as I have already made clear. Being a man of this kind, Annas thought that he had a convenient opportunity, as Festus was dead and Albinus still on the way. So he assembled a council of judges and brought it before James, the brother of Jesus, known as Christ, and several others. Annas charged them with breaking the law and handed them over to be stoned. But those who were considered the most fair-minded people in the city, and strict in their observance of the law, were most indignant at this, and sent secretly to the king, imploring him to write to Annas to stop behaving in this way. His conduct had been wrong from the first. Some of them too waylaid Albinus on the road from Alexandria and explained that it was illegal for Annas to assemble a council without his authority. Convinced by their arguments, Albinus wrote an angry letter to Annas, threatening to punish him. In consequence, King Agrippa deprived him of the high priesthood, which he had held for three months only, and appointed Jeshua son of Dammaeus. JEWISH ANTIQUITIES 20.9.1.1
SLAVES OF GOD. DIDYMUS THE BLIND: Those who seek worldly glory display the qualifications which they think they have in their correspondence. But the apostles boast, at the beginning of their letters, that they are slaves of God and Christ. CATENA.2
VOLUNTARY SERVANTHOOD. HILARY OF ARLES: Christ deigned to reveal himself to James after his passion, and eventually it became proverbial to say: “He appeared also to James.”3 James refers to himself as a servant, but we must remember that there are two kinds of servitude, voluntary and involuntary. The involuntary servant is a slave who fears punishment, and therefore his service does not spring from love. But the voluntary servant is really no different from a son. INTRODUCTORY TRACTATE ON THE LETTER OF JAMES.4
TO THE PERSECUTED. BEDE: We read that when Stephen was martyred a great persecution of the church broke out at Jerusalem and that they were all scattered across the countryside of Judea and Samaria, except for the apostles. James then wrote this letter to those who had been scattered because they had suffered persecution for the sake of righteousness. And not only to them, but also, as the rest of the letter testifies, to those who had become Christians but who were still struggling to achieve perfection, as well as to those who remained outside the faith themselves and did their best to persecute and disturb believers. All of these people were exiles, though for different reasons. But we also read in the Acts of the Apostles that at the time of our Lord’s death there were devout Jews “from every nation under heaven.”5 What these nations were is explained a little further on, where Luke mentions Parthians, Medes, Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, and so on.6 James also exhorts the righteous not to lose their faith, and he rebukes sinners, warning them that they must refrain from sinning and practice virtue, so that they would not be condemned by those who had received the sacraments of faith in an unfruitful way, even worthy of hell. He goes now to warn unbelievers to repent of the murder of the Savior and of the other crimes in which they were implicated before divine retribution overtook them secretly, or even openly for that matter. CONCERNING THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES.7
SLAVES OF CHRIST. OECUMENIUS: More than any worldly dignity, the Lord’s apostles gloried in the fact that they were slaves of Christ. That is how they wanted to be known in their preaching, in their writing and in their teaching. COMMENTARY ON JAMES.8
TO THE TWELVE TRIBES IN DISPERSION. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: The opening resembles the titles of St. Paul’s letters, and perhaps James is the author of it, whoever he may be. He was unacquainted with Paul’s custom of writing to one particular nation and city, and for a particular reason. Instead, this author writes to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations because of the captivity, and not to the churches in every place, because he had no particular reason to be so specific. COMMENTARIES, PROLOGUE.9