Epistle of James
[7][8] Framing his letter within an overall theme of patient perseverance during trials and temptations, James writes in order to encourage his readers to live consistently with what they have learned in Christ.
So did Martin Luther, who included it along with Hebrews, Jude, and Revelation in his German translation of the Bible, but ordered James near the end of his New Testament published in 1522.
[18] The link between James the brother of Jesus and the epistle continued to strengthen, and is now considered the traditional view on the authorship of the work.
[34] Those who hold to traditional authorship date the epistle to sometime before 62 CE, in the forties or fifties, making it one of the earliest writings of the New Testament.
The historiographic debate currently seems to be leaning to the side of those in favor of early dating, although not through irrefutable evidence but through indications and probabilities.
[43][44] Many consider James to have affinities to Jewish wisdom literature: "like Proverbs and Sirach, it consists largely of moral exhortations and precepts of a traditional and eclectic nature.
"[45] The epistle also has affinities with many of the sayings of Jesus which are found in the gospels of Luke and Matthew (i.e., those attributed to the hypothetical Q source, in the two-source hypothesis).
[51][52] Some view the epistle as having no overarching outline: "James may have simply grouped together small 'thematic essays' without having more linear, Greco-Roman structures in mind.
"[53] That view is generally supported by those who believe that the epistle may not be a true piece of correspondence between specific parties but an example of wisdom literature, formulated as a letter for circulation.
The Catholic Encyclopedia says, "the subjects treated of in the Epistle are many and various; moreover, St. James not infrequently, whilst elucidating a certain point, passes abruptly to another, and presently resumes once more his former argument.
[57] The United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament divides the letter into the following sections: The exact historical circumstances that occasioned the epistle are unknown.
[64] The epistle contains the following famous passage concerning salvation and justification: What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?
If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?
[66] One issue in the debate is the meaning of the Greek word δικαιόω (dikaiόō), 'render righteous or such as he ought to be'),[67] with some among the participants taking the view that James is responding to a misunderstanding of Paul.
[68] Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy have historically argued that the passage disproves simplistic versions of the doctrine of justification by faith alone (sola fide).
[69][70] The early Protestants resolved the apparent conflict between James and Paul regarding faith and works in alternate ways from the Catholics and Orthodox.
The errorists Paul was dealing with were people who said that works of the law were needed to be added to faith in order to help earn God's favor.
[73]: 157–158 A more recent article suggests that the current confusion regarding the Epistle of James about faith and works resulted from Augustine of Hippo's anti-Donatist polemic in the early fifth century.
[77] According to Sanders, traditional Christian theology wrongly divested the term "works" of its ethical grounding, part of the effort to characterize Judaism as legalistic.
But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
[84] According to modern scholarship James, Q, Matthew, the Didache, and the pseudo-Clementine literature reflect a similar ethos, ethical perspective, and stand on, or assume, Torah observance.
[87] A strong message against those advocating the rejection of Torah observance characterizes, and emanates from, this tradition: "Some have attempted while I am still alive, to transform my words by certain various interpretations, in order to teach the dissolution of the law; as though I myself were of such a mind, but did not freely proclaim it, which God forbid!
Joseph Smith claims that the reading and contemplation of this verse inspired him to ask God for wisdom, leading to his First Vision, and thus what his followers consider to be the Restoration—the creation of the LDS church.
[100] Its late recognition in the Church, especially in the West, was a consequence primarily of its sparse attestation by earlier Christian authors and its disputed authorship.
Jerome reported that the Epistle of James "is claimed by some to have been published by some one else under his name, and gradually, as time went on, to have gained authority" (De viris illustribus 2).
[102] During the Reformation era, Martin Luther took issue with the epistle on theological grounds, finding James' description of faith and works incompatible with his understanding of justification.
Reportedly, he once went as far as to assert "I almost feel like throwing Jimmy[b] into the stove", a metaphor for his being tempted to remove the Epistle of James from the Bible.
[103][104][105] Luther nonetheless chose to include James in his German translation, though he moved it (along with Hebrews, Jude, and Revelation) to the end of the Bible.
