Historical and Literary Context of James

Shannon Smith 4-3-11

RSA SR9 Bible

In the epistle of James, it is hard to tell who the writer is because there were many people named James, but it is most likely Jesus’ half-brother, James. James was an unassuming Galilean carpenter, like his father and half-brother, Jesus. Some Biblical scholars think that it was not him because he was an uneducated carpenter and could not have know Greek, but since he was a leader in his community, it was more likely that he could have spoken Greek. The timeframe for the date of the book to have been written was around 40 to 50 A.D. James died only twelve years later. The letter of James was most likely meant as a general letter to all Jewish believers in the Roman world, as it was addressed to “the twelve tribes scattered among the nations.” (Archaeological Study Bible. NIV. James 1:1b) It is likely that the book was written from Jerusalem. (Archaeological Study Bible. NIV. pgs. 2000-2001)

The purpose of the book of James is to encourage the people since the people who were mainly reading it were poor and oppressed by the rich. In James 2:6 he says; “But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court?” Also, since they were going through difficult times, James first talks about trials and temptations and to “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.” (Archaeological Study Bible. NIV. James 1:2) This would have been extremely important for them to hear because it is during difficult times that people turn away from God, not during prosperous times. During good times it is easy to give thanks to God and follow Him because He has given you everything you want. It is during the hard times that people lose their faith in God because we, as fallen creatures, do not understand why God has done this to us and we assume that we have done something wrong just because we do not have what we want. In reality, trials and temptations are what God uses to solidify our faith in Him and those difficult times are what we need. In James, that is exactly what he is trying to tell them.

Some of the running themes through the book of James are true faith expressed in deeds, wisdom and moral lessons. True faith, as described in James 2: 17 says; “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” (Archaeological Study Bible. NIV.) He emphasizes the importance of faith, and not just faith by itself, but true faith that is followed up by actions. Also, going back to the purpose of the book, James probably put the section on Faith and Deeds in to remind them that even though they are in a bad situation, they still needed to have faith in the Lord and to keep it “polished” by accompanying it with actions, instead of “rusty faith” that you slack off and do not practice regularly. Another theme in the book is wisdom. James uses it through the whole book. In the first chapter he indirectly compares wisdom to being “mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God,...” (Archaeological Study Bible. NIV. James 1:4b-5a) Then, he has a section on the Two Kinds of Wisdom. He talks about “earthly wisdom” and “heavenly wisdom” and how earthly wisdom comes from the devil and how you should strive towards gaining “heavenly wisdom.” Another theme in the epistle is “moral lessons.” These “moral lessons” are like the ones in Sunday School where the teacher would ask; “What is the moral of the story?” and the class would respond with something like; “Don’t get angry.” or something similar, depending on the story. James deals with many moral lessons like “Everyone should be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to become angry,...” (Archaeological Study Bible. NIV. James 1:19b) and Taming the Tongue and patience and submission to God. James was reminding his readers on how to act and behave like a Christian should; like Jesus. WWJD; What Would Jesus Do? really comes into play in James.

The passages surrounding James 2:14-26 are Favoritism Forbidden where it talks about how God does not show favoritism to anybody and how we should treat others equally. James 2:13 says; “because judgement without mercy will be shown to anyone who is not merciful.” This ties into Faith and Deeds well because James was just telling his readers to have mercy to everyone but specifically the poor and then he goes and says; “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes or daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?” (Archaeological Study Bible. NIV. James 2: 15-16) The passages are telling people how to act like Christ and part of acting like Christ is showing mercy to those most people would not show mercy to. The passage directly following Faith and Deeds is Taming the Tongue. James talks about how to act and then he moves on to how to speak. The book of James covers how to act, how to speak and even how to think in Submitting Yourselves to God.

Though at first it may seem that James is a letter, which it is, it can actually be classified into a more specific category of paraenesis which is Greek for “encouragement.” (The IVP Introduction to the Bible. Johnson, Philip S. pg. 252) James is encouraging the poor and oppressed by telling them to stay strong through the hard times and also teaching them how to act during the hard times. On the broader side, the epistle of James is preceded by Hebrews which deal with many of the same topics the James deals with. Hebrews deals with Perseverance,Faith and Christian Living, all of which James deals with. Also, the book following James, 1 Peter, deals with similar topics such as Christian Living, and Suffering for doing good and adds on a new topic of The Believer’s new identity. The books seem to work in a transitional way where they talk about certain topics and the book after that discusses some of the topics but adds on a couple of new topics and so on, gradually changing and evolving.