Warning***Yawner Alert***When I start a new series, I always include these Introductory Posts that may be a little dry. But I promise it will get better….
Lookahead: To recap, the inference was that someone who was not named James wrote the Book of James—possibly in honor of James. That, to me, would invoke a “Don’t do me any favors!” response. Regardless, I might have to add another possible author to the list whom we could refer to as “No Name.” Even if we may consider this theory to be tenuous, it exemplifies some of the controversy surrounding the book: “For the most part, until the late 20th century, the epistle of James was relegated to benign disregard – though it was shunned by many early theologians and scholars due to its advocacy of Torah observance and good works. Famously, Luther at one time considered the epistle to be among the disputed books, and sidelined it to an appendix, although in his Large Catechism he treated it as the authoritative word of God.”6
I had always presumed that the Book of James was written by the Apostle James, brother of John, and one of the Sons of Thunder. But, months ago, when I began the drill-down, I realized that the authorship is a subject of healthy debate.
Reducing the options down, I believe that there are actually five candidates in the Real Author search:
First of the two Apostle Jameses – or James the Great (although that designation does not appear in the New Testament)1. James the Great was…the son of Zebedee, the elder brother of (the Apostle) John, and (possibly) a relative of our Lord; for his mother Salome was cousin-german to the Virgin Mary.2
Second of the two Apostle Jameses – or James the Less. The name, James the Less, derives from Mark 15:40: There were women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the Less, and of Joses, and Salome. Gotta wonder where the “James the Less” moniker came from. Was it just a useful discriminator in writing the gospel, or a nickname that this James was forced to endure? (Note: the Greek word for ‘less’ is mikros—adjective: small, little of size: hence of stature, of length; small of age: less by birth, younger; small of rank or influence. Granted these have gentler connotations than less. But comparisons are odious nevertheless…) This James was a son of Alphaeus. In Mark 2:14, the gospel writer also refers to Matthew (Levi) as a son of Alphaeus. Were they brothers?
James the Just – oldest half-brother of Christ, brother of Jude, cousin of Jesus? (Rhetorical question: but was he a half-brother because the mothers were different? (Joseph’s second marriage?) or half-brother because the fathers were different? 😊) If a half/brother or cousin of Jesus, there’s a good chance that this James, at one time, thought Jesus was crazy, e.g., in Mark 3:21, etc.:
“During Jesus’ life, the Bible records that ‘even his own brothers did not believe in him,’ (John 7:1-10), but after Jesus’ resurrection, ‘He appeared to James, (1 Corinthians 15:7) and James believed. He eventually became the leader of the Jerusalem church and was instrumental in motivating the Jewish-background believers to prioritize sharing the gospel with Gentiles (Acts 15:13-20). And he wrote one of the letters that is in our Bible today, giving wise instruction on God’s wisdom, trials, words, obedience, prayer, and more!”3
James the Father of Judas not Iscariot (Luke 6:16, Acts 1:13, and John 14:22). There were no further Biblical references to this James, other than genealogical. Therefore, it is difficult to determine if he played any role besides paternity. Age wouldn’t rule him out as a bishop or leader, or epistle author. Correlation with historical events points to a time of authorship that was approximately thirty years before the Book of Revelation’s. But (and here’s a hint about the next post) the Acts references, and the Book of James itself, point to a James who was either personally educated by Rabbi Jesus, and/or who was learn-ed in the Torah—if not formally educated. Other candidates seem to meet this criteria better.
Some other James. Admitting that I did not do a totally exhaustive web search, I was not able to find any other candidates who were named James. But I found a “laymen’s” post on the Quora Q&A website that correctly stated, “Even in the fourth century, it seems the authenticity or provenance of the epistle of this epistle was still in dispute.“ The post went on to state, “Francis A Sullivan SJ says, in From Apostles to Bishops, it is probable that a disciple who admired the image of James as the Christian authority most loyal to Judaism wrote the Epistle of James in the 80s or 90s.”4 Yup, I ran this reference to ground and it’s a legit quote.
And another surprising reference: Most recently Dale Allison’s magisterial commentary on James in the ICC series weighs the evidence and concludes James is likely not the author. He points out there is there is no clear knowledge of James before the time of Origen.5
To recap, the inference was that someone who was not named James wrote the Book of James—possibly in honor of James. That, to me, would invoke a “Don’t do me any favors!” response. Regardless, I might have to add another possible author to the list whom we could refer to as “No Name.” Even if we may consider this theory to be tenuous, it exemplifies some of the controversy surrounding the book:
“For the most part, until the late 20th century, the epistle of James was relegated to benign disregard – though it was shunned by many early theologians and scholars due to its advocacy of Torah observance and good works. Famously, Luther at one time considered the epistle to be among the disputed books, and sidelined it to an appendix, although in his Large Catechism he treated it as the authoritative word of God.”6
Further details about the Luther connection—
“In reading Timothy J. Wengert’s new book, Reading the Bible with Martin Luther, he addresses almost immediately the issue of Luther’s estimation of the book of James and especially his characterization of it as a ‘real strawy epistle.’ I start with Luther’s words…
“’In sum, St. John’s Gospel and his first epistle; St. Paul’s letters, especially the ones to the Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians; and St. Peter’s first epistle are all books that show you Christ, and they all teach which is necessary and salutary for you to know, even if you do not see or hear any other book or teaching. It is for this reason that James’s epistle is in comparison a real strawy epistle, for it has no evangelical character about it.’
(However, in addition,) “Wengert offers this intriguing quote from Luther which few people are aware of (my italic) regarding the book of James. Luther said, ‘I praise James and hold it to be a good writing because it does propose human teachings but drives God’s law hard.’”7
Anyway, in the next post, I will “put some flesh around” the first three options, and start adding detail about who these Jameses might have been. (Topics like: their martyrdom; Bro Matthew?; “No—you didn’t just call me Baby James to my face!”; Faulty Comm Link between James and Paul? etc.) I was not able to find significant detail on the last two candidates, so will consider that they didn’t survive the down-select for now. And Candidate 6 was a non-starter in my book. 😊
But, as we continue our efforts to zoom in on the human author in the next post, could we not cut through all these glorious debates—and to the chase—by saying that the Blessed Holy Spirit is the ultimate author of the Book of James, and every other book in the Bible?
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1https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/who-wrote-the-book-of-james
2http://www.ntslibrary.com/PDF%20Books/Foxes%20Book%20of%20Martyrs.pdf
3https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/bible-study/who-wrote-the-book-of-james.html
4http://www.quora.com/Who-wrote-the-book-of-James-in-the-Bible
5https://readingacts.com/2018/02/12/which-james/
Cross-Denominational Bible Study 