James: Introduction
This is the start of a new online Bible study. For this study, we are going to look at the letter of James.
Who wrote James? Well, James wrote James. But which James? There are actually four individuals named James in the New Testament. Of the four, only two are prominent enough to have been responsible for such a letter.
One is James the Apostle. This is the son of Zebedee and brother of John (Mark 1:19). Being one of the Twelve, he definitely was important enough to have written this letter. The problem is that this James was killed early on (Acts 12:2). This James was actually the first of the Twelve (except for Judas) to die and this letter seems to be written after that date.
This leaves us James, the brother of Jesus. It looks as if Joseph and Mary had a number of children after Jesus was born and one of them was named James (Mark 6:3). The evidence from the Gospels suggests that none of the brothers believed that Jesus was the Messiah during his earthly ministry. But when we get to Acts, we find this James is the leader of the Jerusalem church (Acts 15).
How did this happen? The key is 1 Corinthians 15:7, which describes a special appearance of the risen Christ to James. Jesus visited his half-brother after his resurrection and this led to James not only becoming a believer but also one of the most important leaders.
The Jewish historian Josephus records the death of James:
Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned: but as for those who seemed the most equitable of the citizens, and such as were the most uneasy at the breach of the laws, they disliked what was done.
Many people do not realize that every mention of James (any of them) in the New Testament is actually a mistranslation of the Greek. The Greek is actually Jacob and not James. Why then do we use James? You might find this article interesting.
Discussion Questions
- Why do you think James didn’t believe Jesus at first? How would you have felts as Jesus’ brother?
- What do you think the conversation between the risen Jesus and James was like?
- Why do you think that James became such a prominent leader in the early church?
