Studies in the Epistle of James

by A. T. Robertson

It is here assumed that James the author of the epistle is James the brother of the Lord (Gal. 1:19). It is hardly conceivable that James the brother of John could have written the epistle, since he was put to death as early as A.D. 44 by Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12:2). The matters presented in the epistle were hardly acute in the Jewish Christian world by that date, and there is no evidence that this James had attained a special position of leadership that justified a general appeal to Jewish Christians.[2]

The epistle belongs to the five “disputed” epistles (James, Jude, 2 and 3 John, 2 Peter) and it circulated in the East before it did in the West. It occurs in the Peshitta Syriac Version. Origen (in Johan. xix. 6) knows it as “the Epistle current as that of James” and Eusebius (H. E. III. xxv. 3) describes it with the other four as “nevertheless well-known to most people.”

There are many proofs[3] that the epistle was written by the author of the speech in Acts 15:13-21—delicate similarities of thought and style too subtle for mere imitation or copying. The same likeness appears between the Epistle of James and the letter to Antioch, probably written also by James (Acts 15:23-29). There are, besides, apparent reminiscences of the Sermon on the Mount, which James may have heard personally or at least heard the substance of it. There is the same vividness of imagery in the epistle that is so prominent a characteristic of the teaching of Jesus.

If it be urged that the author of the epistle, if related to Jesus, would have said so, one may reply that a delicate sense of propriety may have had precisely the opposite effect. Jesus had himself laid emphasis on the fact of his spiritual kinship with all believers as more important (Matt. 12:48-50). The fact that James during the ministry of Jesus was not sympathetic with His work would also act as a restraining force upon him. The brother of Jesus (see also Jude 1) naturally would wish to make his appeal on the same plane as the other teachers of the gospel. He rejoices in the title of “servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,” just as Paul did later (Rom. 1:1; Phil. 1:1; Titus 1:1) and as Jude, the brother of James, did (Jude 1).

Paul, however, added the term “apostle” in Romans 1:1 and Titus 1:1 which James and Jude do not employ. None of them were members of the twelve, although Paul claimed apostleship on a par with the twelve (1 Cor. 9:1 f.; 15:8; 2 Cor. 12:11 f.). And yet Paul implies (Gal. 1:19) that James also is an apostle[4] in a true sense of that term. Like Paul, he had seen the risen Lord (1 Cor. 15:7). But James, though one of the pillars at Jerusalem with Peter and John (Gal. 2:9), is content with the humbler word “slave.” He is the bondsman of the Lord Jesus Christ as well as of God and so is a Christian in the full sense of the term.

He places Jesus on a par with God and uses Christ as a part of the name. He identifies his brother Jesus with the Messiah of the Old Testament and the fulfilment of the hopes and aspirations of true Judaism. One must perceive that the term “Christ” in the mouth of James carries its full content and is used deliberately. He adds also “Lord,” which has here the Old Testament connotation of worship. It is not a mere polite term for station or courtesy. The use of “Lord” by the side of “God” places James unquestionably in the ranks of worshipers of Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. See also James 2:1, “faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

I consider it settled that James was not the cousin of Jesus, the son of the sister of Mary the mother of Jesus. There is no doubt that the Greek word for brother is used for members of a brotherhood in the current Greek of the first century A.D., just as we find it so frequently in the New Testament. This usage does not apply to the brothers of Jesus referred to in the Gospels (John 2:12; Mark 6:3; Matt. 13:55; John 7:3). In Matthew 12:46, 49 we find both the literal and the figurative use of “brother” side by side. In this looser sense anyone may be called “brother.”

In Leviticus 10:4 the first cousins of Aaron are termed “brethren,” but this instance does not justify the constant use of the word in the Gospels for a definite group of persons as brothers of Jesus if they were only cousins. Besides, they appear constantly with Mary, the mother of Jesus, as members of her family. The use of “sisters” increases the argument for the common use of the word (Mark 6:3; Matt. 13:56). There are many other difficulties in the way of this position, such as the fact of two sisters with the name of Mary and the identification of Alphaeus and Clopas.

The theory that James and the other brothers and sisters were all children of Joseph by a former marriage (step-brother theory) is free from the difficulty about the word “brother” and is not inconceivable in itself. Unfortunately there are critical objections to it, for Jesus is not called “only begotten” of Mary but “firstborn” in Luke 2:7: “She brought forth her firstborn son.”

Jesus is “only begotten” of God (John 1:18), as the widow of Nain had an only son (Luke 7:12) and Jairus an only daughter (Luke 8:42). But “firstborn” occurs in the true sense all through the Septuagint (cf. Gen. 27:19, 32; 43:33; Deut. 21:15), where there were other children. The inscriptions show it in the true sense. The New Testament instances of “firstborn” are all strictly correct from this standpoint, even Colossians 1:15 and Romans 8:29. “Firstborn” implies other children. Besides, the natural meaning of Matthew 1:25 leads to the same conclusion.