James and His Epistle: The New Testament in the Making

What is the origin of the Letter of James? The usual objections against its authenticity as it stands can be done away with, not by scrutinizing its content, but by studying the outstanding personality of James the Righteous, “brother of the Lord”, who was expecting the Messiah to come soon. A leader or “bishop” of the Nazoreans, he was renowned in Judea. In spite of his remaining strictly Jewish, he was able to discern the importance of the mission of Peter and Paul, but without joining it. Legally stoned by a Sadducean high priest, he was considered to be a martyr, as the accounts given by Josephus and Eusebius show. Thus he became a major character in the Acts of the Apostles, both on stage and in the background. His fame grew well beyond the Nazorean faction, and it can be shown that one of the Qumran texts recognized him as a “Teacher of Righteousness”.