JAMES, EPISTLE OF. This epistle, according to its open ing verse, is addressed by James to "the twelve tribes of the dis persion," which probably means Christendom in general, con ceived as the new Israel (cf. I Peter i. 1, 3, Gal. vi. 16). According to the traditional view, this James is the Lord's brother, the "pillar" of Gal. ii. 9. But this is very far from being certain. With the superscription of this epistle may be compared that of the Epistle of Jude (q.v.), whose author, it would seem, seeks to clothe a message of denunciation against heretics guilty of moral laxity with similar apostolic authority, the "kindred of the Lord" being regarded in post-apostolic times as guardians of faith and morals for the Church (Hegesippus op. Euseb., H. E. iv., xxii. 4). Though some conservative critics still maintain the authen ticity of the work, the superscription failed, even in antiquity, to secure its general acceptance; for Origen (A.D. 23o), who is the first writer to make explicit mention of it, speaks of it as only "the so-called Epistle of James," Eusebius classes it among the "dis puted" writings, and even Jerome admits that it was "said to have been published by another in the name of James." It is included in the Catalogus Claromontanus (Alexandria, 4th century) and in the lists of Athanasius, Cyril of Jerusalem and Epiphanius. But the Western Church, like the Syrian, refused it recognition down to the 5th century.
Luther maintained that the epistle was not apostolic (Sdmmtl. Werke. Erl., vol. lxiii. p. i57), but his objections were largely doc trinal in character and the later reformers, disregarding the well founded doubts of Erasmus and Cajetan, fell back upon the tradi tional view. Modern criticism begins with de Wette's Introd. to the N.T. (1826), which definitely denied the claim to apostolic origin. It is true that the epistle cannot have been composed later than A.D. 15o, and that from the beginning it bore the name of James. But the language in which it was composed is a strongly Hellenized type of patristic Greek. This, and its motive, that of combating the type of degenerate Paulinism denounced in the Pastoral Epistles, Polycarp, and Papias as "vain talk" in place of a life in accordance with the new commandment of love, serve to link it, so far as motive is concerned, with the Gospel of Matthew, the Epistles of John (cf. 1 John iii. Ps.-Barnabas (A.D. 132?), and the Ignatian Epistles (115).
Zahn and Mayor would avoid the difficulty of taking ii. 14-26 as a direct polemic against the watchword of Paul by assuming a date shortly before the beginning of the legalistic controversy or immediately of ter the death of Paul. But internal evidence shows
that the date must fall "in the period of quiet after the destruc tion of Jerusalem in A.D. 7o and before the disturbances which culminated in the rebellion of Bar-Cochba, A.D. 132-135." This conclusion is that of Prof. J. H. Ropes of Harvard in the most thorough treatment ever given to the epistle (I.C. Comm., 1916).
While, as regards motive, the writer stands close to the Pastoral Epistles and Matthew, his use of the moral teachings of Jesus is closer to the form reflected in Luke. Like the Lucan source James shows affinity with the Jewish wisdom literature as well as with the Hellenistic diatribe. His extraordinary lack of interest in Jesus as actual Leader and Founder of the Church (cf. James v. Io, II with I Peter iii. 13—iv. 6), resulting in a type of religion equivalent to the Jewish doctrine of the Torah as an indwelling better impulse (yetser hattob), informing and sustaining the spiritual life, can scarcely be paralleled unless in the Preaching of Peter, an early product of the Syrian Church in which, as Clement reports, the titles applied to Christ were Word and Law Kai NO,uos). Hermas at Rome, who shows several other contacts with James, has also the strange declaration that "The Law of God given to the whole world is the Son of God" (Simil. viii. 3). The founda tion is seemingly I Peter i. 23-25, adopted in James i. 18, 21; but the outcome is a Logos doctrine widely different from that devel oped in Asia under the influence of Paul.
As between Syria and Rome internal indications, such as the reference to conditions of agriculture (v. 7) as well as the pseu donym invoked, suggest a Syrian origin as more probable. As an example of the kind of surroundings likely to give rise to such a writing Ropes suggests Caesarea, second only to Jerusalem as a Palestinian cradle of the Church. In his carefully chosen words "The epistle is probably the pseudonymous production of a Chris tian of Jewish origin, living in Palestine in the last quarter of the st century or the first quarter of the 2nd." Commentaries by J. B. Mayor (4th ed., 1913), J. H. Ropes (Int. Crit. Comm., 1916) ; J. E. Belser, Die Epistel d. heiligen Jakobus (19o9) ; H. Windisch, Die Katholischen Briefe (Handbuch z. N.T., 191i) ; J. Moffatt, Introd. to the Lit. of the N.T. (3rd ed., 1918), with full bibliography. (B. W. BA.)