What the book is
James reads like a book of wisdom, in the tradition of Proverbs and of Jesus’s own teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. It moves quickly from one subject to the next, with vivid pictures: the wave driven by the wind, the person who looks in a mirror and forgets what they look like, the small rudder that steers a great ship, the spark that sets a forest on fire. It mentions Jesus by name only twice, yet echoes his words throughout. Its most famous sentence is about faith that does nothing:
It is the same with faith: if it has no works, it is dead in itself.
Who wrote it, and when
The letter is from “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ” (1:1). Since early times this James has been identified as the brother of Jesus, who became the leader of the church in Jerusalem (Acts 15:13; Galatians 1:19; 2:9) and was put to death around AD 62. If he wrote it, it may be one of the earliest books of the New Testament, from the 40s or 50s. Some scholars think it was written later by someone using his name, pointing to its polished Greek; others reply that James could have had help with the language, and that the letter’s concerns fit the early Jerusalem church. It is addressed “to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations”, Jewish believers in Christ living outside the land of Israel.
How the book is laid out
James is less an argument than a series of linked teachings, and readers divide it in different ways.
- Trials and wisdom (1:1–18): joy in testing, asking God for wisdom without doubting, and every good gift coming from above.
- Hearing and doing (1:19–27): quick to listen, slow to speak, and true religion that cares for orphans and widows.
- No favouritism (2:1–13): the rich man and the poor man in the assembly.
- Faith and works (2:14–26): faith without works is dead, with Abraham and Rahab as examples.
- The tongue (3:1–12) and wisdom from above (3:13–18).
- Pride and planning (4): quarrels, friendship with the world, and “if the Lord wills”.
- Patience and prayer (5): warning to the rich, waiting for the Lord’s coming, and praying for the sick.
How Open Word Bible translates James
Faith and works (2:14–26). James says that “it is by works that a person is justified, and not by faith only” (2:24), which can seem to clash with Paul’s “justified by faith” (Romans 3:28). Luther famously called James “an epistle of straw”. The draft translates James as he wrote, keeps faith as a key term, and its decision on “justified” (2:21) reads it as “declared to be in the right by God”, with “shown to be righteous” in the footnote. Most readers have concluded that James and Paul answer different questions: Paul, how a person is made right with God; James, what real faith looks like.
Who is speaking in 2:18? “But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’” Where the speaker’s words end, and which side the speaker is on, is unclear. The draft follows its Greek text’s punctuation and footnotes the other readings.
A hard verse (4:5). “Scripture says” introduces words found nowhere in the Old Testament, and the sentence itself can be read in more than one way: God longing jealously for the spirit he made to live in us, or the human spirit prone to envy. The decisions mark both questions uncertain and footnote the readings.
The text. James has many small differences between manuscripts, and the draft follows the SBL Greek New Testament in each, with the other reading in a footnote.
Brothers and sisters. James addresses his readers as “brothers” again and again, a word that in Greek can include women. The draft uses a reader setting for it. See “Brothers” or “brothers and sisters”?.