James

James letter of the New Testament, traditionally classified among the Catholic, or General, Epistles. The James of its ascription is traditionally identified with St. James the Less. However, the name is more likely a pseudonym. The letter's diverse sayings and admonitions, some of which are recurrent, are interspersed with more lengthy discourses, e.g., on the relationship of faith and works, the need for curbing the tongue, and the danger of envy and ambition. There are many points of contact with sayings of Jesus recorded in the Synoptic Gospels—e.g., on oaths, on rich oppressors, and on loving one's neighbor. Martin Luther rejected James because it seemed to deny his interpretation of justification by faith and to argue instead that a person is justified by works. "Works" are faith in action, i.e., the expression of trust in God. For both James and Paul, loving one's neighbor fulfills the law. Scholars differ widely on the origins and date of the work.

Bibliography: See studies by D. J. Moo (1985) and R. P. Martin (1988).

James. The name of two or three early Christian figures. St James, the son of Zebedee, was brother of John, and one of Jesus' inner circle of disciples. He was martyred in 44 CE (Acts 12. 2). He was claimed in the Middle Ages to have been the apostle of Spain, and was supposed to have been buried at Santiago de Compostela (see PILGRIMAGE). St James, ‘the Lord's brother’ (Mark 6. 3), became the leader of the earliest Christian church at Jerusalem after the departure of Peter. Nothing is known of St James the Less (or ‘the younger’; Mark 15. 40) unless he is to be identified with James the son of Alphaeus (Mark 3. 18) or Jesus' brother.

The Letter of James is the first of the Catholic Epistles in the New Testament. It is almost entirely moral in content.

James. The normal English form of the Latin Jacobus, which represents one form of the Hebrew name transliterated into English as Jacob. In English versions of the Bible the form ‘Jacob’ is retained in the OT and those passages of the NT which refer to the OT patriarch.