It will be well to put together the bits of information about James, or
Jacob,[1] as he is called in the Greek. They are not very numerous, and
yet it is possible to form a reasonably clear picture of his
personality.
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.
The theory (brother or half-brother theory) that Jesus and James were
sons of the same mother, Mary, may be said to hold the field against the
others. In fact, it is most likely that both of the other theories grew
out of the desire to secure a greater imaginary sanctity for Mary under
the impression that she was more holy if she bore only Jesus and did not
live as wife with Joseph. But this is contrary to all Jewish sentiment,
and certainly there is nothing in the Gospels to countenance this notion
but much to contradict it. We conclude, therefore, that James, the
author of the epistle, is the brother of Jesus.