When was the Epistle of James written?

Answer 1

Another answer from our community:

Modern scholars have shown that the letter was actually written much later than apostolic times, to combat 'heretical' (gnostic) ideas within the early church. Martin Luther rejected the Epistle of James as apostolic, calling it worthless and an "epistle of straw".

So, the epistle appears to have been written late in the first century or early in the second century, by an anonymous author.
No one knows the exact date. It is believed written between A.D.48-62. James was stoned to death in A.D.62 so a date prior to that is obvious. James was at the Jerusalem council in about A.D.49. James, the brother of Jesus, became the leader of the church in Jerusalem and was apparently an unbeliever during the ministry of Jesus, however, after a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus to him he believed and is numbered with believers in Acts 1:14.

Answer 2

We can not really say when the Epistle of James was written. Tradition holds that it was written by James the brother of Jesus, in which case it must have been written before his death in the early sixties. However, only the most conservative scholars continue to accept that James the brother of Jesus was its author. The Catholic Encyclopedia suggests a date around 47 CE, whereas some liberal scholars assign a date of between 85 and 130 to the Epistle of James.
Even if we do not know the author of this book, the internal evidence does point to an earlier date for the epistle: there are no bishops or deacons mentioned; the obvious Jewish tone of the letter, combined with no mention at all of the later conflict between Christians and Jews; the absence of developed Christian phraseology; and the lack of elaborated Christian doctrine.

The Letter of James seems not to have been read or even noticed by authors in the centrist tradition before Origen in the third century. It sounds like a treatise written against the Pauline notion that the Christian faith opposed the "works of the law", in which case it would certainly have been written well after the time of Paul.

Whether this letter is genuinely by James, the brother of Jesus (as some conservative scholars maintain) or only written in his name, the writer would have designated himself as Jesus' brother. However, James 1:1 only describes James as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Although there are many echoes of Gospel sayings in this epistle, there is not even a general reference to Jesus as a teacher to be found.