What characteristics are found in the Epistle of James?

Answer 1

A feature of the Epistle of James is his list of instructions for Jewish people which gives his work a different flavor to Paul's writing for Gentiles. For example, he stresses the necessity of good works while also addressing the issue that works themselves are not enough. James also conveys the deity and Lordship of Christ.

Answer 2

James focuses on living a Christian life in practical terms. He teaches how faith is lived out on a daily basis through actions. Thus it is a Christian book written by a Christian author, but from a different angle than his contemporary writers. It is about faith as much as the others, but about how that faith influences a Christian's actions.

Answer 3

The General Epistle of James only mentions Jesus twice, at 1:1 and 2:1. In both cases, the reference is incidental and may even have been a later insertion. Some scholars point out that, apart from these references, the epistle could quite easily have been an Old Testament document. When James could have called upon Jesus as an example, it refers to "the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience."
Another characteristic of the epistle is its apparent disinterest in describing Christian faith as based around Jesus. If James was written shortly after the life and crucifixion of Jesus, by someone intimately affected by those events, the references to faith are strangely vague and remote.

James disputes the Pauline theology that salvation comes through faith, rather than works: (2:14) "What does it profit, my brethren though a man say he has faith and has not works? Can faith save him?" (2:20) "But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?"

Answer 4

The General Epistle of James could be substantially pre-Christian, or at least proto-Christian. Its teaching is not about the Christian faith, but about the importance of living a moral life, and the arguments for doing so are set forth as common wisdom.

The source and authority for this wisdom are taken for granted by the author. Sayings reminiscent of the teachings of Jesus are not given special privilege and are not even attributed to him as their author or authority. The authorities to which the epistle appeals are the wisdom common to ancient Near Eastern ethical instruction, "the perfect law, the law of liberty" or "the royal law according to the (Jewish) scripture" (James 1:25, 2:8-12).

Jesus is only mentioned twice (James 1:1, 2:1) in what may be later insertions.

Answer 5

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