Called by Eusebius (H. E. 2:23; A.D. 330) the first of the catholic (universal) epistles, i.e. addressed to the church in general; not, as Paul's letters, to particular churches or individuals. In the oldest manuscripts except the Sinaiticus manuscript they stand before Paul's epistles. Two were "universally acknowledged" (homologoumena, Eusebius): 1 Peter and 1 John. All are found in every existing manuscript of the whole New Testament. The epistle of James, being addressed to the scattered Israelites, naturally was for a time less known. Origen, who lived between A.D. 185 and 254, first expressly mentions it (Commentary on John, Joh 1:19). Clement of Rome quotes from it a century earlier (1 Ep. to Cor. 10: Jam 2:21-23). The Shepherd of Hermas soon after quotes Jam 4:7. Irenaeus (Haer. 4:16, section 2). refers to Jam 2:23.

The old Syriac version has it and the Epistle to Hebrew alone of the books which were "disputed" (antilegomena, Euseb. 3:2) yet "acknowledged by the majority" (Euseb.). No Latin father of the first three centuries quotes it. It is specified as canonical both in the East and West in the councils of Hippo and Carthage, A.D. 397. Known only partially at first, it subsequently obtained a wider circulation; and the proofs becoming established of its having been recognized in apostolic churches, which had men endowed with the discernment of spirits to discriminate inspired utterances from uninspired (1Co 14:37), it was universally accepted. The Old Testament Apocrypha is a different case; the Jewish church had no doubt about it, they knew it to be not inspired. Luther's objection ("an epistle of straw, destitute of evangelical character") was due to his thinking that James 2 was opposed to Paul's doctrine of justification by faith not works.

The two viewing justification from distinct standpoints harmonize and mutually complement each other's definitions. By "works" James means love, which is the spirit of true "works" such as God accepts; for he compares "works" to "the spirit," "faith" to "the body." In Jam 2:26, "as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also," if mere outward deeds were meant, "works" would answer to "the body," "faith" to "the spirit." His reversing this proves he means by "faith" the form of faith without the working reality. Such "faith" apart from (Greek chooris) the spirit of faith, which is LOVE (and love evidences itself in works) is dead; precisely the doctrine of Paul also: 1Co 13:2; Gal 5:6, "faith which worketh by love" (its spirit). So also Jam 2:17; "faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone"; presumed faith, if it have not works, is dead, being by itself (Greek for "alone"), i.e. severed from its spirit, love; just as the body would be "dead" if severed from the spirit.

Paul speaks of faith in its justifying the sinner before God; James in its justifying the believer evidentially before men. Ver. 18, show me (evidence to me) thy faith without thy works, but thou canst not, whereas "I will show thee my faith by my works." Abraham was justified by faith before God the moment he believed God's promise (Gen 15:6). He showed his faith, and so was justified evidentially before men, by his offering Isaac 40 years afterward. The tree shows its life by fruits, but is alive before either leaves or fruits appear. (See FAITH) In Jam 2:23 James recognizes, like Paul, that Abraham's "faith was imputed unto him for righteousness." James meets the Jews' false notion that their possession of the law, though they disobeyed it, and their descent from Abraham and notional belief apart from obedience, would justify (an error which Paul also combats, Rom 2:17-25; compare Jam 1:22).

(1) To warn against prevalent Jewish sins: formalism as contrasted with true religious "service" (threskeia, cult); the very ritual "services" of the gospel consist in mercy and holiness (compare Jam 1:27 with Mat 23:23; Mic 6:7-8); in undesigned coincidence with James's own decision against mere ritualism at the council, as recorded in the independent history (Act 15:13-21); against fanaticism which, under the garb of religious zeal, was rending Jerusalem (Jam 1:20); fatalism (Jam 1:13); mean crouching to the rich (Jam 2:2); evil speaking (Jam 3:3-12; Jam 4:11); partisanship (Jam 3:14); boasting (Jam 2:5; Jam 4:16); oppression (Jam 5:4).

In this epistle, the Old Testament law is put in its true relation to Christianity which brings out its inner spirit, love manifesting itself in obedience of heart and life. The Jews were zealous for the letter of the law, but what the gospel insists on is its everlasting spirit. Paul insists on this as much as James (2Co 3:6-18). The doctrines of grace and justification by faith, so prominent in Paul's teaching to the Hellenists and Gentiles, are in the background in James as having been already taught by that apostle. To the Jewish Christians, who kept the legal ordinances down to the fall of Jerusalem, James sketches the "perfect" man, "continuing" in the gospel "law of liberty" (because it is the law of love).