The Bible is divided into two parts, the Old and New Testaments (See “The Old Testament Connection”).  Each part is a collection of writings by various authors.  Much of the New Testament is made up of writings called epistles.  Epistle is just a fancy word for letter.  As you read different “books” (individual writings) of the New Testament you will notice that many of them begin with a greeting and end with a benediction (good saying), a sort of wish for good things in the life of the reader.

The first verse of James indicates that this “book” is a letter from a guy named James.  Although there are many men named James among the early Christians only one seems likely to be in the position to write this letter this way.  The author was clearly a leader who needed “no further introduction” than simply James.  He is not “James the son of Zebedee” nor “James the son of Alphaeus”, he is just “James”.  In the book of Acts there is an early recurring person named James who eventually becomes a leader in the church in Jerusalem:  It is James the brother of Jesus.  (Matthew 13:55, Acts 1:14, Acts 12:17; 15:13; 21:8)  According to Paul, James was a leader in the church in Jerusalem at the time that he was writing to the churches in Galatia.  (Galatians 1:19; 2:9)  Also Paul indicates that James was the brother of Jesus.  According to tradition James was martyred in AD 62.

Also in the first verse we see who the letter is to, “the twelve tribes who are disbursed abroad.”  If you have read much of the Bible, this will probably make you think of Jewish people or Israelites (See “The Twelve?”).  The church started out as a “sect” or division of Judaism, the Jewish religion based on the Old Testament and especially the first five books of the Old Testament, the Torah or Law (with a capital L).  Paul (see “Paul:  Sent one to the Gentiles”) said in Romans 1:16 that the good news about Jesus came first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles (non-Jews).  The story of the beginning of the church is found in the New Testament book of “Acts”.  The main mark of the beginning of what we call the church was God entering into the lives of people who believed in Jesus (who he is and what he has done).  The Bible teaches that God actually lives within each believer in one of his active persons called the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:12, 3:16).  This was promised by Jesus in Acts 1:8 and happened to the original believers 50 days after the crucifixion (Acts 2:1-4).  This would have been in the year 33 AD.

Peter (one of Jesus original followers) said that what happened that day was a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy (Acts 2:14-36).  Jesus was the long promised leader for the Jewish people.  Because Jesus was interested in being a spiritual savior before he would become a political leader many Jewish people  (and especially their leaders) rejected Him as the promised one.   But many believed (Acts 2:37-41).  This division over Jesus had been violent almost from the beginning (think about the crucifixion) and it wasn’t long before the violence spread to Jesus’ followers.  In Acts 5:17-33 we see Peter and the other Apostles (sent ones) threatened by the Jewish religious leaders.  In Acts 7:54-60 we see one of the early believers, Stephen, being stoned to death for teaching about Jesus.  And in Acts 8:1-3 we see his death was the beginning of a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem.  One major player in this persecution was a guy named Saul, another name for Paul, mentioned above (See “Paul:  Sent one to the Gentiles”).  This all would have been 33 AD.  Shortly after the stoning of Stephen, Saul/Paul had an encounter with Jesus and became a believer and for the rest of his life (about 34 more years) traveled around the Mediterranean world telling people about Jesus.

The persecution did not stop however and many of the believers were forced to leave Jerusalem.  As they went they continued to tell people about Jesus (Acts 8:1, 4; 11:19).  Those displaced believers only told other Jews about Jesus but soon other Jewish believers joined them telling Gentiles about Jesus.  This first happened in a town called Antioch in Syria north of Israel.  The church in Jerusalem sent a guy named Barnabas to check out what was going on.  When he discovered that Gentiles were coming to God and being filled with the Holy Spirit too he went and found Saul/Paul and brought him back to Antioch to teach these new believers.  Acts 11:28 mention the Emperor Claudius and Acts 12:1 mentions King Herod (Agrippa 1).  Claudius became emperor in 41 Ad and made Herod king of that region shortly there after.  Herod died in 44 AD so this part of the story is about 10 years after the beginning of the church.  Antioch would become Paul’s home church and from there he would make at least three journeys around the Mediterranean world starting churches.  It was there in Antioch that believers were first called Christians (Acts 11:26).

During the seventeen years from 33 to 49 AD the situation did not get any better.  More and more Gentiles who had not, and did not follow the Jewish religion were becoming a part of the church.  This sect of Judaism was becoming less and less Jewish.  Jewish people, including some believers, were following Paul around telling the Gentile believers that they had to obey the Old Testament Law.  This created problems for the Gentile believers and for Paul and others who were telling them about Jesus.  In 49 AD Paul met with leaders in the church in Jerusalem to deal with situation and an agreement was reached with the leaders of that original church which basically encouraged the Gentile believers to be sensitive to the feelings of the Jewish people who were believers.  James was a part of the leadership in Jerusalem at that time.  In addition to the tension between these “Christians” and their Jewish friends and family the Roman government was becoming more and more hostile toward both the Jews and the Christians.  One very important part of being a Roman province was living peacefully, the hostility between the Jews and Christians was starting to get noticed.  Also other peoples in the Roman empire did not appreciate that Jews and Christians would not worship other gods.

It was in this time, between 44-50 AD, that James wrote the book of James to the “twelve tribes scattered abroad”.  The content of the letter makes it clear that he was writing to believers, Christians.  Although many of them were Jews by birth they were followers of Jesus.  And James was writing from Jerusalem the center of Judaism.  It is probably because of the tension and his location that he referred to the readers as the “twelve tribes”, trying not to make more waves than necessary, and he may have intended it more for those believers who had left Jerusalem so many years before and were still displaced.  The problems he deals with in the letter are not particularly “Jewish believer” problems but would certainly apply to those people.  But they apply to all believers in all ages, especially when there are times of trouble    The letter appears to be an encouragement to remain faithful and to take care of each other.  Words certainly needed in those days and through out much of the churches history.