The author identifies himself as James. This was probably James, the half-brother of Jesus. James was a leader in the early church and was part of the Jerusalem council. The Apostle Paul also called him a "pillar" of the church.
In this letter, James encouraged believers who were suffering. He told them to have faith in God and know that God uses their suffering to make them perfect and acceptable to himself. James also told them of the need for believers to do good deeds. He wrote much in this letter about how believers should live and treat one another. For example, he commanded them to treat one another fairly, to not fight with one another, and to use riches wisely.
There are strong pleas and warnings with many figures of speech taken from nature. Also, many parts of this letter are similar to what Jesus wrote in the Sermon on the Mount (Mat 5-7).
James said he was writing to the "twelve tribes in the dispersion" (1:1). Some scholars think that James was writing to Jewish Christians. Some scholars think that James was writing to all Christians in general. This letter is known as one of the "General Epistles" since it was not written to a specific church or individual.
Translators may choose to call this book by its traditional title, "James." Or they may choose a clearer title, such as "A Letter from James" or "The Letter James Wrote." (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/translate-names]])
Paul taught in Romans that Christians are justified by faith and not by works. James seems to teach that Christians are justified by works. This can be confusing. But a better understanding of what Paul and James taught shows that they agree with one another. Both of them taught that a person needs faith in order to be justified. And they both taught that true faith will cause a person to do good works. Paul and James taught about these things in different ways because they had different audiences who needed to know different things about being justified. (See: [[rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/justify]], [[rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/faith]] and [[rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/works]])
The letter quickly changes topics. Sometimes James does not tell the readers that he is about to change topics. It is acceptable to allow the verses to appear disconnected from each other. It may make sense to set the passages apart by starting a new line or putting a space between topics.
* "Do you want to know, foolish man, that faith without works is useless?" (2:20). The ULB, UDB, and modern versions read this way. Some older versions read, "Do you want to know, foolish man, that faith without works is dead?"
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