

He takes the known Ten Commandments and frames it for the new life through Jesus as summarized in James 2:8. He used this book as encouragement that the trials they would face would not be a waste and that spiritual maturity is born through perseverance. During this time, people were threated daily for this faith. James uses Jewish traditions to draw out the wisdom they are used to hearing and applies it to practical Christian living.

The book of James is a New Testament book that falls between Hebrews and 1 Peter. Like Jesus, he was also killed for his faith around 60 A.D. Many scholars believe that James did not become a believer until after Jesus died and rose again. He was an apostle of the church of Jerusalem. Jacob, or James, was a powerful voice in the early church, as well as the younger brother of Jesus ( Galatians 1:9, Mark 6:3). James was not widely accepted until the 1600s when King James sponsored the translation called the “ Authorized Version.” In Exodus 3:15, we read, “Say this to the people of Israel: Yahweh, the God of your ancestors-The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob-has sent me to you.” If you have ever heard the book of James referred to as the ‘book of Jacob’ that is why. “James” is actually the result of a translation of the Jewish name Ya’akov and the Greek name lakobos.
