James Further Study
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A few brief words on authorship
Unfortunately, there are at least six or seven candidates with the name James in the Bible. The letter itself doesn't provide enough detail to give us absolute certainty as to which one is the author. However, the church fairly early on assigned this letter to James, the brother of Jesus. The author writes with the authority of one who was a prominent church leader, which fits with what we know of Jesus' brother. As a result, the introduction and each episode of deovox assumes that the author is Jesus' brother. He was converted after seeing Christ resurrected, as reported by St. Paul in I Corinthians 15.
RECOMMENDED READING
FEATURED BOOK
The NIV Application Commentary. David Nystrom. Zondervan. 1997. It's helpful to supplement a reading of this commentary with one of the texts below to provide some balance.
FURTHER READING
Word Biblical Commentary. James. Ralph P. Martin. Nelson. 1988.
Very helpful commentary to supplement the NIV Application. Martin and Nystrom don't always agree, which challenges the reader to delve a little deeper. Always a good thing.
The New International Biblical Commentary. James. Peter H. Davids. Paternoster. 1989.
A much shorter commentary for those wanting something lighter.
Black's New Testament Commentary. The Epistle of James. Sophie Laws. Hendrickson Publishers. 1980.
This commentary receives rave reviews from all the other commentators. I found it helpful, if a little heavy.
RECOMMENDED PODCASTS
Chris Tweitmann serves as Associate Pastor of John Knox Presbyterian Church in Seattle, WA. His podcast is a broadcast of his sermons. Some of them deal with the book of Genesis.
http://www.coramdeo.typepad.com/podcasts
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Richard Collins |