Heard someone for the first time say that the book of James was not written by the brother of Jesus. He cited Luther and some others. I will end up studying up on this later, but was curious if any of you had info on the subject
_________________Hal Bachman
There is not a really compelling reason to believe it wasn't. Of all the James in the New Testament, it would seem that James the brother of Jesus came to have the most prominence in the early church, and perhaps was the only James we know of that would have been able to write a letter that would be readily recognized as authoritative. For further reading, check our Douglas Moo's commentary on James. He discusses the matter of the authorship of James in a lengthy and scholarly manner. He advocates that the author was James, the brother of Jesus. If I'm not mistaken, Luther's main question was whether the letter was canonical at all, because he felt that it possibly undermined Paul and Christ's explanation of salvation. However, many commentators have found that if the writers are read in their context, they are not contradictory.With care in Christ,Taylor
_________________Taylor Otwell
Yeah, Moo's commentary is good on the subject of authorship. I recommend it too.
_________________Jimmy H
Just a note: As it is, I think the only letter in the New Testament that's authorship is questionable is that of Hebrews, and that's simply because it does not tell us who wrote it. While some scholars do raise some valid points about some of the other NT letters, most of those things are in subjective areas concerning the "style" of writing, and has little one can do to objectively decide such a matter.
