INTRODUCTION TO THE EPISTLE OF THE ST. JAMES. WHO WAS ST. JAMES? HERE is much difficulty in ascertaining who the holy man was who wrote this Epistle. Three persons bearing the name of James (Jacobus, one of the most common of Jewish names,) occupied prominent positions in the earliest times of the Church. One, the son of Zebedee, was martyred by Herod ("He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword,” Acts xii. 2). No one, however, competent to speak on the subject, has ever ascribed this Epistle to him. The second is described in the four lists of the Apostles as the son of Alphæus. He was one of the original twelve, and never during the time covered by the New Testament narrative is said to have been an unbeliever. 66 The third is the James, the Lord's brother of Gal. i. 19, who was certainly the Bishop or President of the Church of Jerusalem, to whom St. Paul, on his return from his third journey, "went in, and all the elders," it is said, were present." That he was the superintendent or Bishop of the Church at Jerusalem is also evident from this, that he presided at the meeting or council in which it was ruled that the Gentiles should not be called upon to submit to the Jewish law. Now the question arises, did these two names-James the son of Alphæus, and James the brother of the Lord-belong to the same person? Many think that they did; among them the late Dean of Rochester in the "Speaker's Bible," the late Bishop Wordsworth, Mr. Blunt, and others. This view is attended with what is to me an insurmountable difficulty, that the James, who with three others, Joses, Simon, and Judas, is called by the Nazarenes "the DEC 101914 321489 5270 798 (RECAP) |