Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
INSCRIPTION: EXHORTATION ON HEARING, SPEAKING, AND WRATH. (Jam. 1:1-27)
James--an apostle of the circumcision, with Peter and John, James in Jerusalem, Palestine, and Syria; Peter in Babylon and the East; John in Ephesus and Asia Minor. Peter addresses the dispersed Jews of Pontus, Galatia, and Cappadocia; James, the Israelites of the twelve tribes scattered abroad.
servant of God--not that he was not an apostle; for Paul, an apostle, also calls himself so; but as addressing the Israelites generally, including even indirectly the unbelieving, he in humility omits the title "apostle"; so Paul in writing to the Hebrews; similarly Jude, an apostle, in his General Epistle.
Jesus Christ--not mentioned again save in James 2:1; not at all in his speeches (Acts 15:14-15; Acts 21:20-21), lest his introducing the name of Jesus oftener should seem to arise from vanity, as being "the Lord's brother" [BENGEL]. His teaching being practical, rather than doctrinal, required less frequent mention of Christ's name.
scattered abroad--literally "which are in the dispersion." The dispersion of the Israelites, and their connection with Jerusalem as a center of religion, was a divinely ordered means of propagating Christianity. The pilgrim troops of the law became caravans of the Gospel [WORDSWORTH].
greeting--found in no other Christian letter, but in James and the Jerusalem Synod's Epistle to the Gentile churches; an undesigned coincidence and mark or genuineness. In the original Greek (chairein) for "greeting," there is a connection with the "joy" to which they are exhorted amidst their existing distresses from poverty and consequent oppression. Compare Romans 15:26, which alludes to their poverty.
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Obadiah 1:20
Acts 15:23
Acts 26:7
Romans 1:1
1 Peter 1:1
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