Saturday, May 3, 2008

Studying the Book of James - Verse by Verse- James 1:1

The Book of James Chapter 1 verse 1

Verse 1
"James, the servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations."


Part 1
The person whom God used to write this epistle is believed to be the half-brother of Jesus, James. It is very likely that James is well-known among the people that this letter was targetted at because he did not have to give his status or that he is the half-brother of Jesus and also suggested that he has a recognised authority to write a letter of this kind. His opening was simple and modest.

Part 2
The word servant means a 'bond servant' (Greek word 'doulos') one who belongs to his master and serves without pay.
In this case, James is saying that He is a property of the Lord and is dedicated to the service of Him.
Even though James could have called him his brother, he nevertheless recoginsed the diety of the Lord.

The word Lord means 'King', Jesus means 'Saviour', and Christ means 'The Messiah' or 'The Annointed One', .

Part 3
This letter is addressed to the twelve tribes of Israel who are 'scattered'(Greek word:'diaspora'), not lost but scattered, among the Gentiles of the nations.

The twelve tribes are namely : 'Judah,Reuben,Gad,Asher,Naphtali,Mannaseh,Simeon,Levi,Issachar,Zebulun,Joseph and Benjamin'.


Important Note :
I have chosen based on my study from 'The Bible Knowledge Commentary' by John F.Walvoord and Roy B.Zack and selectively re-typed some of the more important parts, together with some of my own additional explanation to make this study simpler to digest and understand. My re-phrasing does not show a different meaning to what was originally written.

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