Is James (the author of the Epistle of James) in the category of apostles?

Question

I've heard arguments by people like Richard Carrier that the author of the Epistle of James is outside the category of apostles, meaning that this James is not an apostle. And that the James in the Book of Acts and in the Epistle to the Galatians was not James the Just but James son of Zebedee.

Can you respond to Richard Carrier's argument, which can be seen in this video?

The reason why I asked you this is because I'm a Christian struggling with my faith and I wanted to ask my brothers in Christ to help me.

Answer 1

Paul avoids calling the Lord's brother, James, an 'apostle' and merely says he was 'numbered with' them. He thus states what others were supposing.

The choice of Mathias by lot was clearly unsuccessful as nothing more is heard of him and it is fairly obvious that, having experienced the invalidity of drawing lots over the matter, another decision was taken to try to fill the place of the traitor, Judas : but this was yet another attempt in the flesh, first gambling and then favouring natural relationships. We all do it and nobody is criticising . . . . . .

However, it became glaringly obvious who the choice of the Lord was as the twelfth, namely Saul of Tarsus, lately named Paul, came to light and his ministry grew till it eclipsed all others such that even Peter, the chief apostle, must confess that some of Paul's words were 'hard to understand'.

This much for the twelfth and for the appointing of the Lord's brother to be an 'apostle' ; and to, therefore, he being seen as the author of the epistle of that name.

He who names himself 'James' does not state which James he is, for the good reason that by the time he wrote, James the brother of John had been executed. And there being no other valid James to distinguish himself from, he does not need to.

It was surely James of Alphaeus who wrote the words, one of the eleven.

Jude, the brother of James, references himself to his brother, thus taking a lower place, for James does not reference himself to Jude.

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As an aside, Mark and Luke both wrote at a time when Paul was alive and clearly they both wrote very much under his influence. Thus their writings, being neither rejected nor criticised by the apostle Paul, are accepted as apostolic utterances.

Mark's words are almost all of them found within Matthew's book. Seemingly, Mark saw that within the pages of Matthew was another aspect of Christ visible ; The Apostle, or the Messenger of the Covenant. It only needed to be extracted, for it to stand alone as a separate work from The Messiah and The Kingdom of Heaven aspect of the Christ.

Answer 2

There are three definite and different James in the New Testament (NT).

James son of Zebedee, aka James the Great, definitely an apostle as defined at Acts 1:22 (eyewitness from baptism of John to ascension. This is the one at Acts 12:2, the first apostle to die. John his brother after the flesh, also son of Zebedee, died last.

James son of Alphaeus, aka James the Less, definitely an apostle as defined at Acts 1:22. He is identified in the upper room at Acts 1:13 and a four other places in the NT (Mt. 10:3, Mk. 2:14, 3:18, Lk. 6:15)

James brother of Jesus Christ, aka James the Just. He did not believe (John 7:5) until after ascension, so he is not an apostle per the Acts 1:22 definition. This is the James mentioned in Gal. 1:9 to whom Jesus appeared after resurrection, along with another 500 or so believers. He was elected first bishop of the church in Jerusalem. Yet, see the next comment.

The NT also defines apostle as a messenger, one who is sent forth (1 Tim 1:1, 1 Peter 1:1). See also Timothy, Barnabas, Sylvanus as apostles, though not eyewitnesses, again, like James the Just and brother Judas who also wrote an epistle.

Confusion arose over the centuries about who was who as people tried to explain certain beliefs. Some, for example, insist that James #2 and James #3 are the same person. They're not. See this example from Eusebius' History and Josephus citation.

Traditionally, given the early belief of who James #3 was (brother of Christ after the flesh), his writing is now in the NT. Aptly so. It is also tradition that Paul wrote Hebrews. Jude's epistle (Jude 1:1) claims to be James' brother. The two are in the list about Jesus' brothers (Mt. 13:55, Mk. 6:3). Alternatively, Jude the brother of James the Less wrote the epistle of Jude (see Acts 1:13).

So, you can be assured the NT is valid, viable, and valuable as to all things salvific.

To directly answer, James the Just cannot be one of the eleven (or twelve) apostles because he was not an eyewitness per Peter's definition. But apostle also means messenger sent. He and others were those.

As to whether Paul is number twelve or not, that's a different question.

Hope this helps clear some confusion.

Answer 3

The author of the book of James is usually thought to be Jesus's brother James, rather than either James of the 12 Apostles. Whether he should be considered an "apostle" is largely a matter of opinion - the Bible doesn't clearly define or delineate who exactly the apostles were, and some think there was only a small group of apostles (sometimes just the 11 (excluding Judas of course) plus Paul), others think it was a bigger group.

But it also doesn't really matter! Whether James was an apostle or not matters exactly zero for whether we read his letter, and it shouldn't make any impact on your faith. Do remember that several other books of the New Testament also weren't written by Apostles, including Mark, Luke, Acts, and Jude, and no one even knows who wrote Hebrews!