In deciding between the two periods (A.D. 45-49 and 53-62) for the date of the Epistle of St. James, we have not much to guide us if we adopt the view that it is independent of the writings of St. Peter and of St. Paul. There is plenty in the letter to lead us to suppose that it was written before the war (A.D. 66-70) which put an end to the tyranny of the wealthy Sadducees over their poorer brethren, before controversies between Jewish and Gentile Christians such as we find at Corinth had arisen or become chronic, and before doctrinal controversies had sprung up in the Church; also that it was written at a time when the coming of Christ to judgment was still regarded as near at hand (v. 8), and by some one who could recollect the words of Christ independently of the Gospels, and who therefore must have stood in close relationship to Him. All this points to its having been written within the lifetime of James the Lord's brother, and by such a person as he was; but it does not seem to be decisive as to the difference between _c._ A.D. 49 and _c._ A.D. 59. We must be content to leave this undecided. But it is worth while pointing out that if we place it earlier than A.D. 52 we make it the earliest book in the New Testament. The First Epistle to the Thessalonians was written late in A.D. 52 or early in 53; and excepting our Epistle, and _perhaps_ 1 Peter, there is no other writing in the New Testament that can reasonably be placed at so early a date as 52.
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"Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into manifold temptations." "My brethren," with or without the epithet "beloved," is the regular form of address throughout the Epistle (16, 19; ii. 1, 5, 14; iii. 1, 10, 12; v. 12), in one or two places the "my" being omitted (iv. 11; v. 7, 9, 19). The frequency of this brotherly address seems to indicate how strongly the writer feels, and wishes his readers to feel, the ties of race and of faith which bind them together.
In "Count it all joy," _i.e._ "Consider it as nothing but matter for rejoicing,"[33] we miss a linguistic touch which is evident in the Greek, but cannot well be preserved in English. In saying "joy" (χάραν) St. James is apparently carrying on the idea just started in the address, "greeting" (χαίρειν), _i.e._ "wishing joy." "I wish you _joy_; and you must account as pure _joy_ all the troubles into which you may fall." This carrying on a word or thought from one sentence into the next is characteristic of St. James, and reminds us somewhat of the style of St. John. Thus "The proof of your faith worketh _patience_. And let _patience_ have its perfect work" (i. 3, 4). "_Lacking_ in nothing. But if any of you _lacketh_ wisdom" (4, 5). "Nothing _doubting_: for he that _doubteth_ is like the surge of the sea" (6). "The lust, when it hath conceived, beareth _sin_; and the _sin_, when it is full grown, bringeth forth death" (15). "Slow to _wrath_: for the _wrath_ of man worketh not the righteousness of God" (19, 20). "This man's _religion_ is vain. Pure _religion_ and undefiled before our God and Father is this" (26, 27). "In many things we all _stumble_. If any man _stumbleth_ not in word" (iii. 2). "Behold, how much wood is kindled by how small a _fire_! And the tongue is a _fire_" (iii. 5, 6). "Ye have not, because ye _ask_ not. Ye _ask_, and receive not" (iv. 2, 3). "Your gold and your silver are _rusted_; and their _rust_ shall be for a testimony against you" (v. 3). "We call them blessed which _endured_: ye have heard of the _endurance_ of Job" (v. 11).