The Epistle of James

The author of  this letter introduces himself as "James, a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ." Four men in the New Testament bore this name but the writer of this Epistle is usually identified with James who was the leader of the church in Jerusalem.  The letter is addressed to "the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad," and is the most Jewish in style and form of any of the new Testament books.  It is not a treatise on Christian theology but rather a practical letter dealing with Christian ethics.  James insists that works, not words, are the mark of a dicciple