<Li> the letter is pseudonymous, </Li> <Li> the letter comprises material originally from James but reworked by a later editor . </Li> <P> The writer refers to himself only as "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ ." As many as six different men in the Bible are named James . Jesus had two apostles named James: James, the son of Zebedee and James, the son of Alphaeus, but it is unlikely that either of these wrote the letter . According to the Book of Acts, James, the son of Zebedee, was martyred about 44 AD . That would be very early for him to have been the writer . The other apostle James, the son of Alphaeus, is not prominent in the Scriptural record, and very little is known about him . </P> <P> Rather, evidence points to James, the brother of Jesus, to whom Jesus evidently had made a special appearance after his resurrection described in the New Testament . This James was prominent among the disciples . The writer of the letter of James identifies himself as "a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ" in much the same way as did Jude, who introduced the Epistle of Jude by calling himself "a slave of Jesus Christ, but a brother of James" (Jas 1: 1; Jude 1). Furthermore, the salutation of his letter concludes with the term "greetings" (Greek χαίρειν), much like the letter on circumcision that was sent to the congregations . In the latter instance it was apparently Jesus's brother, James, who spoke prominently in the assembly of "the apostles and the older men" at Jerusalem . </P>

What was the book of james written for