by Addison Hodges Hart

It can be said, without much qualification at all, that James of Jerusalem, the “brother of the Lord,” was the most influential and respected leader of the early church before the year 62. So accustomed are we to regard Paul and/or Peter in that role that we might consider that bold statement surprising at first. But, however habituated we might be to the historical relegation of James to a secondary or tertiary position among the notable figures of the apostolic age, in his own day, and among those who continued to revere his memory in their increasingly marginalized churches during the two or three centuries that followed, he was deemed to have been the central governing figure in the church.

My commentary on the New Testament Letter of James has recently been published: The Letter of James: A Pastoral Commentary (Wipf and Stock: Cascade Books, 2018)…