In order to make sure you are aware of who wrote one of the most important letters in the Christian Bible I deem it appropriate to make this post primarily about James, the brother of Jesus himself. Some may not realize the history of the person around which I have been quoting as inspiration.  Here is part of what Glo – The Bible for the Digital World says about him:

 The author identifies himself as James ( 1:1 ); he was probably the brother of Jesus and leader of the Jerusalem council ( Ac 15 ). Four men in the NT have this name. The author of this letter could not have been the apostle James, who died too early ( a.d. 44) to have written it. The other two men named James had neither the stature nor the influence that the writer of this letter had.

James was one of several brothers of Christ, probably the oldest since he heads the list in Mt 13:55 . At first he did not believe in Jesus and even challenged him and misunderstood his mission ( Jn 7:2-5 ). Later he became very prominent in the church:

1. He was one of the select individuals Christ appeared to after his resurrection (see 1Co 15:7 and ).

2. Paul called him a “pillar” of the church ( Gal 2:9 ).

3. Paul, on his first post-conversion visit to Jerusalem, saw James ( Gal 1:19 ).

4. Paul did the same on his last visit ( Ac 21:18 ).

5. When Peter was rescued from prison, he told his friends to tell James ( Ac 12:17 ).

6. James was a leader in the important council of Jerusalem ( Ac 15:13 ).

7. Jude could identify himself simply as “a brother of James” ( Jude 1:1 ), so well-known was James.

8. James was martyred c. a.d. 62. ……. If this early dating is correct ( before AD50), this letter is the earliest of all the NT writings — with the possible exception of Galatians. 

The recipients are identified explicitly only in 1:1 : “the twelve tribes scattered among the nations.” Some hold that this expression refers to Christians in general….

From the above it is obvious that James became a very important person in the early church. I can’t understand why he and the Apostle Peter did not get more of documents included in our version of the Bible.  One other notable thing about James occurred during the Protestant Reformation.  Martin Luther vehemently stated that the letter from James was a fake and should not be in the Bible. He later recanted that belief in order to solidify his then popular position of total biblical inerrancy and sola fida.  James continues to be a very unnoticed letter by many protestant denominations today who insist that our faith and works, which is the center point of James’ letter, are totally divorced things.