Ancient Courts and the Letter of James

The New Testament’s Letter of James has received much less attention than the letters of Paul. Questions linger about the short letter, such as who actually wrote it, when, where, and why. Although there is some consensus about certain aspects of the book, such as its urban background or the author’s indebtedness to Hellenistic Judaism, much of the work continues to garner debate among scholars. One such debate centers on James 2:1–7, where the author describes two figures: a gold-ringed man dressed in “shining clothes” who enters the assembly, and another fellow in dirty clothes. James states that the well-appareled […]