To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: Greetings." v.1
Read chapter 1
Kai-reign! Greetings! This Greek phrase means "joy to you" and such a wonderful way to start of any greeting in a letter or even face to face.
Did you know that James is the half brother of Jesus?!?! He's also thought to have written the first book of the New Testament (the four gospels are chronologically first). Just think, Jesus' little half brother broke the 400 years of silence. A little bit about James: his name in the Greek is Jacobus and Hebrew Ya'aqov which shows his name in English is actually Jacob. This blew my mind the first time I realized that, I started thinking that King James who was ruling when the first English bible came in to play and wanted his name in the Bible. Turns out there are two derivatives of this name in Greek to mean Jacob and James. So the man we know as James was probably named after the famous patriarch of the twelve tribes of Israel: Jacob. And sure enough he is writing to the twelve tribes of Israel- he's writing to Jews! And these specific Jews that were scattered abroad at the Acts 8 scattering right after Stephen was martyred (see Acts 8:1-4).
James took a while to believe in his big brother, but when he did he ministered for Christ with his all and to his death. Our brothers or sisters aren't Jesus, but how can you believe in them and support them without letting that natural tendency of jealousy or selfish pride get in the way?
No comments:
Post a Comment