Evidence for an early date and Jacobean authorship also supports the probability that the addressees were Jewish Christians. In addition, there are other lines of evidence which support a Jewish Christian audience, two of which are as follows.
1. The Meaning of Diaspora in 1:1
James opens his letter with the greeting “to the twelve tribes which are in the dispersion.” The term diasporav is normally used in biblical Greek to refer to the scattering of the Jews (cf. Deut. 28:35; 30:4; Isa. 49:6; Jer. 41:17; Psalm 146:2; John 7:35). However, in the NT it can refer to Christians (1 Peter 1:1). However, it would be more difficult to demonstrate that “the twelve tribes” refer to Christians in the New Testament, rendering this designation in Jas. 1:1 most probably a reference to Jewish believers.
Two questions still need to be asked: where? and why? The dispersed believers would, of course, be located outside of Jerusalem and perhaps Judea. More than this cannot be said with certainty. But since Jews had already been scattered throughout the Roman Empire for some time, and since virtually every major city had a synagogue, it is not unreasonable to suppose that James was writing to a geographically widespread audience going far beyond the reaches of Palestine. At the same time, the difficulty in getting a letter to such a widely diffused audience seems to argue for a Palestinian dispersion.
As to the reason for the dispersion, two catalysts are distinctly possible:
(1) the persecution of the church by Saul in 34 CE (Acts 7–8),
(2) Herod’s persecution in 44 CE (Acts 12).
The Jewish Christian communities may have been established due to the first persecution, and their numbers strengthened due to the second. Although Saul’s persecution spread far beyond the reaches of the holy city, Agrippa’s seems to have been more localized. If so, then there is no compelling reason to argue for a non-Palestinian audience for James.
2. The Circumstances of the Readers
There are four circumstances hinted at in the letter which are particularly noteworthy.
a. Jewish Background. Not only do they meet in a synagogue (2:2), but the only credal statement in the epistle relates to monotheism (2:19), and the circumcision controversy so prominent in Paul’s letters to largely Gentile audiences is wholly absent. Further, “the Palestinian background of either the author or the readers or both is seen in the references to the autumn and spring rains in Jas. 5:7, a weather phenomenon limited to the eastern Mediterranean coastal plain and lowlands.”66
b. Poverty. That James’ audience is made up largely of poor folks is obvious from his warnings in 2:1-13 (especially v. 5) and passim. They are either poor “dirt farmers,” tenants who worked the land of the rich (5:1-6), or merchants (4:13-17). Davids points out that
In pre-70 Palestine, then, and to a large extent in post-70 as well, one finds a cultural situation in which the majority of the population consists of peasants subsisting on a small plot of land. The size of their plots and conditions favoring a growing population forced all males but the eldest son into trade (if they were lucky) or unskilled labor.
What may also be significant is that although occasionally the rich are addressed in this letter, they are never called “brothers.” It would seem, then, that the wealthy are on the fringes of James’ audience, serving primarily as a foil for his ethical instructions.
c. Immaturity. The audience apparently lacked maturity in the faith, as is evidenced by James’ intimation of (1) their failure to “practice what they preach” (1:22-27; 2:8-11); (2) their partiality toward the rich and unwillingness to help the poor believers (2:1-26); (3) their inconsistent speech patterns (3:1-12); and (4) their tendency toward confidence in self rather than confidence in God (4:13-17).
d. Oppression. James’ audience was also an oppressed group. Indeed, it was more than likely because of their poverty, combined with their Christian conviction, that they were oppressed. As Davids declares,
One can picture what this situation did to the church in Palestine. On the one hand, the church naturally felt resentment against the rich. They had “robbed” many of the members of their lands; they probably showed discrimination against Christians in hiring their labor; and they (at least the high-priestly clans) were the instigators of attempts to suppress the church (which was probably viewed as a revolutionary movement). On the other hand, if a wealthy person entered the church or was a member, there would be every reason to court him. His money was seen as a means of survival. Certainly one should not offend him.
Further, their inappropriate response to the oppression, rather than the oppression itself, is what James condemns, pointing out that they should seek in such circumstances the wisdom and gifts of God. In this James affirms a principle seen elsewhere in scripture: what makes a man of God is not a natural response to a favorable condition, but a proper response to any condition. It is not the circumstances but the response to the circumstances which produces character.
