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Jam_1:1. Address and greeting. James calls himself a “servant of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Oecumenius correctly: Θεοῦ μὲν τοῦ πατρὸς , κυρίου δὲ τοῦ υἱοῦ ; some expositors have incorrectly taken Θεοῦ καὶ κυρίου together as applied to Ἰησ . Χρ . There is here no combination of the Old and New Testaments in this conjunction (against Lange). It is to be observed that in the apostolic addresses our Lord’s name is always given in full: Ἰησοῦς Χριστός .
Δοῦλος ] is here an official appellation, which, however, belongs not only to the apostles, but to every possessor of an ecclesiastical office received from the Lord; comp. particularly Php_1:1 : Παῦλος καὶ Τιμόθεος , δοῦλοι Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ , and Jud_1:1. In this name the consciousness is expressed that the office is a service in which not our own will, nor the will of other men, but only of God or of Christ, is to be fulfilled. Oecumenius: ὑπὲρ πᾶν δὲ κοσμικὸν ἀξίωμα οἱ τοῦ κυρίου ἀπόστολοι τό δοῦλοι εἶναι Χριστοῦ καλλωπιζόμενοι , τοῦτο γνώρισμα ἑαυτῶν βούλονται ποιεῖσθαι , καὶ λέγοντες καὶ ἐπιστέλλοντες καὶ διδάσκοντες .
Ταῖς δώδεκα φυλαῖς ταῖς ἐν τῇ διασπορᾷ ] A designation of the people of Israel living outside of Palestine, and dispersed among the Gentiles. On αἱ δώδεκα φυλαί it is to be observed, that although this appellation of the people of Israel after the exile does not occur in the Apocrypha, yet the people who returned were still regarded as the twelve tribes (1Es_7:8-9); as the people of the twelve tribes are the covenant people, to whom the promises given to the patriarchs refer; from which it is to be explained that in the N. T. the number twelve is particularly emphasized (Mat_19:28; Rev_7:4-8; Rev_21:12), and that James designates by this name the people to whom the promise was fulfilled. On τῇ διασπορᾷ , see Deu_30:4; Neh_1:9; Psa_147:2; 2Ma_1:27 (Jer_15:7); Joh_7:35; Winer’s Realwörterbuch, article “Zerstreuung.” Whether this designation is to be understood in a literal or symbolical sense, see Introduction, sec. 2. Laurentius, Hornejus, Hottinger, Pott, Gebser, Kern, Schneckenburger, Neander, Guericke, Schmid (bibl. Theol.), Wiesinger, and others correctly consider the Epistle as addressed to Jewish Christians; only it is to be observed that with the early composition of the Epistle these are not here to be considered as contrasted with the Gentile Christians. Had the author been conscious of such a contrast, it would have been elsewhere indicated in the Epistle itself.
χαίρειν ] sc. λέγει ; see 1Ma_10:18; 1Ma_10:25; 1Ma_15:16; 2Ma_1:1; and in the N. T. Act_15:23; Act_23:26 (2Jn_1:11). It is to be observed that this very form of greeting, elsewhere not used in the N. T. Epistles, occurs in the writing proceeding from James, Act_15:23 (Kern); the pure Greek form of greeting is more fully: χαίρειν καὶ ὑγιαίνειν καὶ εὖ πράττειν , 2Ma_9:19.