Our small group from church met for the first time last night. We are studying the book of James this semester. We had some healthy discussion about who James was. We know that he is Jesus' brother. We believe that Mary is his mother, and Joseph is his father, making him actually a half-brother to Jesus, since Jesus' dad is God. Some people (mostly Catholics), believe that Mary was a perpetual virgin, meaning that she did not have any other children, even after Jesus' birth. Those that believe that, believe that James was Joseph's son from a marriage before he was married to Mary. This thinking stems from a writing called the Gospel of James (not the Book of James), which didn't make it into the Bible. This led our group into a whole other discussion about who decided what writings made it into the Bible. That discussion is longer than I have room for in this post, but let's just say that the writings that made it into the New Testament were written by people that knew Jesus or were very close to him in proximity and time. Writings that came later (including the Gospel of James), that didn't align with the earlier writings, didn't make the cut, but they can sometimes offer value in filling in some of the gaps that might be present in the New Testament books. Caution should be used as there are usually good reasons they were not included in the New Testament. Next week, we dive into what James has to say about living a Christian life.
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