James 1:1 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

James, a servant of Jesus Christ Whose name the apostle mentions but once more in the whole epistle, namely, James 2:1, and not at all in his whole discourse, Acts 15:14, &c., or Acts 21:20-25. It might have seemed, if he had mentioned him often, that he did it out of vanity, as being the brother, or near kinsman, of the Lord; to the twelve tribes Of Israel; that is, to those of them that were converted to Christianity, and with an evident reference, in some parts of the epistle, to that part of them which was not converted; which are scattered abroad In various countries; ten of the tribes were scattered ever since the reign of Hoshea, and a great part of the rest were now dispersed through the Roman empire, as was foretold Deuteronomy 28:25; Deuteronomy 30:4. That the twelve tribes were actually in existence when James wrote his epistle, will appear from the following facts. 1st, Notwithstanding Cyrus allowed all the Jews in his dominions to return to their own land, many of them did not return, but continued to live among the Gentiles, as appears from this, that in the days of Ahasuerus, one of the successors of Cyrus, who reigned from India to Ethiopia, over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, (Esther 3:8,) the Jews were dispersed among the people in all the provinces of his kingdom, and their laws were diverse from the laws of all other people; so that, by adhering to their own usages, they kept themselves distinct from all the nations among whom they lived. 2d, Josephus considered the twelve tribes as being in existence when the Old Testament Scriptures were translated into Greek, (namely, in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, about two hundred and fifty or two hundred and sixty years before Christ,) as he says that six persons were sent out of every tribe to assist in that work. 3d, On the day of pentecost, as mentioned Acts 2:5; Acts 2:9, there were dwelling at Jerusalem devout men out of every nation under heaven, Parthians, Medes, &c: so numerous were the Jews, and so widely dispersed through all the countries of the world. 4th, When Paul travelled through Asia and Europe, he found the Jews so numerous, that in all the noted cities of the Gentiles they had synagogues, in which they were assembled for the worship of God, and were joined by multitudes of proselytes from among the heathens. 5th, The same apostle, in his speech to Agrippa, affirmed that the twelve tribes were then existing, and that they served God day and night, in expectation of the promise made to the fathers, Acts 26:6. 6th, Josephus ( Antiq., 50. 14. c. 12) tells us, that in his time one region could not contain the Jews, but they dwelt in most of the flourishing cities of Asia and Europe, in the islands and continent, not much less in number than the heathen inhabitants. From all which it is evident that the Jews of the dispersion were more numerous than even the Jews in Judea; and that James very properly inscribed his letter to the twelve tribes which were in the dispersion, seeing the twelve tribes really existed then, and do still exist, although not distinguished by separate habitations, as they were anciently in their own land. Greeting That is, wishing you all blessings, temporal, spiritual, and eternal.