Could St James Write His Epistle? Yes!

Vikrant Menon

shared a link:

exegetical.tools : How Bad Was the Apostle James’s Greek?
November 28, 2017 | Todd Scacewater
http://exegeticaltools.com/2017/11/28/how-bad-was-the-apostle-jamess-greek/

David Cole

Jewish boys were required to go to the synagogue during week days to learn how to read and write and memorize scripture and prayers. They were all well educated. James and Jude came from a fairly well to do home and probably had good education but whether he penned the letter himself or whether he had a scribe pen it while he dictated it is unknown. Paul used a scribe when he wrote his.

Hans-Georg Lundahl

"Jewish boys were required to go to the synagogue during week days to learn how to read and write and memorize scripture and prayers."

Collectively?

That came with Joshua Ben Gamla - after Hannas and Kaiphas.

Vikrant Menon

Perhaps Brian Wright's new book sheds some light

Communal Reading in the Time of Jesus: A Window into Early Christian Reading Practices
Author: Brian J. Wright (Author)
Editor: Fortress Press
http://fortresspress.com/product/communal-reading-time-jesus-window-early-christian-reading-practices

David Cole

Education In Jesus' Time
https://sites.google.com/site/educationinjesustime/

Hans-Georg Lundahl

I said collectivity as requirement came with Joshua ben Gamla (which was during 1st C!).

I did not say it had not been customary before.

A legal or religiously legal requirement is sth else than a custom usually observed but not thought of as inflexible.

David Cole

And do you feel that's a valid excuse to dismiss the authorship of James?

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Oh, absolutely not.

I am just considering it as a valid ground for distinguishing between a customary education he had and which legally then could still have been home schooling, and a compulsory education Judaism invented just after that, outlawing home schooling for boys.

Bonus

From Quora

Q

Was James younger or older than Jesus?
https://www.quora.com/Was-James-younger-or-older-than-Jesus/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Self Employed at Writer and Composer

Answered just now

Agreeing with Jack Wallace.

St James was the youngest son of St Joseph’s first wife, who died, and when St Joseph was widower, he remarried, the Blessed Virgin.

Therefore, while St James the lesser was perhaps younger than St James the greater (the son of Zebedee), certainly shorter, he was older than Our Lord.

EDIT : if you mean St James the son of Zebedee, he might have been either, though his brother St John was arguably younger than Our Lord, since the youngest.