Editing Epistle of James (section)

==Dating and surviving manuscripts==
The original manuscript of the Epistle of James is lost. The earliest extant [[manuscript]]s of James date to the mid-to-late 3rd century.<ref name="McCartney2009">{{cite book|last=McCartney|first=Dan G|title=Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: James|year=2009|publisher=Baker Academic|location=Michigan|isbn=978-0801026768|editor=Robert W Yarbrough and Robert H Stein}}</ref>

[[Josephus_on_Jesus#"James,_the_brother_of_Jesus"_passage|According to Josephus]],<ref>Josephus, ''Jewish Antiquities'' 20.197–203</ref> James the brother of Jesus was killed in 62 CE, during the high priesthood of Ananus,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bauckham |first=Richard |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/42201146 |title=James the Just and Christian origins |date=1999 |publisher=Brill |others=Bruce Chilton, Craig A. Evans |isbn=90-04-11550-1 |location=Leiden, Netherlands |pages=199–232 |chapter=For what offence was James put to death? |oclc=42201146}}</ref> although [[Clement of Alexandria]] and [[Hegesippus (chronicler)|Hegesippus]] provide a different account of James' death, c. 69 CE.<ref> Eusebius ''Hist. Eccl.'' II, Ch. 23</ref> Those who hold to traditional authorship date the epistle to sometime before 62 CE, in the forties or fifties, making it one of the earliest writings of the New Testament.{{cn|date=November 2024}}

Those who maintain that the epistle is pseudonymous generally date the epistle later, from the late first to mid-second century.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dibelius |first=Martin |title=James |publisher=Fortress Press |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-8006-6006-2}}</ref> This is based on a number of considerations, including the epistle's potential dependence on 1 Peter, potential response to Paul's writings or Paul's later followers, late attestation in the historical record, and the 3rd and 4th century disputes concerning the epistle's authorship.

The historiographic debate currently seems to be leaning to the side of those in favor of early dating, although not through irrefutable evidence but through indications and probabilities.<ref>Israel M. Gallarte & Jesús Peláez. (2016). In mari via tua. Philological Studies in Honour of Antonio Piñero. Ediciones El Almendro de Córdoba, S.L. pp. 611-12.</ref>

Some of the oldest surviving manuscripts that contain some or all of this letter include:<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://ntvmr.uni-muenster.de/nt-transcripts |title=The New Testament Virtual Manuscript Room, Institute for New Testament Textual Research (INTF), Münster. |access-date=2015-06-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150613014854/http://ntvmr.uni-muenster.de/nt-transcripts |archive-date=2015-06-13 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

*[[Papyrus 20]] (early 3rd century){{sfn|Riesner|2007|p=1255}}
*[[Papyrus 23]] (~AD 250){{sfn|Riesner|2007|p=1255}}
*[[Papyrus 100]] (late 3rd century){{sfn|Riesner|2007|p=1255}}
*[[Codex Vaticanus]] (325–350){{sfn|Riesner|2007|p=1255}}
*[[Codex Sinaiticus]] (330–360){{sfn|Riesner|2007|p=1255}}
*[[Codex Alexandrinus]] (400–440)
*[[Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus]] ({{c.|450}})
*[[Papyrus 54]] (5th century)
*[[Papyrus 74]] (7th century)

An ancient manuscript containing this chapter in the [[Coptic language]] is [[Papyrus 6]] (~AD 350).<ref name = Aland>{{Cite book
 |last1=Aland
 |first1=Kurt
 |author-link=Kurt Aland
 | last2 = Aland
 | first2 = Barbara
 | authorlink2 = Barbara Aland
 | others = Erroll F. Rhodes (trans.)
 |title=The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism
 |publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company]]
 |year=1995
 |location=Grand Rapids
 |page=96
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2pYDsAhUOxAC
 |isbn=978-0-8028-4098-1}}</ref> In Latin, the epistle is preserved in the [[León palimpsest]] (7th century).<ref name = Metzger>Bruce M. Metzger, ''The Early Versions of the New Testament'', Oxford University Press, 1977, p. 316.</ref>