Considered as a part of the Christian canon of holy scripture, the epistle of James is an oddity. It lacks almost all of what might be thought to be the distinctive marks of Christian faith and practice. Some have suggested that it was originally not a Christian document at all, but a Jewish text interpolated to bring it into Christian use; yet if this were so, it would still be remarkable that the added veneer should be so thin. The best known comments on the epistle are those of Martin