The Epistle of James is one of the Catholic Epistles. Apart from its simple introductory greeting, it lacks the basic characteristics of letters and does not seem to be written with a specific situation in view; even the admonitions regarding wealth and poverty (1:9–11; 2:1–7; 5:1–6) relate to no particular circumstances in the church. The work is more in the nature of a tractate with exhortation as its goal (Parenesis). It strings together admonitory proverbs and didactic passages (2:1–13, 14–26; 3:1–12) in no special order. The recipients are “the 12 tribes in the Dispersion” (1:1)—tha…