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A Comparison Of The Ethics Of The Qumran Scrolls And The Epistle Of James, Warren Schmidt

Master of Sacred Theology Thesis

There are several reasons why one would expect to find similarities to the Scrolls in James. The latter is clearly a Palestinian document written for Jewish readers. It is probably the earliest of the New Testament books written during the formative years of the church. This is a time when the church would be more open to outside influences in matters such as organization and polity. The early dating of James has been accepted by many scholars since the study of Gerhard Kittel, who dates it in the fourth decade of the first century, immediately before Paul's first missionary journey.