James, in spite of its opening sentences, is actually probably not a letter. It is really a series of admonitions. It strongly parallels the wisdom writings in the Old Testament, like Ecclesiastes. It is not clear who James was. Probably not James, the brother of Jesus who led the church in Jerusalem.
There is confusion over the authorship of the Peter letters. The opening sentences claim "Peter an apostle of Christ Jesus" as the one writing. But the closing of 1 Peter claims Silvanus - who was associated with Paul.
In all likelihood the letter was written after the death of both Peter and Paul and the introduction was added later to add to the importance of the letter.
One of the principle focus' of the Peter letters is to encourage Christians who are suffering because following Christ has marked them out as different from the society around them.
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