The Epistle of James is a public letter ([[epistle]]), and includes an epistolary prescript that identifies the sender (“James”"James") and the recipients (“to"to the twelve tribes in the diaspora”diaspora") and provides a greeting (JasJames 1:1). The epistle resembles the form of a Diaspora letter,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Doering |first=Lutz |title=Reading the Present in the Qumran Library: The Perception of the Contemporary by Means of Scriptural Interpretations |publisher=Society of Biblical Literature |year=2005 |isbn=978-90-04-13761-5 |location=Atlanta |pages=44 |chapter=Jeremiah and the 'Diaspora Letters' of Ancient Judaism: Epistolary Communication with the Golah as Medium for Dealing with the Present}}</ref> written to encourage Jewish-Christian communities living outside of Israel amid the hardships of diaspora life.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hearon |first=Holly E. |date=2016 |title=To the Twelve Tribes in the Diaspora': Faith and Faithfulness in the Letter of James |url=https://ixtheo.de/Record/1643494015 |journal=Biblical Research |volume=61 |pages=27–45}}</ref> James stands in the tradition of the Jewish genre of "Letters to the Diaspora", including the letters of the members of the family of Gamaliel, the one preserved in 2 Maccabees 1:1-91–9, or some copied by Josephus, all of which are characterised by a double opening and an abrupt ending.<ref>K.-W. Niebuhr. (1998). “Der"Der Jakobusbrief im Licht frühjüdischer Diasporabriefe”Diasporabriefe". NTS 44, 420-443.</ref><ref>F.O. Francis. (1970). “The"The Form and Function of the Opening and Closing Paragraphs of James and 1John”1 John". ZNW 61, 110-126.</ref>
Many consider James to have affinities to Jewish [[wisdom literature]]: "like [[Book of Proverbs|Proverbs]] and [[Sirach]], it consists largely of moral exhortations and precepts of a traditional and eclectic nature."<ref>{{cite book|last=Laws|first=Sophie|title=The HarperCollins Study Bible|year=1993|publisher=HarperCollins Publishers|location=San Francisco|isbn=0060655267|pages=[https://archive.org/details/harpercollinsstu00wayn/page/2052 2052]|url=https://archive.org/details/harpercollinsstu00wayn/page/2052}}</ref> The epistle also has affinities with many of the sayings of Jesus which are found in the gospels of [[Gospel of Luke|Luke]] and [[Gospel of Matthew|Matthew]] (i.e., those attributed to the hypothetical [[Q source]], in the [[two-source hypothesis]]). Some scholars have argued that the author of James is familiar with a version of Q rather than Luke or Matthew.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hartin |first=Patrick J. |title=James and the Q Sayings of Jesus |publisher=Sheffield Academic |year=1991 |isbn=9781474230483 |location=Sheffield}}</ref>
Other scholars have noted the epistle's affinities with Greco-Roman philosophical literature.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jackson-McCabe |first=Matt |title=Reading the Epistle of James: A Resource for Students |publisher=Society of Biblical Literature Press |year=2019 |location=Atlanta |pages=45–71 |chapter=The Letter of James and Hellenistic Philosophy}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kloppenborg |first=John S. |date=2010 |title=James 1:2-15 and Hellenistic Psychagogy |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/nt/52/1/article-p37_3.xml |journal=Novum Testamentum |volume=52 |issue=1 |pages=37–71 |doi=10.1163/004810010X12577565604134 |issn=0048-1009}}</ref> The author's use and transformation of Q materials resembles the Hellenistic practice of ''aemulatio''{{lang|la|aemueelatio}}, in which the author must "rival and vie [''{{lang|la|aemulatio''}}] with the original in the expression of the same thoughts” (thoughts".<ref>Quintilian, ''Inst''. 10.5.5).</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=John S. |first=Kloppenborg |title=The Catholic Epistles and Apostolic Tradition: A New Perspective on James and Jude |publisher=Baylor University Press |year=2009 |location=WacoTexas |pages=87 |chapter=The Reception of the Jesus Tradition in James}}</ref> Other studies have analysed sections of James in light of Greco-Roman rhetorical conventions.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Watson |first=Duane F. |date=1993 |title=James 2 in Light of Greco-Roman Schemes of Argumentation |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0028688500020312/type/journal_article |journal=New Testament Studies |language=en |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=94–121 |doi=10.1017/S0028688500020312 |s2cid=170259453 |issn=0028-6885}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Watson |first=Duane F. |date=1993 |title=The Rhetoric of James 3:1-12 and a Classical Pattern of Argumentation |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/nt/35/1/article-p48_4.xml |journal=Novum Testamentum |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=48–64 |doi=10.1163/156853693X00040 |issn=0048-1009}}</ref>
