Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/robertsn/rwp-jas/gjas.int

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                       THE EPISTLE OF JAMES
                          BEFORE A.D. 50

                      BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION

                            THE AUTHOR

        He claims to be James, and so the book is not anonymous.
It is either genuine or pseudonymous. He does not claim to be the
brother of the Lord Jesus, as one might expect. James the brother
of John was put to death by Herod Agrippa I about A.D. 44 (#Ac
12:2|). But James the brother of Jesus (#Ga 1:19|) was still
alive and became a leader of the church in Jerusalem (#Ac
12:17|), presiding over the Conference in Jerusalem (#Ac
15:13-21|) and apparently writing the message from the Conference
to the Gentile churches (#Ac 15:22-29|), and was still the
leading elder in Jerusalem on Paul's last visit (#Ac 21:18-25|).
James does not claim here to be an apostle and he was not one of
the twelve apostles, and the dispute about accepting it of which
Eusebius spoke was about its apostolicity since James was only an
apostle by implication (#Ga 1:19|) in the general sense of that
term like Barnabas (#Ac 14:14|), perhaps Silas and Timothy (#1Th
2:7|), certainly not on a par with Paul, who claimed equality
with the twelve. James, like the other brothers of Jesus, had
once disbelieved his claims to be the Messiah (#Joh 7:6f.|), but
he was won by a special vision of the Risen Christ (#1Co 15:7|)
and was in the upper room before the great pentecost (#Ac 1:14|).
It is plain that he had much to overcome as a zealous Jew to
become a Christian, though he was not a mere cousin of Jesus or a
son of Joseph by a former marriage. He was strictly the
half-brother of Jesus, since Joseph was not the actual father of
Jesus. There is no reason to believe that he was a Nazirite. We
know that he was married (#1Co 9:5|). He came to be called James
the Just and was considered very devout. The Judaizers had
counted on him to agree with them against Paul and Barnabas, but
he boldly stood for Gentile freedom from the ceremonial law. The
Judaizers still claimed him at Antioch and used his name wrongly
to frighten Peter thereby (#Ga 2:12|). But to the end he remained
the loyal friend to Paul and his gospel rightly understood (#Ac
21:18-25|). Clement of Alexandria (_Hypot_. vii) says that, when
he bore strong testimony to Jesus as the Son of man, they flung
him down from the gable of the temple, stoned him, and beat him
to death with a club. But Josephus (_Ant_. XX. ix. I) says that
the Sadducees about A.D. 62 had James and some others brought
before the Sanhedrin (Ananus presiding) and had them stoned as
transgressors of the law. At any rate he won a martyr's crown
like Stephen and James the brother of John.

                             THE DATE

        If the Epistle is genuine and James was put to death
about A.D. 62, it was clearly written before that date. There are
two theories about it, one placing it about A.D. 48, the other
about A.D. 58. To my mind the arguments of Mayor for the early
date are conclusive. There is no allusion to Gentile Christians,
as would be natural after A.D. 50. If written after A.D. 70, the
tone would likely be different, with some allusion to that
dreadful calamity. The sins condemned are those characteristic of
early Jewish Christians. The book itself is more like the Sermon
on the Mount than the Epistles. The discussion of faith and works
in chapter #Jas 2| reveals an absence of the issues faced by Paul
in #Ro 4; Ga 3| after the Jerusalem Conference (A.D. 49). Hence
the date before that Conference has decidedly the better of the
argument. Ropes in his Commentary denies the genuineness of the
Epistle and locates it between A.D. 75 and 125, but Hort holds
that the evidence for a late date rests "on very slight and
intangible grounds." So we place the book before A.D. 49. It may
indeed be the earliest New Testament book.

                           THE READERS

        The author addresses himself "to the twelve tribes which
are of the Dispersion" (#Jam 1:1|). Clearly, then, he is not
writing to Gentiles, unless he includes the spiritual children of
Abraham in the term \Diaspora\ as Paul does for believers (#Ga
3:29; Ro 9:6f.|). The word \diaspora\ occurs elsewhere in the
N.T. only in #Joh 7:35; 1Pe 1:1|. It apparently has the spiritual
significance in #1Pe 1:1|, but in #Joh 7:35| the usual meaning of
Jews scattered over the world. The use here of "the twelve
tribes" makes the literal sense probable here. Clearly also James
knew nothing of any "lost" tribes, for the Jews of the Dispersion
were a blend of all the twelve tribes. It is probable also that
James is addressing chiefly the Eastern Dispersion in Syria,
Mesopotamia, and Babylonia as Peter writes to five provinces in
the Western Dispersion in Asia Minor. It is possible that James
has in mind Christian and non-Christian Jews, not wholly
non-Christian Jews as some hold. He may have in mind merely
Christian Jews outside of Palestine, of whom there were already
many scattered since the great pentecost. The use of synagogue as
a place of worship (#Jas 2:2|) like church (#Jas 5:14|) argues
somewhat for this view. He presents the Mosaic law as still
binding (#Jas 2:9-11; 4:11|). As the leading elder of the great
church in Jerusalem and as a devout Jew and half-brother of
Jesus, the message of James had a special appeal to these widely
scattered Jewish Christians.

                           THE PURPOSE

        If James is writing solely to non-Christian Jews, the
purpose is to win them to Christ, and so he puts the gospel
message in a way to get a hearing from the Jews. That is true,
whether he has them in mind or not, though he does not do it by
the suppression of the deity of Jesus Christ. In the very first
verse he places him on a par with God as "the Lord Jesus Christ."
In #Jas 2:1| he presents Jesus as the object of faith: "as you
believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Glory" (Moffatt's
Translation), where Jesus is termed the Shekinah Glory of God. It
is true that there is no discussion in the Epistle of the cross
and the resurrection of Jesus, but there is an allusion to the
murder of Jesus in #Jas 5:6| and the second coming in #Jas 5:8|.
The chief aim of the Epistle is to strengthen the faith and
loyalty of the Jewish Christians in the face of persecution from
rich and overbearing Jews who were defrauding and oppressing
them. It is a picture of early Christian life in the midst of
difficult social conditions between capital and labor which also
exist today. So then it is a very modern message even if it is
the earliest New Testament book. The glory of the New Testament
lies precisely at this point in that the revelation of God in
Christ meets our problems today because it did meet those of the
first century A.D. Christian principles stand out clearly for our
present-day living.

                            THE STYLE

        James assumes the doctrinal features of Christianity, but
he is concerned mainly with the ethical and social aspects of the
gospel that Jewish followers of Christ may square their lives
with the gospel which they believe and profess. But this fact
does not justify Luther in calling the Epistle of James "a
veritable Epistle of straw." Luther imagined that James
contradicted Paul's teaching of justification by faith. That is
not true and the criticism of Luther is unjust. We shall see
that, though James and Paul use the same words (faith, works,
justify), they mean different things by them. It is possible that
both Paul and Peter had read the Epistle of James, though by no
means certain. M. Jones (_New Testament in the Twentieth
Century_, p. 316) thinks that the author was familiar with Stoic
philosophy. This is also possible, though he may have learned it
only indirectly through the Wisdom of Solomon and Philo. What is
true is that the author writes in the easy and accurate _Koiné_
Greek of a cultivated Jew (the literary _Koiné_, not the
vernacular), though not the artificial or stilted language of a
professional stylist. Principal Patrick (_James the Lord's
Brother_, p. 298) holds that he "had a wide knowledge of
Classical Greek." This does not follow, though he does use the
manner "of the Hellenistic diatribe" (Ropes, _Int. and Crit.
Comm_., p. 19) so common at that time. Ropes (pp. 10-22) points
out numerous parallels between James and the popular moral
addresses of the period, familiar since the days of Socrates and
at its height in Seneca and Epictetus. The use of an imaginary
interlocutor is one instance (#Jas 2:18f.; 5:13f.|) as is the
presence of paradox (#Jas 1:2,10; 2:5|; etc.). But the style of
James is even more kin to that seen in the Jewish wisdom
literature like Proverbs, the Wisdom of Solomon, etc. It is thus
both tract and Epistle, a brief Christian sermon on a high plane
for a noble purpose. But it is all natural and not artificial.
The metaphors are many, but brief and remind one constantly of
the Master's use of them in the Sermon on the Mount. Did not Mary
the mother of Jesus and James make frequent use of such homely
parables? The author shows acquaintance with the LXX, but there
are few Hebraisms in the language, though the style is Hebraic,
as is the whole tone of the book (Hebraic and Christian). "The
style is especially remarkable for constant hidden allusions to
our Lord's sayings, such as we find in the first three Gospels"
(Hort).

                      RECENT BOOKS ON JAMES

Baljon, J. M. S., _Comm. op de katholieke brieven_ (1904).
Bardenhewer, O., _Der Brief des hl. Jakobus_ (1928).
Bartmann, _St. Paulus und St. Jakobus_.
Belser, J. E., _Epistel des hl. Jakobus_ (1909).
Beyschlag, W., _Der Brief des Jakobus_. Meyer Komm. 6
   Aufl. (1898).
Brown, Charles, _The General Epistle of James_. 2nd ed.
   (1907).
Camerlinck, _Commentarius in epistolas catholicas_ (1909).
Carpenter, W. Boyd, _The Wisdom of James the Just_ (1903).
Carr, Arthur, _The General Epistle of James_. Cambridge
Greek Testament. New ed. (1905).
Chaine, J., _L Epitre de S. Jacques_ (1927).
Dale, R. W., _Discourses on the Epistle of James (1895).
Deems, C. F., _The Gospel of Common Sense_.
Dibelius, _M., Meyer's Comm. 7 Aufl. (1921).
Feine, _Der Jakobusbrief_, etc. (1893).
Fitch, _James the Lord's Brother_.
Gaugusch, L., _Der Lehrgehalt der Jakobus-epistel_ (1914).
Grafe, _Stellung und Bedeutung des Jakobusbriefes_ (1904).
Grosheide, F. W., _De brief aan de Hebreen en de brief des
   Jakobus_ (1927).
Hauck, F., _Der Br. d. Jak. in Zahn's Komm_. (1926).
Hollmann, G., _Die Schriften d. N.T_. 3 Aufl. (1917).
Holtzmann, O., _Das N.T. II_ (1926).
Hort, F. J. A., _The Epistle of James as far as 4:7_ (1909).
Huther, J. E., _Meyer's Komm_. 3 Aufl. (1870).
Johnstone, R., _Lectures Exegetical and Practical_. 2nd ed.
(1889).
Knowling, R. J., _Comm. on the Epistle of St. James_ (1904).
   Westminster Series.
Mayor, J. B., _The Epistle of St. James_. 3rd ed. (1910).
Meinertz, _Der Jakobusbrief und sein Verfasser_ (1905).
Meyer, A., _Das Ratsel des Jak_. (1930).
Moffatt, James, _The General Epistles (James, Peter, and
Judas_) (1928).
Osterley, W. E., _The Epistle of St. James_. Expos. Gk.
   Test. (1910).
Parry, J., _The General Epistle of James_ (1904).
Patrick, W., _James, the Lord's Brother_ (1906).
Plummer, A., _The General Epistle of St. James_. Expos.
   Bible (1891).
Rendall, G. H., _The Epistle of St. James and Judaic Chris-
   tianity_ (1927).
Robertson, A. T., _Studies in the Epistle of James_. 3rd ed.
   (1923). First in 1915 as _Pract. and Social Aspects of
   Christianity_.
Ropes, J. H., _A Crit. and Exeget. Comm. on the Epistle of
   St. James_. Int. and Crit. Comm. (1916).
Smith, H. M., _The Epistle of James_ (1925).
Soden, H. Von, _Der Brief des Jakobus_. Hand-Comm. (1893).
Spitta, F., _Der Brief des Jakobus untersucht_ (1896).
Taylor, J. F., _The Apostle of Patience_ (1907).
Weiss, B., _Die Katholische Briefe_ (1902).
   _Der Jakobusbrief und die neuere Kritik_ (1904).
Windisch, H., _Die Katholische Briefe. Handbuch Zum N.T._,
   2 Aufl. (1930).