Bible Dictionaries
James Epistle of

　　1. Literary characteristics.-The Epistle strikes us at once as the expression of a vigorous personality. The author plunges into his subject with a bold paradox, and his short, decisive sentences fall like hammer-strokes. He constantly employs the imperative, and makes much use of the rhetorical question. His rebukes contain some of the sharpest invective in the NT (James 4:1-4; James 5:1-6), and he knows when irony will serve him best (James 2:19). He piles up metaphor upon metaphor until the impression becomes irresistible (James 3:3-12), and multiplies attributes with the same effect of emphasis (e.g. ‘earthly, sensual, devilish’ [James 3:15; cf. James 1:4; James 1:8; James 1:19]). Like most vigorous writers, he delights in antithesis (cf. James 1:9 f., James 1:22; James 1:25, James 3:5, James 4:7). In his illustrations he uses direct speech with dramatic effect (‘sit thou here in a good place,’ etc. [James 2:3; cf. James 2:16; James 4:13]). Every here and there are struck out, like sparks from the flint of this rather hard-edged style, phrases of arresting beauty and significance: ‘the crown of life which the Lord promised to them that love him’ (James 1:12); ‘the grace of the fashion of it perisheth’ (James 1:11); ‘mercy glorieth against judgement’ (James 2:13); ‘What is your life? For ye are a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away’ (James 4:14); ‘Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receive the early and latter rain’ (James 5:7); ‘the supplication of a righteous man, when it puts forth its strength, availeth much’ (James 5:16).

　　The form is, in the main, the terse, gnomic form of the Wisdom literature, but the spirit that inspires it has deeper roots. It goes back to OT prophecy. It is an Amos that we seem to hear in the vigorous denunciation of James 5:1-6; Isaiah is the direct inspirer of the stately passage in James 1:10 f., and the writer has distilled the quintessence of the prophets into that fine saying which sums up his teaching and comes home with special force to the modern world: ‘Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this, to succour (cf. Luke 1:68) the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world’ (James 1:27).

　　It is in part, at least, owing to this gnomic style and prophetic temper that the Epistle does not form a logically constructed whole, according to Western theories of composition. This is not to say that it has no cohesion. A considerable part of it is grouped round three or four main ideas-temptation, the bridling of the tongue, the danger of lip-religion, the relation of rich and poor. Within and between these groups the movement is determined, to an extent which seems curious to our ways of thought, by verbal associations. The emphatic word of one sentence becomes a catchword linking it to the next.

　　It may be worth while to analyze a paragraph with a view to bringing this out. The salutation, ‘James … to the twelve tribes … giveth joy’ (James 1:1), supplies the key-word for the apparently abrupt opening: ‘And joy unmixed count it, brethren, when …’ (James 1:2). Again, ‘that ye may be perfect, lacking nothing (James 1:4). And if any lack wisdom [for the apparently abrupt introduction of wisdom, see below], let him ask … (James 1:5), but let him ask in faith’ (James 1:5). This idea is then developed up to the end of James 1:8. The transition to James 1:9, ‘Now let the lowly brother,’ etc., is apparently again abrupt (see below). James 1:12 returns, as though James 1:4-11 might be considered as a digression, to the idea of temptation, and, passing from the sense of ‘trial’ to that of ‘inducement to evil,’ deals with some difficulties connected therewith. It is interesting to note that two abrupt transitions in the above can be explained, with considerable probability, as due to literary reminiscence. In James 1:5 we want a connexion between ‘wisdom,’ which appears unexpectedly, and the ideas of ‘perfect’ and ‘lacking’; and this certainly seems to be supplied by Wisdom of Solomon 9:6 : ‘For even if a man be perfect among the sons of men, yet if the wisdom that cometh from thee be not with him, he shall be held in no account.’ Again in Wisdom of Solomon 9:9, where the transition appears quite abrupt, a connexion with the central idea of wisdom is supplied by Sirach 11:1 : ‘The wisdom of the lowly shall lift up his head,’ and with the next verse Sirach 3:18 may be compared: ‘The greater thou art, humble thyself the more, and thou shalt find favour before the Lord’ (cf. also, for the double antithesis, Sirach 20:11).

　　2. Religious attitude and teaching.-The main purpose of the Epistle is to protest against prevailing worldliness (James 4:4), which finds expression in avarice (James 4:3; James 5:4), pleasure-seeking (James 1:14; James 4:1), the vaunt of a barren orthodoxy (James 2:14 f.), social arrogance and sycophancy (James 2:1 f.), bitter contentions (James 4:1 f.), sins of the tongue (James 1:26; James 3:5-10). Against these the author holds up the ideal of a life inspired by the ‘wisdom which is from above’ (James 3:17), which here plays the part assigned to the Spirit (as gift) in St. Paul and the NT generally. (With James 3:17 cf. Galatians 5:22, and with James 1:5 cf. Luke 11:13 and John 3:34.) This heavenly wisdom is above all things ‘pure’ (τῆς δόξης as in apposition to συναγωγή in the sense of a Christian assembly cf. Herm. Mand. xi. 9; Ignat. ad Polyc. iv. 2.)

　　3. Reception in the Church.-Re-ascending the stream of tradition from the point at which our present NT canon may be considered as definitely established in the Western Church (Third Council of Carthage, a.d. 397), we find that the acceptance of the Ep. of James long remained dubious. Jerome, de Vir. Illustr. ii. (a.d. 392) says that, while some asserted it to have been issued by another under the name of James (‘ab alio quodam sub nomine eius edita’), it had gradually, as time went on, established its authority. Eusebius, HE iii. 25 (circa, about 240) suggests the same uncertainty when he refers to it as the Epistle ‘which goes under the name of James’ ( διʼ δικαιοῦσθαι ἐκ πἱστεως, νεκρός (applied to faith, where St. Paul applies it to works). It is less probable, it is urged, that this terminology was invented by James, who only employs it in this controversial passage, than by St. Paul, for whom it is the necessary expression of some of his fundamental doctrines.

　　(b) In a number of other passages there are points of contact, and in some of them the suggestion of literary priority is distinctly on the side of St. Paul. For example, if we compare St. Paul’s statement in Romans 8:2, ‘the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free ([Note: .l. varia lectio, variant reading.]νόμος τῆς ἐλευθερίας [James 1:25; James 2:12]), the latter succinct, technical-looking expression has the air of an already coined and current phrase, while St. Paul seems to be stating a fact of experience.† f. || Romans 5:3; James 4:1, Romans 7:23; James 4:11 || Galatians 5:22ἔργα νόμου, α) the unassuming character of the writer’s self-designation, which makes against forgery, while his authoritative tone implies a position of influence; (χαίρειν [James 1:1 || Acts 15:23]; name called ‘upon’ persons [Septuagintἐπιστρέφειν [James 5:19 f. || Acts 15:19]; δ) In favour of an early date we have the unorganized character of the teaching office (James 3:1), the mention of elders only (James 5:14), the anointing of the sick with a view to healing (James 5:14), the confession of sins one to another (James 5:16).

　　B. Those who, while holding the traditional view as to the authorship, feel obliged to recognize in James 2:14 f. a reference to Pauline teaching, have recourse to the hypothesis that the Ep. was written either after the appearance of Romans or at least after James had received reports as to the Pauline teaching. Against this, the objection lies that, once the controversies raised by St. Paul’s preaching had begun, it is inconceivable that an Ep. written to Jewish Christians of the Diaspora should contain no reference to the burning questions about the relation of Gentile converts to circumcision and the Law (cf. Mayor, pp. cx, cxlvf., and Zahn, Introd. i. 136f.). The present writer is not aware that any satisfactory answer has been given to this objection.*

　　C. The hypothesis that the Ep. is an originally Jewish work adapted by a Christian writer has been maintained by Spitta and Massebieau (see Literature below) on the ground of (1) the scantiness of specifically Christian doctrine-an unmistakably Christian reference is admitted only in James 1:1 and James 2:1; (2) close affinities with Jewish literature; (3) the suggestion of interpolation in the curious position of Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ.

　　To this it is replied (1) that there is more specifically Christian doctrine than these writers admit: e.g. in James 1:18 the combination of the ideas of ‘begetting,’ ‘word of truth,’ and ‘firstfruits’ is much more naturally referred to Christian doctrine than to the original creation (as Spitta); and phrases like ‘the coming (Parousia) of the Lord’ (James 5:7-8), ‘the perfect law of liberty’ (James 1:25), ‘the elders of the church’ (James 5:14), ‘the goodly name by which ye are called’ (James 2:7), ‘my beloved brethren’ (James 1:16; James 1:19; James 2:5), certainly suggest a Christian atmosphere. No evidence is produced that a faith-and-works controversy such as that implied in James 2:14 f. had a risen in pre-Christian Judaism. (2) That the work should show close affinities with the OT and with Jewish Hellenistic literature is in no way surprising if the author was a Jewish Christian. (3) That a Christian interpolator should have been content to interpolate only in James 1:1 and James 2:1 is hardly conceivable. Accepting the text of James 2:1 as it stands, there is nothing very violent in taking ii. 1, p. 106f., where the general presuppositions of the hypothesis are more fully and lucidly act forth.)

　　Against this theory the following objections are offered. (1) The hypothesis is unduly complicated. (2) The religious spirit of the Ep. gives the impression of being very much earlier than that of Hermas. (3) The ultimate association of the Ep. with James of Jerusalem and its consequent reception are not fully accounted for. The passage relied on to prove the date (James 2:6 f.) is susceptible of a different interpretation. The rich man and the poor man of James 2:2 apparently both come into the Christian assembly as strangers, and there is nothing to show that the rich of James 2:6 are Christians rather than outsiders. In fact, the latter relation is suggested by the fact that they are said to blaspheme the name by which ‘you’ (not ‘they’) have been called.

　　As is sufficiently apparent from the number and variety of the theories (of which this survey is by no means exhaustive), the problem of date and authorship admits of no easy and convincing solution. In a work of the present character it seems best simply to be content to say so.

　　Literature (grouped according to the critical theories noticed above. Where other theories are advocated, some indication is given). A. J. B. Mayor, Ep. of St. James, London, 1892 (31910); R. J. Knowling, Ep. of St. James, in Westminster Comm., do. 1904; T. Zahn, Introd. to NT, Eng. translation[Note: HR Revue de l’Histoire des Religions.] , London, 1904; J. Moffatt, Introd. to Literature of the New Testament (Moffatt)., Edinburgh, 1911; B. W. Bacon, Introd. to NT, New York, 1900; A. S. Peake, A Crit. Introd. to the NT, London, 1909.

　　Other views: G. Currie Martin, ‘The Ep. of James as a Storehouse of the Sayings of Jesus,’ in Expositor, 7th ser. iii. [1907] 174-184 (Ep. works up collection of Sayings made by James); W. Brückner, Die chronol. Reihenfolge, in welcher die Briefe des NT verfasst sind, Haarlem, 1890, pp. 287-295 (addressed to a conventicle of Jewish Christians of Essene sympathies at Rome in the reign of Hadrian); O. Pfleiderer, Primitive Christianity, iv. (Eng. translation