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the world, as appears from the narrative of the events which took place on the first Christian Pentecost.1 The expression there used to describe the pilgrims who came up to Jerusalem, "devout men from every nation under heaven," is supported by the evidence of many independent witnesses, such as Philo and Josephus. These exiled Jews were chiefly located in Babylon, Syria, and Egypt; and it was probably to those resident in Syria that copies of this epistle would be first sent. The epistle is addressed to Christian Jews,2 of whom there were many in Syria liable to persecution and violence similar to that which Saul was inflicting on the Christians previous to his conversion.3 While addressing himself mainly to Christian readers, the writer seems also to have occasionally in view his unbelieving countrymen. The denunciations in the last chapter may be regarded as an apostrophe to the wealthy unbelievers, chiefly of the sect of the Sadducees, who truckled to the Romans and oppressed their poorer brethren, especially those who professed Christianity. James would have many opportunities of hearing of the trials which beset his believing countrymen in their distant

1 Acts ii. 5-II.

V.

2 ii. 1, 7: "My brethren, hold not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. Do not they blaspheme the honourable name by the which ye are called?" 7, 8: "Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord is at hand."

3 ii. 6, 7: 66 But ye have dishonoured the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you, and themselves drag you before the judgement-seats? Do not they blaspheme the honourable name by the which ye are called?" Acts ix. 1, 2. "James wrote to Jews, who were not governed solely by Roman law, but who, down to A.D. 70, administered justice to a certain extent among themselves, according to their own sacred law, even in Roman cities of the Eastern provinces. Of course

homes; and, as he seems

the most serious penalties, and especially death, were beyond the independent Jewish jurisdiction; but still much suffering could be legally inflicted by Jews on other Jews, unless the victims possessed the Roman citizenship. Hence the situation of Jewish Christians before A.D. 64 was much more serious than that of Gentile Christians; but after that year official Roman action could be invoked with confident expectation of success against both classes, and after A.D. 70 the self-governing privileges of the Jews were entirely withdrawn."-Ramsay, The Church in the Roman Empire, p. 349.

4 v. 1-6: "Go to now, ye rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. Behold, the

hire of the labourers who mowed your
fields, which is of you kept back by
fraud, crieth out: and the cries of them
that reaped have entered into the ears
of the Lord of Sabaoth.
Ye have
condemned, ye have killed the righteous
one; he doth not resist you."

never to have left Jerusalem, it was natural that under a sense of the high responsibility attaching to his position he should wish to address them in writing, as he does in this epistle.

3. Date and Place of Composition.

As both Scripture and tradition concur in representing James as having constantly resided at Jerusalem, there is no reason to doubt that the letter emanated from that city. With regard to the date of its composition there is less certainty. That it was written before the outbreak of the war, 66 A.D., which put an end to the Sadducean ascendency, is generally admitted. We may also infer from the absence of any allusions to the sharp controversy regarding the obligations of the Jewish law on Gentile converts, which gave rise to the Council of Jerusalem (50 A.D.), that it was either written before that event, or not for some years afterwards.

On the whole, considering the marked absence from the epistle of anything like developed Christian doctrine, the continued expectation which it exhibits of Christ's speedy coming to judge the world, and the application of the term Synagogue to an assembly of Christian worshippers,2 we are justified in assigning to the epistle a very early date-say 44-49 A.D. If this supposition be correct, we have here the oldest book of the New Testament.3

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expressions supposed to be borrowed from the Pauline epistles are, in fact, no more than expressions peculiar to the controversy, which might have been used whenever and by whomsoever it was entered on (Alford). The resemblances to I Peter, however, are so striking that it can hardly be doubted St. Peter was well acquainted with this epistle. i. 2, 3: "Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into manifold temptations; knowing that the proof of your faith worketh patience"; cf. 1 Peter i. 6, 7: "Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, ye have been put to grief in manifold temptations, that the proof of

4. Character and Contents.

This epistle is less doctrinal or theological than any other in the New Testament. It partakes largely of the ethical character of the Sermon on the Mount, which it resembles, not only in its general tone and sentiment, but in many of its expressions.1 Its tone is eminently practical, the object of the writer being to inculcate Christian morality as essential to salvation.2 But it gives a prominent place to faith and patience,3 and includes in its good works

your faith, being more precious than gold that perisheth though it is proved by fire, might be found unto praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ." i. 10, II: "And the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun ariseth with the scorching wind, and withereth the grass; and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth so also shall the rich man fade away in his goings"; cf. 1 Pet. i. 24: "For, All flesh is as grass, And all the glory thereof as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower falleth." (In both there is a quotation from Isa. xl. 7.) i. 18: "Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures"; cf. 1 Pet. i. 3: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." i. 21: "Wherefore putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls"; cf. 1 Pet. ii. 1, 2: Putting away therefore all wickedness, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, long for the spiritual milk which is without guile, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation." iv. 6, 7, 10: 66 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore the scripture saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. subject therefore unto God; but resist the devil, and he will flee from you... Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall exalt you"; cf. 1 Pet.

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v. 5-9: "Likewise, ye younger, be subject unto the elder. Yea, all of you gird yourselves with humility, to serve one another: for God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time; casting all your anxiety upon him, because he careth for you. Be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom withstand stedfast in your faith, knowing that the same sufferings are accomplished in your brethren who are in the world." (In both cases there is a quotation from Prov. iii. 34: "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble"; with the same slight departure from the Septuagint, and followed by the same exhortation.) V. 20: "Let him know, that he which converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins"; cf. 1 Pet. iv. 8: "Above all things being fervent in your love among yourselves; for love covereth a multitude of sins.' (In both the same expression is borrowed from Prov. X. 12: "shall cover a multitude of sins.")

1 66

Essentially it is the teaching of Christ, and thus there is little teaching about Christ" (Beyschlag). i. 2; cf. Matt. v. 11, 12. i. 4; cf. Matt. v. 48. i. 20; cf. Matt. v. 22. 11. 13; cf. Matt. vi. 14, 15. ii. 14; cf. Matt. vii. 21-23. iv. 4; cf. Matt. vi. 24. iv. 10; cf. Matt. v. 3, 4. iv. II; cf. Matt. vii. 1, 2. v. 2; cf. Matt. vi. 19. v. 10; cf. Matt. v. 12. v. 12; cf. Matt. v. 34-37.

2 E.g. ii. 14-26.
3 E.g. i. 2-12.

the careful ruling of the tongue.1 It also dwells much on the wisdom 2 which should characterise the religious man, and refers in detail to many other forms of duty-Christian practice being to the writer the highest form of outward worship. The style of the epistle is sententious and forcible, passing swiftly, and sometimes without any apparent logical formation, from one topic to another, and it has about it not a little of the vehemence and fervour of the old prophets. James does not hesitate to denounce in very strong and plain terms, which savour, in some respects, of the language of Amos, the greed and cruelty of the rich, the servility of the poor, and the general vanity, strife, hypocrisy, and worldly-mindedness which were characteristic of the Jews at this period of their history, and had begun to infect the Christians in their midst.4

He insists on character as the test of true religion, and demands that a man shall show the reality of his faith by his life and conduct. In his protests against an empty profession of religion, he is led into the use of language which has sometimes been supposed (by Luther, for example) to be irreconcilably at variance with the teaching of Paul.

But in reality there is no such incon

sistency between them.5

1 iii. 1-12.

2 E.g. iii. 13-18. Hence James has been called "the Apostle of Wisdom"; and the designation given to him in the Greek liturgy is that of "James the Wise."

3 i. 27: "Pure religion (@pnoкela)

and undefiled before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

4 iv. 13: "Go to now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and get gain"; v. 1, 2: "Go to now, ye rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten"; cf. Amos viii. 4-10: "Hear this, O ye that would swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail, Saying, When

will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit ? . And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning for an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day." v. 5: "Ye have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure; ye have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter"; Amos vi. 3-6: "Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall," &c.

5 At the same time it is quite possible that the misrepresentations referred to

The good works which James contends for are altogether different from the ritualistic observances which Paul refused to acknowledge as necessary for salvation; the justification he has in view in this epistle is not the initial admission into the Divine favour which Paul's Gentile converts needed, but the continuance of God's people in a state of grace to which they are already called; while the faith which he depreciates is not that personal union with the Lord Jesus Christ which Paul declared to be all-important for the Christian, but mere intellectual belief, such as the acceptance of the monotheistic doctrine that lay at the foundation of the Jewish faith.1 No one can read such language as is quoted below 2 without seeing that Paul would have concurred most heartily in all that this epistle about the necessity for carrying religion into practice.

says

in Acts xv. 24: "Forasmuch as we
have heard that certain which went out
from us have troubled you with words,
subverting your souls; to whom we
gave no commandment," may have
been due to a perversion of James'
teaching in such a passage as ii. 10:
"For whosoever shall keep the whole
law, and yet stumble in one point, he is
become guilty of all." Similarly it may
have been some unworthy exponent of
Paul's doctrine that James had in view
when he used such language as ii. 20:
"But wilt thou know, O vain man, that
faith apart from works is barren."
1 ii. 19:
"Thou believest that God is
one; thou doest well: the devils also
believe, and shudder."

2 Titus iii. 8: "Faithful is the saying, and concerning these things I will that thou affirm confidently, to the end that they which have believed God may be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto

men"; Rom. ii. 17-27: thou therefore that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou rob temples? thou who gloriest in the law, through thy transgression of the law dishonourest thou God? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you, even as it is written. For circumcision indeed profiteth, if thou be a doer of the law: but if thou be a transgressor of the law, thy circumcision is become uncircumcision. If therefore the uncircumcision keep the ordinances of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be reckoned for circumcision? and shall not the uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who with the letter and circumcision art a transgressor of the law?"

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