11/22/99
The Letter of James
James was
not accepted into the canon of any Church until the third century. The hesitancy to accept it as scripture may
have something to do with the conflict it has with the epistles of Paul whose
writings dominate much of the Christian Bible. The conflict resides in the issue of Faith verses Works as
being the way to salvation. Perhaps it
is the identity of James, the brother of Jesus, which gave James’ letter the
authority to eventually be brought into the canon. But more likely it is the faithfulness to the teachings of Jesus
that allowed James to be
canonized. Another characteristic that
makes James interesting is its
orientation to Hellenistic thinking.
Like much of the Christian scriptures there is a Greek coloring in the
language and concepts but in James
particularly there seems to be a Greek influence in the way James presents his
arguments. James’ orientation towards
Greek-like rational argumentation and appeal to “works” makes this book very
valuable to Christians of ancient and contemporary times.
The
introduction to James, written by
Sophie Laws, in the Harper-Collins Study Bible comments that “some of
his [James’] imagery is drawn from the nonbiblical Hellenistic world” (2270). I
suppose that the “Hellenism” in James
would have appeared natural to many people in the Mediterranean world at the
time of its writing. Many of the people
spoke Greek, were surrounded by Greco-Roman architecture, and were familiar
with Greek concepts (such as the “Logos” that we find in the Gospel of
John). This seems to imply that the
audience would be familiar with this imagery.
If James’ intended audience
was either the “Jewish Christians” or the “God-fearers” that Laws discusses in
her introduction, then this would indeed be the case because Palestine was
heavily Hellenized during this time.
More important than asking what it would have
meant to the people at the time of James’
writing is the question of what it meant to those whom accepted James as scripture—in the Eastern
Mediterranean during the 3rd and beginning of the 4th
centuries in particular. This time
period, in Alexandria as well as other cities of the time, was a time of many
persecutions of Christians by the Roman Empire. In this time of being chased and arrested for your faith the letter of James might have been a great source of courage and bravery in the
face of persecution. James writes:
My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing (1:2-4)
James asks his audience to be brave in the face of persecution. Like the Passion of Jesus many third-century Christians may have had to suffer for their faith but they had the comfort of knowing that their reward would have been everlasting life in Jesus Christ. It seems, therefore, that many early Christians identified with not only the language and concepts, but probably had the need to be encouraged to be faithful and courageous in the face of persecution. James provided all of these things for them.
James seems to concentrate on this world
more than many other Christian scriptures; he appears to demand that we be
responsible for this life and to heavily encourage obedience to the laws (which
are for this world). This may partially
explain why James was not accepted
until the third, fourth, and, ubiquitously, the fifth centuries. Its appears that many Christians, in the
early going of the Church, were focused on Resurrection and salvation by faith
as Paul often wrote about. The Final
Judgement was supposed to have been “at hand” and so many were waiting for the
Second Coming of Christ to happen any day—in fact very soon. After a couple hundred years the fact that
the Resurrection may not come any time soon may have began to settle on the
Christian communities. James points out
that it is good to have faith and to be concerned with loving God, but we have
a responsibility to do good works.
James says: “faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead . . . Even the
demons believe—and shudder. Do you want
to be shown, you senseless person, that faith apart from works is barren”
(2:17, 2:19-20). This rational (hence
Greek-like) appeal is that even a demon has faith (meaning that they know about
Jesus. cf. Mk 1:24). Therefore, according
to James without faith and
Good works we are not completely following in Christ’s path.
Much
like the book of Proverbs James can
be classified as “wisdom literature.”
James offers the message for the reader, whether ancient or
contemporary, that we must be weary not to mistake human reason for the
truth. This is a break from the Greek
tradition which tended to hold reason as being worthy of all respect and
authority. However, much like the
ancient Greek Philosopher Plato, James
sets up a kind of dualism between this world and the spiritual world (which
would be continued by the Neoplatonists and St. Augustine later). James warns us to not become too comfortable
with this world (4:1-10), but to be closer to God and the spiritual, much like
Plato did with his myth of the cave in The Republic. This keeps the Hellenistic audience in mind
while James is allowed to move freely about Christian theology, blending Greek
tradition with the teachings of Jesus.
For the ancient Christian this would mean that a person is supposed to
keep their focus on God and the coming Resurrection,but in the mean time do
good works for the people around them.
In
our “Postmodern” world of materialism and fast-paced living, James offers a
pure Christian message in the true tradition of the teachings of Jesus
himself. It cuts past the complex
theology, parables, and miracles and gets right to the point. Many of the following quotes sound like what
we heard from Jesus in the Gospels: “Blessed is anyone who endures temptation
(1:12), “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (2:8), “do not be boastful
and false to the truth” (3:14), “friendship with the world is enmity with God”
(4:4), “do not swear, either by heaven or by earth” (5:12), and so on. The message to the contemporary Christian is
that we (as a society and as individuals) have not lived by these guidelines,
and, if we are to be good Christians, we need to live by them.
I
see these words and I can relate to what they are striking out against. For me this book holds little religious
importance, but it holds an important philosophical and moral one. Indeed, it is difficult to tame the tongue
(2:14-26) and to remember that our minds are limited in power allowing us to
often mistake our understanding of the truth for the actual truth. We are consistently being dragged into the
world around us; we are swept away by temporal styles of dress, talk, and
thinking. I believe that we should
never sacrifice truth for things such as ambition and pride. And I believe that we cannot, as Christians
or as non-Christians be so focused on our salvation and faith (ourselves in
general) that we forget that there is a world around us. It is important not to get caught up in this
mess while at the same time remembering that we cannot live outside of it while
we are in this life. So, despite the
fact that I do not share James’ faith, I share his opinion that we need to
exalt good works.
James’
familiarity with Greek sciences, philosophy, and language allows him to
communicate the teachings of Jesus, as well as the Jewish laws that Jesus
perpetuated, to his audience effectively.
It can be argued that this Greek culture may have tinted the “good news”
a bit but we must remember that the writers of these scriptures were human and
had to communicate to the people around them in a comprehensible and familiar
way. I think that James’ argument
concerning the importance of works is a good one and think that Paul may have
rethought his opinion had he read James.
(Perhaps James was written early
enough and known widely enough for Paul to have read it). Either way, James is a very important addition to the Christian Scriptures
because it is presented in a very straight-foreword manner that most readers
can comprehend. It contains many ideas
that are valuable for people of all times and places and is compatible, most significantly
to me, with nonbiblical philosophy.
This makes the Christian Word, as presented by James, significant; it
agrees with much of and, perhaps, enhances the secular thinking of the ancient
times.