James Through the Centuries

David Gowler

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781119673897, 9781405151146
• eBook ISBN: 9781118527870
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion

This unique commentary on James by an outstanding New Testament specialist, David B. Gowler, provides a broad range of original perspectives on how people have interpreted, and been influenced by, this important epistle.

The author explores a vast array of interpretations extending far beyond theological commentary, sermons, and hymns, to also embrace the epistle's influences on literature, art, politics, and social theory. The work includes examples of how successive generations have portrayed the historical figure of James the Just, in both pictorial and textual form. Contextualizing his analysis with excerpts from key documents, including artistic representations of the epistle, the author reviews the dynamic interactions between the James and Jesus traditions and compares James's epistle with those of Paul. The volume highlights James's particular concern for the poor and marginalized, charting the many responses to this aspect of his legacy. Drawing on sources as varied as William Shakespeare, John Calvin, Charles Schultz's Peanuts, and political cartoons, this is an exhaustive study of the theological and cultural debates sparked by the Epistle of James.

James Through the Centuries is published within the Wiley Blackwell Bible Commentaries series. Further information about this innovative reception history series is available at www.bbibcomm.info.

James 1:1–11

Trials, Endurance, Wisdom, and the Exalted Poor

James 1:1–4

Ancient literary context

The letter’s opening words do not exude authority directly, but its apparently self-effacing introduction indirectly assumes it. James is “a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ,” a rather high calling. In addition, even though James speaks in some ways as the equal of his readers—by using the address “my brothers and sisters” instead of “my sons and daughters”—the number of imperative sentences used throughout the letter demonstrates the authority with which the author speaks. James’s authority is such that he does not feel compelled to highlight his qualifications to utter such commands or to clarify which “James” he is.

James 1:1 and 2:1 are the only places where James explicitly mentions Jesus, but echoes of Jesus’ words and teachings permeate the letter. The first echo can be heard in the address to the “twelve tribes in the Dispersion,” which seems to evoke Jesus’ eschatological call for the restoration of Israel (cf. Matt. 10:1–23; cf. Gowler 2007: 121–44). Just as Jesus’ subversive wisdom is sometimes linked to his eschatological perspective, so too James’s commands can be similarly motivated.

The letter’s abrupt beginning immediately calls attention to the suffering the intended readers are evidently experiencing. It is therefore no coincidence that the first imperative of the letter (1:2) focuses on “trials,” a recurrent theme in the letter, which highlights the necessity for steadfastness through such trials. James does not yet specify what he means by “trials” (cf. Matt. 5:11–12), but we find out later that they include ill-treatment within the church (2:2, 4, 6), economic injustice (4:3, 13; 5:2–5), and illness (5:14–16). James expresses his solidarity with his “brothers and sisters” in these times of difficulty but also has (sometimes difficult) words of wisdom to impart to them.

The recipients of the letter are to consider these trials as “nothing but joy.” Joy (charan) connects with the earlier “Greetings” (charein), one of many such word-linkages in James, and joy is of utmost importance in this section. Trials should be considered as joy because of what they should produce: an active steadfastness of faith—endurance, wholeness, and wisdom.

The interpretations

Ancient and medieval

As noted in the Introduction, Eusebius (ca. 260–339), the Bishop of Caesarea, states that the Epistle of James did not have universal acceptance in the early centuries of the church:

These things are recorded in regard to James, who is said to be the author of the first of the so-called catholic epistles. But it is to be observed that it is disputed; at least, not many of the ancients have mentioned it, as is the case likewise with the epistle that bears the name of Jude, which is also one of the seven so-called catholic epistles. Nevertheless we know that these also, with the rest, have been read publicly in very many churches (Ecclesiastical History, 2.23.24).

In the same work, Eusebius records common opinion over which works are “accepted” (homologoumena) as divine scripture, such as the four Gospels, Acts, and the Epistles of Paul, those works that are “disputed” (antilegomena), such as James, Jude, and the second epistle of Peter, and those that are “rejected” (nothoi), such as the Acts of Paul, the Shepherd of Hermas, and the Apocalypse of Peter (3.25.1–7). Eusebius, it should be noted, is recording common opinion, and his classification of James as among the disputed texts primarily indicates that there are too few witnesses on James’s behalf to include it in the homologoumena. In other places, Eusebius assumes James to be scripture and its author a “holy Apostle” (Mayor 1990: 84–5).

Cyril of Jerusalem (ca. 315–87) was consecrated as Bishop of Jerusalem in 348, but was deposed three times during his career, including an eleven-year exile, which ended in 378 (Davies 1980: 168). In his catechetical lecture “On the Mysteries” (Lecture XXIII.17–18), which comments on the Lord’s Prayer, Cyril attempts to explain the apparent differences between Jesus’ and James’s statements about temptation (James 1:2, 12, 13; cf. Tertullian, On Baptism, Chapter 20). He first illustrates James’s point about trials by using a metaphor about swimming through a torrent and then concludes that Jesus does not mean to ask that believers never be tempted at all:

And lead us not into temptation, O Lord. Is this then what the Lord teaches us to pray, that we may not be tempted at all? How then is it said elsewhere, “a man untempted, is a man unproved” ; and again, My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations? But does entering into temptation mean being overwhelmed by the temptation? For temptation is, as it were, like a winter torrent difficult to cross. Those therefore who are not overwhelmed in temptations, pass through, showing themselves excellent swimmers, and not being swept away by them at all; while those who are not such, enter into them and are overwhelmed. As for example, Judas having entered into the temptation of the love of money, swam not through it, but was overwhelmed and was strangled both in body and spirit. Peter entered into the temptation of the denial; but having entered, he was not overwhelmed by it, but manfully swam through it, and was delivered from the temptation.

Cyril concludes by citing the assurances in Psalms 66:10–12 that God tested them, like silver is tested, and God saw them through into a place of rest, thus being delivered from temptation.

Jerome (ca. 340–420) is most famous for his primary role in the production of the Vulgate, a translation of the entire Bible into Latin. Jerome eventually settled in Bethlehem, where he spent thirty-four years translating; writing various commentaries, homilies, letters, and other works; teaching theology to the monks gathered around him; and even starting a school for the children of the neighborhood. His letters especially demonstrate his fiery and irascible personality, with a biting sarcasm that he unleashes at the slightest perceived provocation. Among the debates in which he engaged were the controversies surrounding Origen and Pelagius, and he specifically attacks people such as Helvidius, Jovinian, and Vigilantius (see MacCulloch 2009: 294–6; Davies 1980: 226).

Jerome writes his Lives of Illustrious Men to demonstrate that there were excellent “ecclesiastical writers.” His list includes 135 men, with Jerome being the 135th. The second chapter concerns “James, who is called the brother of the Lord,” and it notes that some in the church dispute whether the epistle was published by another person using James’s name:

James, who is called the brother of the Lord, surnamed the Just, the son of Joseph by another wife, as some think, but, as appears to me, the son of Mary sister of the mother of our Lord of whom John makes mention in his book, after our Lord’s passion at once ordained by the apostles bishop of Jerusalem, wrote a single epistle, which is reckoned among the seven Catholic Epistles and even this is claimed by some to have been published by someone else under his name, and gradually, as time went on, to have gained authority.

Jerome cites Hegesippus (see Introduction), who says that James the Just was the brother of Jesus who became head of the Jerusalem church. James, “holy from his mother’s womb,” was a vegetarian, and abstained from alcohol. Jerome also includes other aspects of James’s piety (e.g., entering the Holy of Holies and having knees like that of a camel because of praying so much). He also relates Josephus’s version of James’s death: Ananias the high priest tried to force James publicly to deny that “Christ was the son of God.” When he refused, James was cast down from the pinnacle of the temple. Still “half alive,” but with broken legs, James prayed, like Jesus and Stephen, for God to forgive his executioners. Only then was James “struck on the head by the club of a fuller” and died. Jerome also reports that Josephus records that “the downfall of Jerusalem was believed to be on account of [James’s] death.”

Cyril of Alexandria (ca. 378–444) was the bishop of Alexandria and all Egypt, one of the most important theologians of the fourth and fifth centuries, and a potent political force in his era (e.g., his major role in defending the term Theotokos as a title for Mary and the resulting condemnation and deposing of Nestorius, the bishop of Constantinople; see McKim 2007: 338–9). In one of his works written against the Arians, Thesaurus de sancta et consubstantiali trinitate, Cyril argues that James 1:1 proclaims the Trinity. As is his custom in his writings, Cyril focuses on the “nature” (physis) of the Son: “And how is it not already clearly evident to all, that the Son is God by nature (physis)? The one who in this way exists, how could he be created and made?” Cyril then cites James 1:1 and states: “Here in this place [James] addresses Jesus Christ as God and Lord, knowing that this one by nature is the herald of the truth” (Patrologiae Graecae 75:509; noted by John Kloppenborg in private correspondence).

The Venerable Bede reads “dispersion” (James 1:1) in light of Acts 8:1, where, because of persecution, Christians were “dispersed” throughout Judea and Samaria. These Christians suffered persecution “for righteousness’ sake” (Matt. 5:10). But Bede also understands this dispersion as designating those who are exiled because of “different calamities” (1985: 7), thus connecting the dispersion with the trials the readers are going through. The testing has a real purpose—patience and demonstrating a firm faith:

For this reason, [James] says, you are being tempted by adversities, that you may learn the value of patience and that through this you may be able to show and test that you have in your heart a firm faith in the future reward. What Paul says, “Knowing that tribulation works patience, patience proof” (Romans 9:3–4), ought not to be considered contradictory to this passage but rather in agreement. For patience builds character, because he whose patience cannot be overcome is proven perfect (9).

The preaching of the reformer Jan Hus (1369–1415) often excoriates the luxurious lifestyles of some in the church hierarchy. He derides the pope, for example, by comparing Jesus riding on a donkey with the pope seated on a stallion with people kissing his feet. Hus seeks to lessen the increasing gulf between the clergy and the laity and decries the use of indulgences for raising money. He interprets James 1:1–2 in particular through the lens of his excommunication by Cardinal Odo de Colonna in 1411, as well as the sufferings of like-minded people (Hus 1972: 50). In a letter to John Barbatus and the people of Krumlov, written from Prague in 1411, Hus says:

I have heard of your tribulation; therefore, “count it all joy when you fall into various temptations,” for the testing of your constancy. Dearly beloved, I am now beginning to be tested; but I regard it as a joy that for the sake of the gospel I am called a heretic and am excommunicated as a malefactor and disobedient (Hus 1972: 50).

Hus then compares their situation to that of the apostles under Annas and Caiaphas. The apostles were commanded not to speak of Jesus, but they responded that they had to follow the will of God, not the commands of human beings: “God must be obeyed above all” (51; cf. Letter 25, Hus 1972: 102–3).

Likewise, Hus returns to these verses in a letter he writes in exile (ca. November 1412) to the people of Prague. He alludes to the abandonment of the reform movement by others, such as Stanislav of Znojmo and Stephen Páleč, because they were in “greater terror of miserable man than of Almighty God who has the power to kill and give life, to condemn and to save (James 4:12), to preserve His faithful servants in temptation and to grant him—in lieu of the minute suffering—eternal life of immense joy” (Hus 1972: 79). Instead Hus exhorts them with James 1:2–4, 12, to count these “various temptations” as “all joy” that leads to steadfastness, perfection, and completion, and then, finally, to “the crown of life.” Hus calls upon them to “stand fast in the truth which you have learned” and to trust in God (Hus 1972: 80). If Jesus were declared guilty of heresy, banned, and hanged on a cross as one accursed, Hus argues, the “present-day messengers of the Antichrist” are even worse: “[I]t is no wonder that they calumniate and persecute, curse, imprison, and murder” God’s servants (Hus 1972: 81).

Hus’s most poignant use of James 1:2–4, however, comes in his letter to Lord John of Chlum, written in prison on June 23, 1415, in Constance, as Hus was preparing to be burned at the stake:

I am greatly consoled by the words of our Saviour: “You shall be blessed when men shall hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and cast out your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and exult: for behold! great is your reward in heaven” [Luke 6:22–3]. It is good, indeed the best, consolation, but difficult, not in respect of being understood, but to be fully sustained; that is, to rejoice in these tribulations. James held that rule along with the other apostles; he said: “Count it all joy, my brethren, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith works patience, and patience then has perfect effect.” Surely it is difficult to rejoice without perturbation, and to esteem it all joy in various temptations. It is easy to talk about it and to expound it, but difficult to fulfil it. Even the most patient and valiant soldier, knowing that on the third day He would rise, conquering by His death the enemies and redeeming the elect from damnation, after the Last Supper was troubled in spirit . . .
O most kind Christ, draw us weaklings after Thyself, for unless Thou draw us, we cannot follow Thee! Give us a courageous spirit that it may be ready; and if the flesh is weak, may Thy grace go before, now, as well as subsequently. For without Thee we can do nothing, and particularly to go to a cruel death for Thy sake. Give us a valiant spirit, a fearless heart, the right faith, a firm hope, and perfect love, that we may offer our lives for Thy sake with the greatest patience and joy. Amen (Hus 1972: 186–7).

Early modern and modern

As noted in the Introduction, over the course of his life, Martin Luther wrote some caustic words about the Epistle of James—that it is, for example, “a chaos” and an “epistle of straw” (LW 35: 362, 354). Luther also questions James’s canonicity and authorship:

We should throw the Epistle of James out of this school [Wittenburg], for it doesn’t amount to much. It contains not a syllable about Christ. Not once does it mention Christ, except at the beginning. I maintain that some Jew wrote it who probably heard about Christian people but never encountered any. Since he heard that Christians place great weight on faith in Christ, he thought, “Wait a moment! I’ll oppose them and urge works alone.” This he did. He wrote not a word about the suffering and resurrection of Christ, although this is what all the apostles preached about (LW 54: 424).

In his Preface to the Epistle of James, Luther praises James but then lists his primary objections to it:

Though this epistle of St. James was rejected by the ancients, I praise it and consider it a good book, because it sets up no doctrines of men but vigorously promulgates the law of God. However, to state my own opinion about it, though without prejudice to anyone, I do not regard it as the writing of an apostle, and my reasons follow (LW 35: 395–6).

Luther’s first reason for denying the apostolic authorship of James is that it is “flatly against St. Paul and all the rest of Scripture in ascribing justification to works” (2:24), especially in James’s discussion of Abraham (2:21). An apostle would not have made that mistake:

Now although this epistle might be helped and an interpretation devised for this justification by works, it cannot be defended in its applications to works (James 2:...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Wiley Blackwell Bible Commentaries
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• List of Plates
• Series Editors’ Preface
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• James 1:1–11
• James 1:12–27
• James 2:1–13
• James 2:14–26
• James 3:1–12
• James 3:13–4:12
• James 4:13–5:6
• James 5:7–11
• James 5:12–20
• Biographies
• References
• Indexes