Letter of James

I. Introduction

"Faith without works is dead"

When many Christians hear those words, the letter of James immediately flashes into their minds. Here was a rebuke to the Pauline theology of salvation. But a closer read reveals a far more nuanced and practical understanding of the Christian lifestyle. The strength of the letter lays in its exhortations. And, as we will see below, the so-called "rebuke" misses the deeper thought of the author.

Overview

II. Dating: 70-100 CE

Dating the letter of James presents us with a few problems. Besides the brief greeting, the letter consisted of thematic exhortations that repeated in different verses; it did not include any end time speculation or needs to evangelize. Then it abruptly ended. The author wrote in a writing style that was at odds with tradition. And his subject matter seemed to make some assumptions about the matter of faith.

With these issues in mind, let's begin with the themes found in the letter and internal evidence for authorship and audience. Then, we can date the letter.

A. Themes

We can breakdown the themes of James into general areas: "faith vs. works," practical wisdom and economic disparity.

1. Faith vs. Works

a. Modern View of the Terms

When discussing Christianity, many modern believers define faith in the words of Heb 11:1:

Faith is the assurance of what is hoped for, and the conviction of the matters unseen.

This definition echoes the thesis that faith is an interior matter, an experience of the spirit. Works, however, could be reduced to positive behavior, "good deeds." Faith is a matter of intent, works is one of action.

Here, we must also introduce three more terms for our discussion: justification, salvation and sanctification. How are we justified before God? How are we saved? How are we grow in our relationship with God (sanctification)? Many people approach these questions from the wrong angle. They ask: what can we do to justify our place in heaven? What can we do to be saved? And to be sanctified? The Christian Scriptures answer these inquiries in the negative. There is nothing we can do. Our place before God (justification), our salvation and our growth towards God (sanctification) are matters of divine initiative. God's in charge, we are not.

What is the relationship with faith and works vis a vis these terms? Many modern believers assert merely performing good deeds (works) will not save us. Only a decision for Christ (faith) can save us, lead to justification and open the door to further spiritual growth.

b. Scriptural Context

1) Hebrews

To put it bluntly, many believers gloss over the context where "faith" and "works" could be found. Take, for example, the letter to the Hebrews. In Heb 11:1, the author defined faith with two aspects: anticipation of the end times ("assurance of events expected") and the spiritual dimension ("conviction of matters unseen"). The first part described a yearning for return of Christ and the general resurrection. To make his point, the author listed figures from the Hebrew Scriptures that demonstrated such faith even though they died (see Heb 11:13-19, Heb 11:39-40).

The second part described the spirituality of the community. The "conviction of matters unseen" was the belief Christ lived among the faithful in their liturgical and communal life. Early Christians shared their faith. Such may have began as an interior decision but spilled outward and defined the local church.

So, the author of Hebrews defined faith in terms of a "not yet but yet" realization of Christ's presence. Believers looked forward to him coming in glory at God's appointed time. Yet, they were convinced the Risen Christ lived in the community, supporting it, vivifying it; indeed, they worshiped together as if in heaven along with their Savior (see Heb 12:1-2, Heb 12:18-24, Heb 13:10-16).

2) Pauline Writings

Much of the modern, intra-Christian apologetics focused on the letters from St. Paul. He clearly separated "faith" from "works." He stated the former began with intent but grew to something greater.

8 But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart;" (Deu 30:14) that is, the word of faith which we preach: 9 that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Romans 10:8-9

For Paul, faith had interior ("believe in the heart") and exterior ("confess with your mouth") dimensions. But, where did the neophytes publicly profess their faith? Within the Christian community, specifically at baptism when the commitment to Christ and unity with the Risen Lord were fully realized.

2 We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer? 3 Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection.

Romans 6:2-5

So, Paul saw faith as a matter of the heart that required action.

The Apostles to the Gentiles had a different view on "works" than its modern definition as "good deeds." He grappled with the thorny problem of pagans joining the Church. What was their status in the community? Specifically, could they "break bread" (share the Eucharist) with their Jewish-Christian brethren (see Gal 2:11-14)? A larger question loomed: how could non-Jews be saved? Paul argued for salvation outside Law, contra the "Judaizers" who argued Gentiles had to join the Chosen People in order to be saved. According to Paul, non-Jews could join the Jesus movement through their active devotion to Christ ("faith") not through keeping the duties of the Law ("works"; see Gal 2:16, Gal 2:21; Eph 2:8-9). He even highlighted duties such as circumcision (Gal 5:1-6) and a kosher diet (see Acts 15:23-29) as "works."

3) James

The author of James addressed faith and works on a different level. Let's consider the latter in order to define the former. He spoke of "works" as activities beyond the duties of the Law. The ministry of the Baptist implied Jews suffered a crisis of faith in the first century CE. Mere adherence to the Law seemed insufficient (see Mt 3:7-10, Lk 3:7-9, Mk 10:17-22, Josephus Antiquities 18:116-119). Something more was required. The author implicitly addressed that desire in Jas 1:27; "works" were acts of charity and high moral character implicitly beyond the duties in the Law.

What was "faith" in James? Spiritual growth. Faith reflected such growth in how believers lived out their calling (morality) and how they treated others (charity). Simply declaring faith was not enough. "Faith without works is dead" (Jas 2:17). The author stated that "works," not just a statement of faith, justified humans (Jas 2:24). In other words, a growing, living faith manifest itself in the actions of the believer. Along the spiritual journey to God, faith and works were inseparable. Summarizing this interdependence, the author described active Christians as "doers of the Word" ("poiatai logou" in Greek; Jas 1:22).

c. Conclusion

How does the assertion of James square with Paul's thought? Again, let's remember a few points. First, faith, salvation and justification were aspects of a single gift of God working in the lives of believers. The road to God began and continually depended on divine initiative. Second, Paul defined "works" differently than the author of James. The former addressed it as duties of the Law. The later pointed to outreach and morality that stood above and beyond the demands of the Law. Third, both authors defined "faith" differently. Paul saw it as the decision for Christ, the starting point of the Christian life (salvation). The author of James envisioned it as living out that commitment to Christ (sanctification).

With this brief overview, the differences of terminology shouldn't surprise us. The author of Hebrews, Paul and the writer of James used "faith" and "works" differently in separate contexts. To address the controversy of "faith vs. works" requires us not to simply assume one meant intent on the one hand and good deeds on the other.

2. The Practical Wise vs. the Surface Believing Fools

The author of James addressed the ancient world's highest virtue in two ways: practical application of wisdom and opposing the wise with the foolish. The table below highlights the two groups and how they fell into each camp.

The author employed an ancient technique of stark contrasts to make his point (see Gal 5:19-22). Other books from Christian Scriptures also used it as a didactic tool (for examples, see Lk 15:11-32, Lk 18:9-14, Mt 25:31-46). In James, the author opposed virtues and activities to highlight what believers should aspire to vs. what they should condemn. In reality, most Christians struggle with ideals and sin. Some live up to the practices of the wise while others face doubt and temptations of the "world." With this in mind, the author addressed the average person in his audience with his exhortation and condemnation.

3. Economic Disparity

The author also contrasted the rich with the poor. He reminded the wealthy their status was temporal (Jas 1:9-11) while the poor implicitly had everlasting riches (Jas 1:16-18, Jas 2:5). Money encouraged a sense of self sufficiency and false security while the focus should remain on God's will (Jas 4:13-17).

But the influence of wealth presented a great challenge to local churches. Community leaders might curry favor with the rich in order to gain from their influence and largess. But the author opposed such favoritism because it ignored a primary mission of the assembly, care for the poor. Again, the author painted hospitality in black and white to make his point. No leader would insult the poor in the crass way the writer described in Jas 2:1-4 but, in their attempts to honor the rich, the needy might be given a secondary status. The author even warned against the fickle temperament of the rich who could turn against the community without reason (Jas 2:6).

The temptation to favor the rich flew in the face of a core tenet of the faith, "love your neighbor as yourself" (Jas 2:8, Lev 19:18). Those who broke that edict, according to the author, violated the entire Law (Jas 2:9-11) and shattered the spirit of unity within the community.

B. Internal Evidence

1. Author and Audience

The opening verse gave us a hint of the author's identity and his intended audience.

James, slave of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the Diaspora. Greetings.

a. Identity of James

According to tradition, the author of the letter was "James, brother of the Lord." Scripture listed him as one of four such brethren (Mk 6:3, Mt 13:55, Mk 3:31-34, Mt 12:46-50) and as the leader of the Jerusalem church (Acts 12:17, Acts 15:13, Acts 21:18, 1Cor 15:7, Gal 1:19, Gal 2:9). While St. Paul named him an Apostle (Gal 1:19), he opposed those who claimed allegiance to this James ("Judaizers"; Gal 2:12). Josephus recorded his martyrdom in the early 60's CE (Antiquities 20.9.1).

If we assume that, as a relative of Jesus, James grew up in rural Galilee, we run into a problem. At worst, this "James" would have spoken Aramaic with some phrases of koine Greek, possibly using some Greek grammatical construction. At best, he would have been semi-literate and, if he used Greek, he spoke it as a second language. The text, however, revealed a stylistic Greek of an educated Hellenist. Because of this fact, many scholars argued "James" was a pseudograph.

b. Identity of the audience.

The text did reveal a few details about the readers of James: possible ethnicity and age of the community

First, the author addressed his letter to the "twelve tribes in the Diaspora." This implied he wrote to a Jewish-Christian community or multiple local churches. He also hinted at their identity with his argument of Law breaking in Jas 2:8-11. The sophisticated writing style indicated the author penned his letter to communities in Hellenistic urban centers.

Second, the exhortations of the author focused on the Christian lifestyle itself while they failed to mention evangelization or struggles with hostile outsiders. At times, he chided church members, at other times, its leaders. With respect to those "in the pews," he employed the Semitic rhetorical tool of opposites. He lauded those who aspired to the ideals while he threatened condemnation to those distracted, even consumed, by the allures of popular culture ("Christians in name only"). While the author described the conditions among his audience in such polar opposite terms, he painted conditions of malaise. Such laziness might have produced another problem, a lack of monetary support. In Jas 2:1-4, the writer implied concerns of church financial maintenance. Established communities needed "cash flow" to keep services afloat. Hence, leaders might have shown partiality towards the rich and ignored the command to care for the poor.

So, the author apparently addressed a community or communities of Jewish Christians outside of Palestine (in the "Diaspora"). The letter lacked any sense of opposition or a theology of the end times. Instead, it meant to "shake up" its readers from their spiritual rut and warn against any temptation to partiality. These factors implied the community or communities existed in socially stable conditions as long established entities.

Before we leave this section, we must address the assertion many scholars have made about "faith vs. works." Specifically, the author of James wrote his letter in response to St. Paul's thesis in Romans and Galatians. But the context of James argued primarily for exhortation against the "lazy" Christian, those who held they believed and that was good enough. While a twisted interpretation of Pauline theology could have infected many in the audience of James, the author was concerned more with their spiritual growth more than scoring points in an internecine battle over orthodoxy.

2. Verses

The letter of James has two references from the other New Testament books.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Jas 2:8; Lev 19:18; see Mt 19:19, Mt 22:39, Mk 12:31, Lk 10:27, Rom 13:9, Gal 5:14)

But above all things, my brothers, don't swear, not by heaven, or by the earth, or by any other oath; but let your "yes" be "yes", and your "no", "no"… (Jas 5:12; Mt 5:34-37)

In the fourth volume of his "A Marginal Jew," biblical scholar, John P. Meier, argued prohibition on oaths could be traced back to the historical Jesus. He also argued the combination of Deu 6:4 and Lev 19:18 was original to Jesus. In other words, these verses didn't depend directly upon other writings in Christian Scripture but were derived from oral tradition. Both found their roots at the beginning of the Jesus Movement. Indeed, the law of love formed the core of the Christian lifestyle.

d. Speculation on Scribes

In the section of this website, "Dating the Synoptics," I laid out the series of crises the post-apostolic Church faced. The eye witnesses died off. Thus, the believing communities had a need to preserve the faith. This not only gave rise to the written gospels and other letters, it implicitly produced a network of scribes that copied early Church materials, both canonical and apocryphal. The scribes faced two challenges: 1) to copy writings quickly enough for distribution and 2) to copy them accurately. Of course, these two goals could and did clash. Mistakes were made creating variants between codices dating from late antiquity into the Middle Ages.

The influence of these goals could come to bear on the letter of James in two ways. First, if the author meant his missive to have a larger distribution, did he depend upon the nascent network of scribes to pass along his letter? Second, James abruptly ended after 5:19-20. Did the letter have an original ending? If so, did an early scribe forget to include it? Or, was the letter published incomplete? We may never know the answer to those questions but they do loom over the question of dating.

C. Dating

Now, we must answer the question of dating. Because we depend only on thematic and internal evidence, we cannot pinpoint an exact date but only a range of possible dates. So, let's begin with the author and his audience. He wrote in an elegant style that revealed he was educated Hellenist and most likely spoke Greek as a first language. This fact ruled "James, brother of the Lord" as the author; however, the author could have been a follower of this James. He addressed believers in the Diaspora (outside Palestine). He could have sent his letter to one or many communities. If the latter, then he could have depended upon scribes in its distribution.

If we take the text at face value, the intended audience of James were Jewish Christians. If this was the case, the author assumed his audience had an ongoing relationship with God. Thus, he defined the term "faith" in this light and the term "works" as charitable acts and a moral standard above that of mere duties to the Law. Although his definitions stood in sharp contrast to those found in the Pauline letters, he exhorted his audience more for their lackadaisical attitudes than for some theological arguments. He chided leadership over anxiety about "cash flow" thus tempting them to prefer the rich over the poor. He urged community members to act wisely in very practical ways. All these factors indicate the immediate audience for the letter was well established.

The two verses that found parallels in other Christian writings most likely found their roots in the oral tradition. In my investigation of the Passion, I indicated its traditions grew beyond the publication of Mark's gospel (early 70's CE). So, we should not be surprised by this development.

Taken together, these factors point towards time frame beyond the apostolic era. Thus we arrive at the second generation of Christians: 70-100 CE.

III. Structure

On his web page "The Epistle of James," Felix Just SJ noted two different analyses of the letter: thematic (Raymond Brown) and structural (J. W. Thompson). I chose the latter for my take. According to this analysis, the book has three divisions and several subsections. I noted passages by theme below.

A. Introduction (1:1)

B. Short Introduction of Themes (1:2-27)

1. Endurance (1:2-4, 1:12-15)

2. Wisdom (1:5-8, 1:19-21)

3. False and True Riches (1:9-11, 1:16-18)

4. "Doers of the Word" (1:22-27)

C. Expanded Themes (2:1-5:20)

1. Riches (2:1-13, 4:13-5:6)

2. Doers of the Word (2:14-26, 4:11-12)

3. Wisdom (3:1-18, 5:13-18)

4. Endurance (5:7-11)

5. Saving the Sinner (5:19-20)

Note the author repeated his themes in various contexts.