Select Bibliography
Dibelius, M., and Greeven, H. “Der Brief des Jakobus,” Meyer Kommentar. 1956. Easton, B. S., and Poteat, G. “James,” The Interpreter’s Bible. 1957. Hauck, F. “Die Kirchenbriefe.” N. T. Deutsch. 1949. Hort, F. J. A. The Epistle of St. James 1:1 to 4:7. 1909. Knowling, R. J. “Commentary on the Epistle of St. James,” The Westminster Series. 1904. Lenski, R. C. H. The Interpretation of the Epistle to the Hebrews and of the Epistle of James. 1946. Marty, J. L’epitre de Jacques. 1935. Mayor, J. B. The Epistle of St. James. 1910. Moffatt, J. The General Epistles. 1928. Oesterley, W. “The General Epistle of James,” Expositor’s Greek Testament. 1910. Patrick, W. James, the Lord’s Brother. 1906. Plummer, A. “The General Epistle of St. James,” Expositor’s Bible. 1891. Ropes, J. H. “A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle of St. James,” The International Critical Commentary. 1916. Ross, A. “James and the Johannine Epistles,” New International Commentary. 1954. Schlatter, A. Der Brief des Jakobus. 1932. Tasker, R. V. G. “The General Epistle of James,” Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. 1957. Windisch, H., and Preisker, H. “Die Katholischen Briefe,” Handbuch zum N. T. 1951.
Footnotes
1Our “James” comes through the Italian “Giacomo.” The name is common enough in the first century A.D.
2For careful discussion of the authenticity of the epistle, see J. B. Mayor, The Epistle of St. James (New York: Macmillan and Co., 1910), pp. xlvii-lxvii; Alfred Plummer, “The General Epistles of St. James and St. Jude,” The Expositor’s Bible, ed. W. Robertson Nicoll (New York: Hodder & Stroughton, 1891), pp. 13-24.
3See Mayor, ibid., p. iv.
4Barnabas is also called an apostle in Acts 14:4, 14.
5William Patrick, James, the Lord’s Brother (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1906), p. 23.
6Ibid., p. 25.
7G. A. Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, trans. L. R. M. Strachan (New York: Macmillan and Co., 1913), p. 242.
8George Milligan, New Testament Documents, Their Origin and Early History (New York: George H. Doran Co., 1910), p. 111.
9Mayor, op. cit., pp. ccv-ccxiii.
10Milligan, loc. cit.
11Mayor, op. cit., p. cxcii.
12A. T. Robertson, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research (New York: George H. Doran Co., 1915), p. 123.
13Charles Taylor, Saying of the Jewish Fathers (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1898), Appendix 97.
14Patrick, op. cit., p. 46.
15The tense expresses a long-standing attitude.
16Patrick, op. cit., p. 60.
17The same verb occurs here as in the other appearances of Jesus.
18J. A. Broadus (comp.), Harmony of the Gospels (New York: A. C. Armstrong & Son, 1893), p. 229.
19Patrick, op. cit., p. 67.
20R. W. Dale, The Epistle of James and Other Discourses (New York: Hodder & Stroughton, 1895), p. 5.
21Op. cit., p. xxxvii.
22James Orr, The Resurrection of Jesus (New York: George H. Doran Co., 1908); Thorburn, The Resurrection Narratives and Modern Criticism.
23Patrick, op. cit., p. 78.
24St. Paul, i., p. 233.
25See his commentary on James and his article on the epistle in James Hastings, A Dictionary of the Bible (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1899), II, 540-48.
26Plummer, op. cit., pp. 61 f.; Patrick, op. cit., chap. V.
27Cf. Maurice Jones, The New Testament in the Twentieth Century (New York: Macmillan and Co., 1914), p. 321.
28For a fuller presentation of the matter from the standpoint of Paul, see my Epochs in the Life of Paul (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1914), chapter VII. I identify the visit to Jerusalem in Galatians 2:1-10 and Acts 15, in spite of the arguments of Sir W. M. Ramsay to the contrary.
29Cf. J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians (New York: Macmillan and Co., 1913).
30A hint that they had not always seen it this way.
31Op. cit., p. 188.
32Ibid., p. 191.
33F. J. A. Hort, Judaistic Christianity (New York: Macmillan and Co., n.d.), p. 81.
34Ibid., p. 106.
35This “informing” was done by the Judaizers, who dinned it into the ears of the people.
36Hypotyp. vii. apud Eusebius H. E., II. l. 3.
37Also preserved in Eusebius H. E., II. xxiii. 4-18.
38Ant. xx. ix. 1. It is interesting to note that Prof. F. C. Burkitt, of Cambridge University, has boldly championed the genuineness of Josephus’ testimony to Jesus.
39The Expositor, VII. iv. p. 45 ff.
40Op. cit., p. 112.
41A New Translation of the New Testament. Besides, in 3:9 James speaks of “the Lord and Father” (God).
42Plummer, op. cit., p. 47.
43Einl. i. 5, 6.
44Plummer, op. cit., p. 46.
45Op. cit., p. 316.
46Op. cit., p. 298.
47W. E. Oesterley, “The General Epistle of James,” The Expositor’s Greek Testament, ed. W. Robertson Nicoll (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, n.d.), IV, 63.
48Plummer, op. cit., p. 63.
49Lectures on the Epistle of James, p. 73.
50See Plummer, op. cit., pp. 72 f., for proof.
51The late J. Pierpont Morgan testified before a committee of the U. S. Senate that he loaned money primarily on character, not financial ability.
52Op. cit., p. 88.
53There is the utmost contrast between this use of “humble” and that in Epictetus, with whom humility is an object of scorn and contempt, a meanness unworthy of man. See bk. III, chap., ii, § 14. Cf. Sharp, Epictetus and the New Testament, pp. 130, 133.
54Cf. Deissmann, op. cit., p. 392; St. Paul: A Study in Social and Religious History, trans. by Lionel R. M. Strachan (New York: George H. Doran Co., 1912), p. 47.
55Acta Philippi, Apocal. Apocr. Cf. Resch, Agrapha, 1889, p. 254.
56Cf. Mayor, op. cit., p. 54 f. The devil tried to tempt even Christ, the Son of God.
57Bengel puts it thus: Peccatum morte gravidum nascitur. The Targum of Jonathan says that imagination of sin is sinful.
58“Wages” means literally the rations of a soldier. The pay of sin is death, and it is always paid.
59“Good” is here used in the sense of absolute, not relative goodness.
60But see Robertson, Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research, op. cit., p. 1200.
61Bengel says: voluntate amantissima, liberrima, purissima, foecundissima.
62The inscriptions (Ditt., Syll., 587268) use the word for the first fruits to Demeter and Kore, but James Hope Moulton and George Milligan, Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (New York: George H. Doran Co., 1915), p. 54, give many examples from the papyri and the inscriptions where “gift” or “sacrifice” seems sufficient.
63J. Rendel Harris, “The Elements of a Progressive Church,” Present Day Papers, May, 1901.
64Taylor, op. cit., p. 63.
65The Hebrew (Psalm 82:2) originally had the idea of lifting the face with a view to comfort. Partiality was a subordinate development. Cf. H. St. John Thackeray, Grammar of the Old Testament Greek According to the Septuagint (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1909), pp. 43 ff. The Greek idiom has only the bad meaning and comes from taking off the mask. See Luke 20:21; Gal. 2:3 f. for the full idiom.
66Deissmann, St. Paul: A Study in Social and Religious History, loc. cit., p. 47.
67Ibid.
68The Gospel of Jesus and the Problems of Democracy (New York: Macmillan and Co., 1914), p. 46.
69Codex D adds to Luke 6:4: “On the same day seeing a certain man working on the Sabbath, he said to him, ‘Man, if you know what you are doing you are blessed; if you do not know you are accursed and a transgressor of the law.’” But this logion does not compare sabbath-breaking with other sins, though it does emphasize insight into the motive of the act.
70Maim. on Mishnah, Sanhedrin xi. 1.
71The article here has almost the original demonstrative force. James means the kind of faith that rests on mere assertion without works to prove it.
72One may compare Paul’s habit of answering an imaginary objector in the development of his argument. See Romans 2:1; 9:20.
73Aorist tense and so punctiliar—know once for all—with almost a touch of impatience in the tense.
74See Lightfoot, loc. cit.
75In Hermas (Sim. 9:22) we read of teachers who “wish to be self-appointed teachers, fools though they are.”
76Cf. Hermas, Mand. 12. 1.
77Cf., however, John 3:8 and 1 Peter 3:17.
78The Midr. Rabb. on Levit. (xiv. 2) xvi has quanta incendia lingua excitat (Mayor).
79Cf. Jude 23. Cf. also James 1:27 and 2 Peter 2:13. One thinks of the smoke and soot of slander, besmirching all that it touches.
80Seneca (Ep. XIII. 2. 25) says: Non nascitur itaque ex malo bonun, non magis quam ficus ex olea.
81Cf. Jude 19. See also 1 Cor. 15:45 for a distinction between these words.
82The verb means to distinguish, but the resultant idea is extremely variable.
83The Vulgate has sine simulatione. The Greek word is used of the actor’s mask and then for mere imitation, hypocrisy.
84See both terms also in 4 Macc. 5:23. See also Philo, M. 1, p. 445.
85Cf. Swete, Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek, ed. H. St. John Thackeray (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1900), p. 567.
86See Robertson, Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research, op. cit., p. 805. In prayer one must seek with passion. Since the middle voice denotes more earnestness, it is quite frequent in the papyri.
87The cosmos was originally “order.” The order and beauty of God’s world are attractive to the right-minded man (Rom. 1:20). It is applied to the people of the earth (John 1:29) and then to the believers who are alienated from God (John 8:23; 12:31), to this world which the devil rules (John 14:30; 1 John 5:19), whose spirit is hostile to that of Christ (1 Cor. 2:12), against which James has already (1:25) warned his readers.
88Moulton and Milligan, op. cit., p. 2.
89Westcott and Hort read in the margin, “the things of the to-morrow day.”
90At harvest time there is always special demand for laborers at higher wages than usual, to save the ripe grain before it perishes.
91Note Heb. 4:1. The word occurs in the papyri for “a bath insufficiently warmed.”
92Eusebius, H. E. ii. 23 (taken from Hegesippus).
93Deissmann, Bible Studies: Contributions Chiefly from Papyri and Inscriptions (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1901), p. 198.
94Plummer notes that the Epistle of James shows more coincidences with the words of Jesus than all of Paul’s epistles and that all of them deal with the morality of the gospel, with conduct and life. This is all as the circumstances would lead us to expect.
95The use of the present imperative in prohibition rather than the aorist subjunctive implies that the thing was being done. That is probably true, for church members have been known to be guilty of this sin. However, it is possible for this tense to prohibit the habit rather than the single act. “Keep on not swearing.” See Robertson, Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research, op. cit., pp. 851-54.
96Deissmann, Bible Studies: Contributions Chiefly from Papyri and Inscriptions, op. cit., pp. 154 f., 233 f.
97See extensive discussion in Mayor. The New Testament usage favors the middle, but the passive is also in use, and either makes good sense.
98The passive voice does not have its technical force here as in Rev. 18:23 but rather is more like the middle in sense as in Deut. 22:1 and probably (Mayor) in Luke 21:8; 2 Peter 2:15. The passive is constantly making inroads on the middle in Koine Greek.