PREFACE N preparing this edition of the Epistle of St James IN I have tried to keep in view the primary objects of the Westminster Commentaries, and the various classes of readers for whom they are intended. During the passing of these pages through the press, the recent attacks upon the Epistle have received a prompt and vigorous reply from the veteran Professor, Dr Bernhard Weiss, of the University of Berlin. The force and firmness of this reply (to which frequent reference will be found) and the fact that it comes from a scholar of such eminence may well administer a rebuke to those English writers who apparently think that, in their inconsiderate objections to the traditional views of the Church, they may claim the support of every German critic of learning and status. It is a pleasant duty to express my most grateful thanks to Dr Lock for his many and valuable suggestions, and for his ungrudging care in the revision of the proofs. R. J. KNOWLING Sept. 1904 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION. I. Interest of the Epistle The author a Jew, and the readers Jews, as evidenced Language, Christian. Christian allusions, (a) how much they presuppose, (b) their value, (c) objections met. References to our Lord's teaching. III. Inference that the writer may have been a hearer of our Resemblances between the Epistle and the language of Acts xv. If we identify the writer of the two, who is this James? IV. Objections urged against the knowledge of Greek in this writer and answer to such objections V. If written by this James, terminus ad quem his death Other indications of a date before the fall of Jerusalem. cutions. Evidence of social cleavage between Christian and non- PAGE xi xi xvi xxiv xxxii xxxiv Objection that the sins of the Epistle denote a long Evidence of early corruption in the Christian com- Practical bearing of the Epistle upon specifically VII. This practical bearing of the Epistle enables us to under- stand ii. 14-26, and the meaning of St James's language Evidence of a controversy on Faith and Works in the Possible perversions of the teaching of St Paul or of Zahn's view based upon a connection between Rom. iv. 2 VIII. Question of literary dependence between Romans and James INTRODUCTION SPECIAL interest must always be felt in a book to which so many able critics assign the earliest place amongst New Testament writings, and in an author who possibly shared in the earthly life and home of our Lord. Such high claims, however, have naturally been subjected to a close examination, and often to a keen opposition, and it is not the purpose of the present Introduction to assume their validity. I. At first sight, indeed, it might seem that nothing could be more natural than the assumption that the author of this Epistle was a Jew, and that his readers were of Jewish nationality. But as even this assumption is refused to us by some phases of recent criticism, it may be well to note a few of the grounds upon which we believe it to be justified. Thus we might lay stress upon the difficulty in interpreting the address of the letter, ch. i. 1, in a symbolical or spiritual sense (see note in loco); or upon the expressions Abraham our father,' ii. 21, 'Lord of Sabaoth,' v. 4, comp. Isaiah v. 9; upon the knowledge which the writer presupposes in his readers of the history of Job and the prophets, v. 11, 17; and of Elijah's prayer as a type of successful prayer (see note on v. 17); upon his own knowledge of Jewish formulae in the use of oaths, and of the current disposition to indulge in reckless cursing and swearing, iii. 9, v. 12; upon his employment of the word 'synagogue' for the place of meeting for worship, ii. 21; upon the emphasis with which 1 Dr Grafe, Die Stellung und Bedeutung des Jakobusbriefes, 1904, maintains that the word was used for religious pagan associations in Greece, but according to Schürer this was not strictly so, as the word was used rather for the yearly festal assemblies of such associations. But this usage does not alter the significance of the word by St James; see note on ii. 2. Dr Grafe also tries to weaken the force of the expression 'Lord of Sabaoth' on the ground that it would be known to Gentile as well as to Jewish Christians. But the point is that the expression is used only by St James in the N.T. In Romans ix. 29 it is found in a quotation from Isaiah i. 9. |