xxii REFERENCES TO OUR LORD'S TEACHING

delivers us from evil, Who would have men merciful as their Father is merciful; in each, Jesus is Lord and Judge; and in each a kingdom is revealed, in which the pure in heart draw nigh unto God, and a blessing rests upon those who are poor as to the world, and meek and lowly in spirit.

But it has been further maintained that there are special likenesses not only to St Matthew but to St Luke; St Luke, it is urged, may very probably have had access to an early tradition of the Jewish Palestinian Church, which he follows both in the parts peculiar to his Gospel and also in Acts i-xii. It is however very doubtful how far these alleged points of contact justify the contention that the Epistle of St James and the Jerusalem source used by St Luke date from the same place and the same time. There is no difficulty in admitting a likeness between the teaching of St Luke and that of St James, but the parallels which are cited in support do not involve any literary dependence, and they may easily be referred to St James's knowledge of our Lord's teaching, and to the fact that he and St Luke would be opposing the same social dangers'.

The warnings e.g. against the rich, and the blessedness of men of low estate, so strongly emphasised by our Lord, may be accounted for by the social condition of Palestine in the days of His Ministry. And that teaching found a place, as we know, and a prominent place, in the Epistle of St James and in the Gospel of St Luke: cf. Luke vi. 24; James iv. 1 ff.

Whilst then there is no reason to suppose that James iv. 14 has any special connection with the parable of the rich man who was not rich towards God, Luke xii. 16-21, or that any close parallel exists between James i. 17 and Luke xi. 13, or between James iii. 1 and Luke xii. 48, there is much no doubt in the Epistle which shows how fully St James had caught the spirit of the Lord of glory, Who was no respecter of persons.

And may we not believe that St Luke would have gained some knowledge of this same Divine example and its influence from St James himself? At Jerusalem the two men had met, Acts xxi. 17, 18, and the type of piety which we find presented to us in the earliest chapters of St Luke's Gospel is closely in accordance with

1 Like the Epistle of James, Luke reflects the trading atmosphere of early Palestinian Christians; the dangers presented by poverty and wealth to the faith are vividly present to his mind,' Art. 'Sermon on the Mount' (Moffatt), Encycl. Bibl. iv. 4379.

that presented to us in the Epistle of St James. Amongst the quiet in the land,' St James himself in earlier days might have found a place, and it is noticeable that in his Epistle he holds up to us a character marked by meekness and endurance.

The word, moreover, which he uses three times in his Epistle for patience and endurance is only found twice in the Gospels, and both times in our Lord's sayings as recorded by St Luke (James i. 3, 4, v. 11; Luke viii. 15, xxi. 19).

In the Didache, v. 2, we have a picture of the unjust judges of the poor, the advocates of the rich, from whom meekness and forbearance are far removed, not recognising Him Who made them, corrupters of the creatures of God. From such men deliverance was to be sought, for they were altogether sinful. And there may well have been many simple folk in the Christian Church who were learning, in the light of the Life of Jesus, the price which God set upon meekness and lowliness of heart, and who were striving to win their souls in patience.

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Space forbids us to enter more fully into this part of our subject, but it may be observed that von Soden, in allowing that some expressions in St James are most naturally explained as reminiscences of the words of Jesus, makes reference to each of the three Synoptists; i. 5 and Luke xi. 9 Matt. vii. 7; i. 6 and Mark xi. 23 = Matt. xxi. 21; iv. 3 and Luke xi. 10 Matt. vii. 8; iv. 4 and Mark viii. 38 Matt. xii. 39, xvi. 4; iv. 4 and Luke xvi. 13 = Matt. vi. 24 (Hand-Commentar zum N.T., 1899, 3rd edit.). But von Soden would confine us most positively to the Synoptists; and we naturally ask if the Epistle of St James has no point of contact with the phraseology of St John. It may seem, perhaps, that P. Ewald has overstated his case in claiming references in this one short Epistle to portions of St John's Gospel, differing so widely as the conversation of our Lord with Nicodemus, and the Highpriestly Prayer (Das Hauptproblem der Evangelienfrage, pp. 58– 68, 1890). But if the pillar Apostles were so closely associated in the early Church at Jerusalem as St Paul's statement, Gal. ii. 9, undoubtedly implies, such intimacy precludes any surprise at the acquaintance of St James with what P. Ewald calls the Johannean tradition. To these points of contact between the Gospel of St John and St James's Epistle both Zahn and Mayor draw attention', and we may notice as the most important, James i. 17 and John iii. 3;

1 Zahn, Einleitung, 1. 88, and Mayor, St James, p. lxxxiv.

xxiv

THE WRITER A JEW OF PALESTINE

James i. 18 and John vi. 39, also xvii. 17; James i. 18, 25 and John viii. 31, 32; James i. 25, iv. 17 and John xiii. 17.

But the likeness between St James and the Sermon on the Mount, which may be traced as we have noted in other respects, may be further seen in the frequent employment of imagery derived from the world of nature and of mankind. And in this way again we may draw the conclusion that the writer of the Epistle, if not a hearer of our Lord, was at any rate a Jew of Palestine. The fondness of the Galilaeans for teaching by imagery and parable1 has been often instanced in this connection, and reference may also be made to the local colouring with which the Epistle abounds.

Some of these allusions may perhaps be regarded as too general for our argument, as e.g. references to figs, oil, wine; but on the other hand it may be fairly said of others that they belong more peculiarly to Palestine, e.g. i. 11; iii. 11, 12; v. 7, 17, 18. Possibly in iii. 12 we may find a reference to the Dead Sea, and in i. 6, iii. 4, a familiarity with a port like Joppa, although we need not adopt the solution that the Epistle was written there'. In addition to these local allusions we have seen occasion to note the probable fondness of the author for a Palestinian writer, Jesus the son of Sirach.

III. But can we go further in our identification of the writer of this Epistle? He is a Jew, a Jew of Palestine, possibly a hearer of our Lord, or at least one who was closely acquainted with His teaching. He only styles himself 'James,' the servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, and whilst this description may be said to stand in the way of positive identification, its very simplicity may at least intimate that we are dealing with some person of position and authority in the Christian community, and that this person stood in no need of any further title or higher recommendation. A forger would not have been content with such simplicity and humility. Fortunately we are able to put the matter to the test, for a spurious letter attributed to James commences thus: 'James,

1 'According to the Talmud (Neubauer, Géog. du Talm. 185, Stud. Bibl. 1. 52) Galileans were noted as wandering teachers who excelled in expositions of the biblical text, couched in parabolic form,' Art. Sermon on the Mount,' Encycl. Bibl. IV. 4388.

See also the remarks in Hastings' B. D. vol. v. pp. 9, 10, Art. 'Sermon on the Mount,' by Votaw; Mayor, St James, p. xlvii.; and Carr, Cambridge Gk. Test. p. xlv.

2 These local allusions are dwelt upon by various writers; e.g. Hug, Alford, Cellérier, H. Ewald, Beyschlag, Salmon, Trenkle, Plumptre, Nösgen, Feine, Farrar, Zahn, Massebieau.

bishop of Jerusalem'.' Certainly the fact that the author does not call himself an Apostle does not in itself forbid the supposition that he may have been one (cf. 1 Thess. i. 1; Phil. i. 1), but a fictitious writer would scarcely have chosen the modest title which commences this Epistle in the endeavour to recommend his exhortations. In the same opening verse we come across the word 'greeting' (or 'wisheth joy'). No doubt it was a formal epistolary mode of address, but attention has been justly and frequently called to the similarity between this salutation and that in Acts xv. 23, contained in a circular letter issued, as we may well believe, on the motion of James of Jerusalem, to the Churches of Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. It has of course been alleged that the same form of greeting occurs elsewhere in Acts xxiii. 26. But in this last-named instance we are dealing with an official letter written by one Roman to another, and the fact remains that no other Apostolic writer uses this formula in commencing a letter. Moreover, the coincidence marked by the use of this greeting by no means stands alone. Out of some 230 words which are found in the circular letter written after the Council, Acts xv. 23 ff., and in the speech delivered by St James at the Council, Acts xv. 13 ff., a large number recur in the short Epistle attributed to the same person. For example, in James ii. 5 we read men and brethren, hear,' and this form of expression occurs nowhere else in the Epistles, but it is found in Acts xv. 13; in James ii. 7 we have the remarkable phrase 'the honourable name which was called upon you,' and this phrase (Amos ix. 17) occurs nowhere else in the N.T. except in Acts xv. 17; in James i. 27 we have the exhortation to a man to keep himself unspotted from the world,' the circular letter, Acts xv. 27, closes with the words 'from which if ye keep yourselves, it shall be well with you.'

It has indeed been further urged that the description of the state of feeling in Jerusalem, and of the action taken by St James with regard to it, Acts xxi. 18 ff., corresponds fully with the tone of St James's Epistle. And if this argument does not appeal to us so strongly as that derived from the similarity of language between the Epistle and Acts xv. yet it may be fairly maintained

1 So too in the Clementines we come across such expressions as 'James, the brother of the Lord, and bishop of bishops'; Zahn, Einleitung, 1. p. 106.

2 These are perhaps the most notable instances, and they are given both by Mayor and Zahn. The former writer draws attention to other coincidences, as e.g. the use of the word 'beloved' three times in St James's Epistle and its only use in Acts, in the circular letter, xv. 25, the stress laid by St James upon the Name' and the same stress in Acts xv. 14, and again in v. 26.

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xxvi THE JAMES OF THE EPISTLE AND THE ACTS that both in the letter and in the history we may see the same spirit at work. For the writer of the Epistle the Mosaic Law is of binding authority, but with an attitude of sternness in this respect there is combined a recollection of the weakness of human nature, and that in many things we all stumble (iii. 2); just as in Acts (xv. 24, 25) there is consideration and forbearance for those who cannot conform to any greater burden than necessary things. In the letter there is the condemnation of the many teachers, but there is also the recollection that they too are brethren (iii. 1); just as St Paul is addressed by the same Christian and affectionate title, "Thou seest, brother,' Acts xxi. 20. But if we are at all justified in identifying the James of Acts xv. and xxi. with the James of the Epistle we have in this James a person who possessed such influence as to preside over the Church at Jerusalem, and at least to be associated in power with Peter, and to address with authority the twelve tribes of the Dispersion.

Do we know anything further about him? It must be sufficient to say here that his early death of martyrdom precludes James the son of Zebedee from the authorship of the Epistle we are considering'. We may further note that when James the son of Alphaeus is mentioned, the second member of the Twelve who bears the name of James, he is always 'James the son of Alphaeus,' that in Acts xii. 17, xv. 13, xxi. 18, we have simply 'James,' and so in Gal. ii. 9, 12; and in the former of these two passages this James is actually named before Peter and John, according to the undoubtedly correct reading. This passage, Gal. ii. 9, is most significant, for the James mentioned in it as one of the pillars of the Church at Jerusalem could not be James the son of Zebedee, since he was martyred, as we have seen, by Herod Agrippa I., who died 44 A.D., and this journey of St Paul to Jerusalem in Gal. ii.

The authorship of James the son of Zebedee has been supported in England by Mr Bassett in his Commentary on the Epistle, 1876, and two years later by a German writer, Herr Jäger. A full examination of this hypothesis will be found in Dean Plumptre's Epistle of St James, pp. 6-10; and Farrar's Early Days of Christianity, p. 267, should also be consulted. It may be mentioned that in the oldest printed editions of the Syriac Peshitto Version we find a statement that the three Catholic Epistles-James, 1 Peter, 1 John-which that Version contains, were written by the three Apostles who were witnesses of the Transfiguration. But it cannot be said that there is any Ms. support for identifying the James of the Epistle with the son of Zebedee. Probably the editor of the first printed edition, Moses of Mardin, is the sole authority, misled it would seem by the earliest Mss. of the Syriac Version, which ascribed the Epistle to James the Apostle. Salmon, Introd. p. 469, and Plummer, Epistle of St James, p. 30.