Epistle of James in the Bible Encyclopedia - ISBE
LITERATURE
I. Characteristics of the Epistle.
1. Jewish:
The Epistle of James is the most Jewish writing in the New
Testament. The Gospel according to Matthew was written for
the Jews. The Epistle to the Hebrews is addressed explicitly
to them. The Apocalypse is full of the spirit of the Old
Testament. The Epistle of Jude is Jewish too. Yet all of
these books have more of the distinctively Christian element
in them than we can find in the Epistle of James. If we
eliminate two or three passages containing references to
Christ, the whole epistle might find its place iust as
properly in the Canon of the Old Testament as in that of the
New Testament, as far as its substance of doctrine and
contents is concerned. That could not be said Of any other
book in the New Testament. There is no mention of the
incarnation or of the resurrection., the two fundamental
facts of the Christian faith. The word "gospel" does not
occur in the epistle There is no suggestion that the Messiah
has appeared and no presentation of the possibility of
redemption through Him. The teaching throughout is that of a
lofty morality which aims at the fulfillment of the
requirements of the Mosaic law. It is not strange therefore
that Spitta and others have thought that we have in the
Epistle of James a treatise written by an unconverted Jew
which has been adapted to Christian use by the interpolation
of the two phrases containing the name of Christ in 1:1 and
2:1. Spitta thinks that this can be the only explanation of
the fact that we have here an epistle practically ignoring
the life and work of Jesus and every distinctively Christian
doctrine, and without a trace of any of the great
controversies in the early Christian church or any of the
specific features of its propaganda. This judgment is a
superficial one, and rests upon superficial indications
rather than any appreciation of the underlying spirit and
principles of the book. The spirit of Christ is here, and
there is no need to label it. The principles of this epistle
are the principles of the Sermon on the Mount. There are
more parallels to that Sermon in this epistle than can be
found anywhere else in the New Testament in the same space.
The epistle represents the idealization of Jewish legalism
under the transforming influence of the Christian motive and
life. It is not a theological discussion. It is an ethical
appeal. It has to do with the outward life for the most
part, and the life it pictures is that of a Jew informed
with the spirit of Christ. The spirit is invisible in the
epistle as in the individual man. It is the body which
appears and the outward life with which that body has to do.
The body of the epistle is Jewish, and the outward life to
which it exhorts is that of a profoundly pious Jew. The Jews
familiar with the Old Testament would read this epistle and
find its language and tone that to which they were
accustomed in their sacred books. James is evidently written
by a Jew for Jews...
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