Saint James the Less is usually identified with the author of the Letter of James … a statue on the west front of Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
The celebrations of Epiphany-tide continue today (17 January 2023), and this week began with the Second Sunday of Epiphany (14 January 2024). Christmas is a season that lasts for 40 days that continues from Christmas Day (25 December) to Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February).
The Calendar of the Church of England in
Common Worship today recalls the lives of Antony of Egypt (356), Hermit, Abbot, and Charles Gore (1932), Bishop, Founder of the Community of the Resurrection.
Before today begins, I am taking some time for reflection, reading and prayer. My reflections each morning during the seven days of this week include:
1, A reflection on one of the seven people who give their names to epistles in the New Testament;
2, the Gospel reading of the day;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
Saint James the Brother of the Lord … an icon written by Tobias Stanislas Haller, BSG, for Saint James Episcopal Church, Parkton, Maryland
4, James:
Saint Paul does not give his own name to any of his letters, but seven people give their names to a total of seven of the letters or epistles in the New Testament:
Timothy (I and II Timohty),
Titus,
Philemon, James,
Peter (I and II Peter),
John (I, II and III John), and
Jude.
The author of the Epistle of James identifies himself as ‘James, a servant (or slave) of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ’ who is writing to ‘the twelve tribes in the Dispersion’ or ‘scattered abroad’ (James 1: 1). The letter is traditionally attributed to James the Brother of Jesus, or James the Just, and his audience is generally considered to be Jewish Christians living among the Jewish diaspora.
Framing his letter within an overall theme of patient perseverance during trials and temptations, James writes to encourage his readers to live consistently with what they have learned in Christ. He condemns various sins, including pride, hypocrisy, favouritism and slander. He encourages and implores believers to humbly live by godly, rather than worldly, wisdom and to pray in all situations.
In recent decades, the epistle has attracted increasing scholarly interest with a surge in the quest for the historical James, and with an increasing awareness of the Jewish grounding of both the epistle and the early Christian movement.
The name James or Jacob (יַעֲקֹב, Ιάκωβος) was a common name in antiquity, and a number of early Christian figures are named James, including: James the son of Zebedee or James the Great, James the son of Alphaeus or James the Less, and James the brother of Jesus. Of these, James the brother of Jesus has the most prominent role in the early Church, and is often understood as either the author of the letter or the implied author.
The Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that the epistle was ‘written not by either of the apostles, but by the ‘brother of the Lord’ who was the first bishop of the Church in Jerusalem.
The Acts of the Apostles says that when Peter escapes from prison and flees Jerusalem, he asks that James be informed (Acts 12: 17). Later, the Christians of Antioch ask whether Gentile Christians should be circumcised and send Paul and Barnabas to confer with the Church in Jerusalem (Acts 15: 12-22). James charts a middle course, supporting those who oppose demanding circumcision for Gentile converts but suggesting prohibitions against eating blood and against eating meat sacrificed to idols.
When Saint Paul arrives in Jerusalem with the money he has raised for the Church there, he speaks to James, and James insists Paul should ritually cleanse himself at the Temple to prove his faith and to counter rumours of teaching rebellion against the Torah (Acts 21: 18
ff).
The Acts of the Apostles is silent about James after the year 60 CE. However, according to Josephus in his
Jewish Antiquities (20: 197-203), ‘the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James’ met his death in the year 62 CE, when he was condemned ‘on the charge of breaking the law.’ He was thrown from the wall of the Temple on the day of the Passover and was stoned. As he prayed for his slayers, his head was crushed by a wooden club wielded by a scribe.
James, Joses, Simon, and Judas are mentioned as the brothers or siblings of Jesus as well as two unnamed sisters (see Matthew 13: 55; Mark 6: 3). Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox teach that James, along with others named brothers of Jesus, were not the biological children of Mary, but were possibly cousins of Jesus, or step-brothers from a previous marriage of Joseph. He is sometimes referred to in Eastern Christianity as James Adelphotheos (Ἰάκωβος ὁ Ἀδελφόθεος), James the Brother of God. The oldest surviving Christian liturgy, the Liturgy of Saint James, uses this epithet.
Origen may be the first person to link the epistle to ‘James the brother of Lord’ (
Comm. on Romans 4.8.2), though this is only preserved in Rufinus’s Latin translation of Origen. Eusebius writes that ‘James, who is said to be the author of the first of the so-called catholic epistles. But it is to be observed that it is disputed’ (
Historia ecclesiae 2.23.25).
Jerome reported that the Epistle of James ‘is claimed by some to have been published by someone else under his name, and gradually, as time went on, to have gained authority’ (
De viris illustribus 2).
The Letter of James is missing from the Muratorian fragment (2nd to 4th century), the Cheltenham list (
ca 360 CE), but was listed with the 27 New Testament books by Athanasius of Alexandria in 367 CE, and subsequently it was affirmed by the Councils of Laodicea (363 CE), Rome (382 CE) and Carthage (397 and 419).
The link between James the brother of Jesus and the epistle continued to strengthen, and is now considered the traditional view on the authorship of the work. Many scholars, however, consider the Epistle pseudonymous, written by a writer who chose to write under the name James.
Some commentators say James wrote the letter prior to the Galatians controversy (see Galatian 2: 11-14), and before to the Jerusalem council (Acts 15). Others say James wrote the letter in response to Paul’s teachings. Still others suggest James wrote this letter after the events recorded in Galatians and Acts, but not in response to Paul or his teachings.
Some say James had a sufficient proficiency in Greek education to write the letter. Some argue that the letter was written by someone else on behalf of James and that this explains the quality of Greek in the letter. Galilee was sufficiently Hellenised by the first century CE to produce figures such the rhetorician Theodorus or the poet Meleager, but there is no evidence outside the epistle to suggest that had a Greek education.
The epistle resembles the form of a Diaspora letter, written to encourage Jewish-Christian communities living amid the hardships of diaspora life. James stands in the tradition of the Jewish genre of ‘Letters to the Diaspora,’ including the letters of the members of the family of Gamaliel, the letter preserved in II Maccabees 1: 1-9, or some copied by Josephus, all of which are characterised by a double opening and an abrupt ending.
Poverty and wealth are key concerns throughout the letter, and these issues are likely to reflect the epistle’s historical context. The author shows concern for vulnerable and marginalised groups, such as ‘orphans and widows’ (James 1:27), believers who are poorly clothed and lacking in daily food (James 2: 15), and the poorly-paid labourers (James 5: 4). He writes strongly against the rich (James 1: 10; 5: 1-6) and those who show favouritism towards the rich (James 2: 1-7).
Chapter 2 includes an oft-quoted passage about faith and works:
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
For James, claims about belief are empty, unless they are alive in action, works and deeds: ‘22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by the works. 23 Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness’, and he was called the friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another road?’ (James 1: 22-25)
Martin Luther dismissed the letter as an ‘epistle of straw.’ He rejected the letter because the passage in James 2: 14-17 contradicts his ideas of justification by faith alone (
sola fide). Luther was tempted to remove the letter from the Bible, and when he included James from his German Bible, he moved it, along with Hebrews, Jude and Revelation, to the end of the Bible.
A traditional icon of James the Brother of the Lord
Mark 3: 1-6 (NRSVA):
1 Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. 2 They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. 3 And he said to the man who had the withered hand, ‘Come forward.’ 4 Then he said to them, ‘Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?’ But they were silent. 5 He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6 The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
An image of Saint Anthony above the entrance to Saint Anthony’s Church in Rethymnon … Saint Anthony is commemorated in the Church Calendar today (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 17 January 2024):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is: ‘Climate Justice from Bangladesh perspective.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Right Revd Shourabh Pholia, Bishop of Barishal Diocese, Church of Bangladesh.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (17 January 2024) invites us to pray in these words:
Lord God, we pray for those in positions of power and decision-making to address the issue of climate change and stand together to save the earth.
The Collect:
Most gracious God,
who called your servant Antony to sell all that he had
and to serve you in the solitude of the desert:
by his example may we learn to deny ourselves
and to love you before all things;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Merciful God,
who gave such grace to your servant Antony
that he served you with singleness of heart
and loved you above all things:
help us, whose communion with you
has been renewed in this sacrament,
to forsake all that holds us back from following Christ
and to grow into his likeness from glory to glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s reflection (Philemon)
Continued tomorrow (Peter)
A statue of Bishop Charles Gore at Birmingham Cathedral … he is commemorated in ‘Common Worship’ on 17 January (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Scripture quotations are from the
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
http://nrsvbibles.org
