A New Letter based on
Old Texts: James uses
Biblical Texts
The Letter of James is notable for its extensive use of
scriptural references. At one time the letter's heavy reliance on
Old Testament quotes seemed to imply the author was more Hebrew
than Christian. Some scholars argued that James was not originally
a Christian text. Today we recognize that the letter uses significant
texts from the Gospels and has a similar style and message as Paul's
letters. Similarities with Matthew and Luke, without
using the exact language of either Gospel, are sometimes used to
argue that the writer James must have been an eye witness of Jesus
preaching. James probably would have attempted to use the language
of the Gospels if he had not heard the Sermon on the Mount or Sermon
on the Plain himself.
James uses Old Testament
James refers to a number of Old Testament personalities,
including Job, Elijah, Rahab and Abraham. The writer also uses Isaiah
and Amos, along with four of the five books of Torah: Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy. His message
is that the Law is essential to living a Christian life. The people
mentioned and the prophets quoted all are calling us back to righteous
living, and are promising that endurance in the face of suffering
will be rewarded.
James 5:11 offers blessing for Job's endurance in the face of suffering.
The Greek is hupomone, most commonly translated perseverance
rather than endurance. Before presuming that James is calling on
the oppressed to accept their suffering without resistance, look
again at the story of Job. He is resistant, argumentative, and demanding
of justice. He perseveres in his arguments, and, importantly, remains
righteous and faithful in the face of suffering.
Ezekiel and Sirach also use Job as examples. In Ezekiel
14:14 and 14:20 Job is listed along with Noah as an example of extreme
righteousness. In Sirach 49:9 Job holds fast to all the ways of
justice. Perseverance and endurance, then, are not calls to passive
acceptance, but rather to radical justice and righteous living in
the face of oppression. James 2:5 echoes the cry of Job in Job 30:25
Was not my soul grieved for the poor?
God is a refuge for the poor in Isaiah 25:4, who will gain a kingdom
of plenty by verses 6-8. James 2:5 is likely a reference to this.
The rich will be destroyed in James 5:1 and also in Amos 8:4-6.
Isaiah 40:6-7 proclaims that the people, like grass, will fade away;
James 1:10-11 limits the destruction to the rich.
Another prophet James mentions is Elijah. In James 5:17 Elijah
is an example of praying for no rain (see 1 Kings 17:1 and
18:1, 45). In the story Elijah isn't praying until 1 Kings 17:20-22,
where he cries out against God: O LORD my God, have you brought
calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing
her son? James calls us to prayer, but the prayer is not one
of acceptance, but of calling out for justice.
Abraham is mentioned in James 2:21 as an example of how actions,
not only faith, are important to God. Abraham's faith in God guides
him in his actions in Genesis 22:1-19. James 2:23 quotes Genesis
15:6 Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,and
he was called the friend of God. We see righteousness as critical
again, and that right faith leads to right action.
Rahab, mentioned in James 2:25, is also an example of faith leading
to action. In Joshua 2:11 Rahab has heard of God's actions and proclaims
the LORD your God is indeed God in heaven above and on earth
below. It is her faith that calls her to her righteous action,
hiding the scouts for the Hebrews. See the entire story in Joshua
2:1-21. James offers her as an example her actions justifying her
with God. (Note that Rahab also appears as an ancestor of Jesus
in Matthew 1:5.)
James' focus on actions and the law is also shown in his use of
Torah. James 2:8 refers to the royal law, found in Leviticus 19:18.
The ten commandments, specifically Exodus 20:13, 14, is quoted in
James 2:11. We are not to speak evil against one another in James
4:11-12; this is from Leviticus 19:16. And Leviticus 19:13 contains
the law against keeping a laborer's wages that James mentions in
5:4.
James
as Commentary on Leviticus and Psalm 12
Some scholars have
argued that James extensive allusions are because he was writing
midrash on Leviticus, chapter 19, or on Psalm 12, verses
1-6. Midrash is essentially commentary on a earlier text,
interpreted to meet the needs of a specific audience and community
(Wall 21). There are specific forms of midrash, but the point here
is not that James follows a form, but rather that his writing has
an intertextuality with the older writings. James uses
citations, illusions, echoes and cues that will bring the Leviticus
or Psalm 12 to mind when the letter is read (Wall 21).
At least one scholar claims that James goal was to write a commentary
on Psalm 12. In fact anyone who knew the Psalm would quickly note
the similarities. Psalm 12, especially verses 1-4, complains about
flattering lips, boasting and lying, double-minded and confident
of their own worth. James addresses these same issues repeatedly:
in 1:8, 1:19-27, 3:1-12, 4:11-12, 4:13-16 and 5:12. James and the
Psalmist are both concerned that no one can tame the tongue—a
restless evil, full of deadly poison (James 3:8).
But beyond taming of our tongues, it is clear in Psalm 12 that
those with boasting lips are wealthy or powerful. The promise of
the Psalm is that the LORD will rise up against them, and in the
defense of the poor (Psalm 12:5). In the same way, the promise of
James is that God will reverse the situation and bring joy to the
persecuted. James opens with this promise in 1:2 and 1:9-11, and
then repeats it more forcefully at the closing in 5:1-6.
“Because the poor are despoiled, because the needy
groan, I will now rise up,” says the LORD; “I will
place them in the safety for which they long.” Psalm
12:5
Leviticus 19:15 defines the sacred community as one that does not
favor rich over poor (Wall 106), and thus gives them the safety
for which they long. The entire chapter is considered key to
the Holiness code, found in Leviticus 18-26 (Fox 502). It also may
refer to the Ten Commandments. The text is extending sacred law
into a law for ordinary life, mostly about ethical relations between
people (Fox 600). Leviticus 19 is in some ways a summary of the
whole of the Law, and James commentary encourages readers back to
that law.
James looks closely at the law in 1:25-2:12. This section opens
and closes with reference to the Law of Liberty, and uses
the term Royal Law in 2:8. For the Royal Law James
quotes Leviticus 19:18 You shall love your neighbor as yourself,
but he does not give direct explanation of the term Law of Liberty.
This section of James is about care of widows and orphans, and the
preferential option for the poor (Wall 94), and calls to mind Leviticus
19:15.
You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be
partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall
judge your neighbor.
Wall argues that the use of the word liberty links this
section to Leviticus 25 and the concept of Jubilee (Wall
92). The letter mentions equal treatment and offers hope for the
poor and persecuted, but is also calling the congregation back to
the law. Jubilee requires that fields are left unplanted, debts
are forgiven, and land lost in bad times is returned to its owners.
Leviticus clearly has a strong preferential option for the poor,
and James is alluding to this part of the law.
James makes references to many verses of the law in Leviticus 19.
Above we have noted James 2:1 and 2:8 allude to Leviticus 19:15,
16, and 18. James 4:11 calls for fair treatment and honesty with
your neighbor, also the message of Leviticus 19:11 and 19:13. Leviticus
19:13 and James 5:4 require that we pay laborers every day. James
insistence that our yes be yes, without swearing, and 3:10-12 refers
to Leviticus 19:12.
James knows the scripture of time, what we call Old Testament,
intimately. We do not know whether his goal was to write a commentary
on those texts. But it is clear that he considers these texts relevant,
and that the message of Psalm 12 and of Leviticus inform his letter
to this new Christian community.
References
Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses, (New York: Schocken
Books, 1995).
Robert W. Wall, Community of the Wise: The Letter of James,
(Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 1997).
James and the Sermon on the Plain/Mount
James uses the name of Jesus only twice, in 1:1 and 2:1. Yet we
can see by the extensive use of the reversals, similar to those
in the the beatitudes, that it is a thoroughly Christian
text. James 1:12, 1:25 and 5:10 use a form of makarios or
blessed. Scriptural texts that declare God's praise or blessing
on an individual are called beatitudes, from the latin
for blessed. While beatitudes are used throughout the Bible,
they are most prevalent in the Psalms, Matthew, and Luke.
In the Psalms the blessing is a sign of God's nearness to those
who trust, hope, love, and wait for God, and those whose sins have
been forgiven. In the New Testament beatitudes take on a more eschatological
joy--the promised blessing is connected to the Kingdom of God, and
demonstrates a reversal of human values. Like the gospels, James'
beatitudes have these new themes. Yet it is not just use of blessed
that connects James to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, or
the Sermon on the Plain in Luke 6.
In Matthew 5:3 and Luke 6:20 we have the basic structure of a Beatitude:
Blessed are the poor (in spirit) for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Luke 6:24 adds woe to the rich. Compare this with James' language
Let the believer who is lowly boast in being raised up, and
the rich in being brought low, because the rich will disappear
like a flower in the field. James 1:9-10
Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith
and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who
love him? James 2:5
Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries
that are coming to you. James 5:1
The Magnificat, especially Luke 1:52-53 is also an example
of the message of reversal that James mirrors. The lowly are lifted
up; the rich are sent away empty, just like in James 1:9-10. In
the Gospels and in James the promise is for the future, but for
the present times as well. The believer can boast today in
1:9, the rich should weep and wail now in 5:1. The promises
of theses verses are comfort for the persecution the Christian community
is experiencing.
Matthew 5:10 offers a blessing for the persecuted, as does Luke
6:11-12. Luke 6:22-23 goes on to offer blessing when we are hated,
excluded, reviled and defamed. In a similar way James 1:2-4 calls
the community to joy when facing trials. James 1:12 offers blessings
and the crown of life to those who endure temptation. And
James 5:10 calls all who show endurance blessed.
Matthew and Luke each have additional beatitudes that are found
in James. Matthew 5:9 says that peacemakers will be called the children
of God and James 3:18 offers a harvest of righteousness for those
who make peace. Luke 6:21 and 6:25 promises that the hungry will
be filled, those who weep will laugh, the full will be hungry and
those who laugh will mourn. Believers are exhorted to lament and
mourn and weep, and to let laughter turn into mourning in James
4:9. James 4:6 is a similar reversal: God opposes the proud, but
gives grace to the humble.
James uses additional teachings from the Sermon on the Plain and
Mount. Luke 6:27 and James 2:8 repeat the Levitical law to love
our neighbors as ourselves. Matthew 5:17-19 insists that the law
and prophets are not abolished, while James 2:8-11 insists that
breaking any one law is breaking the whole of the law. James 1:25
says that those who not only hear, but also DO the law will be blessed.
In Matthew 5:21-22 it is not enough to avoid murder, even those
who are angry are subject to judgment. James 1:19-20 says we must
be slow to anger, for anger does not produce God's righteousness.
|