The Jewish Annotated New Testament (118 page)

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See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking; for if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven!
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At that time his voice shook the earth; but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.”
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This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of what is shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
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Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe;
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for indeed our God is a consuming fire.

13
Let mutual love continue.
²
Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.
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Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.
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4
Let marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge fornicators and adulterers.
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Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.”
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So we can say with confidence,

“The Lord is my helper;
       I will not be afraid.
     What can anyone do to me?”

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Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
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Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
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Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings; for it is well for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by regulations about food,
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which have not benefited those who observe them.
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We have an altar from which those who officiate in the tent
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have no right to eat.
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For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp.
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Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood.
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Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured.
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For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
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Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.
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Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

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Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls and will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with sighing—for that would be harmful to you.

¹⁸
Pray for us; we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things.
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I urge you all the more to do this, so that I may be restored to you very soon.

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Now may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant,
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make you complete in everything good so that you may do his will, working among us
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that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

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I appeal to you, brothers and sisters,
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bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly.
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I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been set free; and if he comes in time, he will be with me when I see you.
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Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those from Italy send you greetings.
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Grace be with all of you.
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THE LETTER OF JAMES

The letter of James takes its name from the attribution of authorship in 1.1; the letter itself does not otherwise identify its author. Some commentators suggest that the author is the brother of Jesus (Mt 13.55; Mk 6.3) and the head of the church in Jerusalem (Acts 12.17; 15.13–21; Gal 1.19). If that attribution is correct, the letter would have to have been written before 62 CE, when James was executed (
Ant
. 20.9.1; Eusebius,
Hist. eccl
. 2.23).

The excellent Greek of the text leads many scholars to doubt this traditional attribution of authorship. It would, they argue, be unlikely that a rural Galilean would be capable of such expression. Defenders have argued that the letter incorporates genuine material from James, perhaps a sermon that was reworked by a follower trained in Greek rhetoric. The address “to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion” (Gk “diaspora”) suggests that the recipients identified with the people of Israel and perhaps were Jewish followers of Jesus (see 1 Pet 1.1).

CONTENT AND STRUCTURE

The text appears to be responding to the views of Paul, particularly with regard to the relationship of faith and works. (Cf. Jas 2.18–26 with Rom 4.1–5.) It also stresses ethics: the virtues of self-discipline and disdain of wealth, efficacy of prayer, and repentance in anticipation of the final judgment. Motifs shared with Jewish sources are frequent. James is particularly conversant with the Torah but also with the wisdom tradition, and the text displays echoes of both the Hebrew scriptures and the Greek writings in the apocryphal/deuterocanonical books preserved in the Septuagint and retained in some versions of the Christian Old Testament.

Of all the texts in the New Testament, the letter of James has the least specific focus on Jesus of Nazareth. With the two references (1.1; 2.1) removed, the text could function as an address to synagogue communities in the Diaspora. On the other hand, it has numerous echoes of the Gospel tradition, especially Matthew.

GUIDE TO READING

The letter of James is sometimes read as a sermon or a piece of wisdom literature like Proverbs or Sirach to which an epistolary opening, but no closing, has been added. This letter was placed among the “catholic” or universal letters, sometimes also called “General Epistles,” because it is seen as addressed to the early church generally and not to one specific community or person.

Herbert Basser

1
James, a servant
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of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.

²
My brothers and sisters,
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whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy,
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because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance;
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and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.

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If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.
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But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind;
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,
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for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

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Let the believer
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who is lowly boast in being raised up,
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and the rich in being brought low, because the rich will disappear like a flower in the field.
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For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the field; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. It is the same way with the rich; in the midst of a busy life, they will wither away.

IMPLANTED WORD

Perhaps this phrase (v. 21) is a reference to Deut 30.14, “The word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.” Conversely, Paul interprets Deut 30.14 (in Rom 10.8–10): “‘The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart’ … because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.” Paul understands the “word” to refer to “Lord Jesus.” “Heart,” for him, refers to “belief”; “mouth” refers to confessing that belief. But Paul omits to say what “observe” indicates, and James fills this in. By “implanted word,” then, James means God’s natural law of mercy “in the mouth and heart,” the law that needs to be observed (see v. 22).

¹²
Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord
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has promised to those who love him.
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No one, when tempted, should say, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one.
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But one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it;
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then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death.
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Do not be deceived, my beloved.
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Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
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18
In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

¹⁹
You must understand this, my beloved:
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let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger;
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for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness.
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Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.

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But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.
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For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves
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in a mirror;
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for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like.
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But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.