of the Messiah—and was therefore reckoned righteous. Abraham’s faith transformed him from a Gentile, as it were, to the father of the Jewish people. It was his faith, not his obedience to law or his later circumcision, that effected this transformation. So goes Paul’s thinking.
For Martin Luther, the great German reformer of the sixteenth century, Paul’s emphasis on God’s grace and the demand for faith was just what was needed to challenge what he perceived to be an unhealthy and unbiblical emphasis on legalism and works in the Church of his day. The only problem was that the letter of James appeared to contradict Paul’s teaching. Near the end of a major teaching section, James concludes, “You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone” (2:24). No wonder, then, that Luther showed little regard for James, referring to it dismissively as a “strawy epistle” (German: strohern Epistel) and, in comparison to the works of Paul, Peter and the Gospel of John, which “show thee Christ,” saw it as containing little of the gospel.8
The problem for Luther was that he did not interpret James correctly. James’s references to “works” have nothing to do with “works of the law,” which Paul saw as antithetical to a gospel of grace, freely received through faith. Study of the whole of James 2 shows that the brother of Jesus offered an exposition of Jesus’ principal teaching, his so-called Great Commandment, that one is to love God with all that one is and has, and one is to love one’s neighbor as one’s self (Mark 12:28–34; cf. Luke 10:25–28).
Earlier in this chapter we noted that James insists that true faith fulfills the “royal law,” the law based on Leviticus 19:18 (love your neighbor as yourself), to which Jesus made appeal. Feeding the hungry and caring for the poor is evidence of genuine faith. These are the “works” that demonstrate the reality of one’s faith. Apart from such works, one’s faith is “dead” (James 2:26). This is why James states categorically that one “is justified by works and not by faith alone” (2:24).
The works of which Paul speaks in Romans and Galatians are “works of law,” works by which one establishes his righteousness. These are not works of the “royal law,” works of mercy and loving-kindness. In Galatians, Paul angrily criticized Peter for withdrawing from Gentile Christians. In Antioch, Peter was willing to eat with Gentiles, but when emissaries from James came to Antioch, Peter withdrew from these Gentiles. Peter did not want the men from Jerusalem to think he was eating non-kosher food. Eating kosher food, observing the Sabbath, keeping oneself ritually pure—all of these things are what Paul calls “works of the law.” These are not the works to which James makes reference in his letter.
We have a much better understanding of this important distinction thanks to the survival of six copies of a legal letter from Qumran’s cave 4.9 Although in fragments, the overlapping copies allow us to reconstruct almost the entire original letter. The letter defines and discusses some two dozen works of the law that one must do to maintain purity and righteousness. These works include not mixing the holy with the profane and avoiding Gentile food. Separation from things that defile is strongly urged. The letter concludes, “We have written to you some of the works of the Law, those which we determined would be beneficial to you and your people…[If you do these works] you shall rejoice at the end time…and it will be reckoned to you as righteousness, in that you have done what is right and good.”10 These are the works of the Law that Paul criticizes, not the works mentioned in the letter of James. The works of Law that calls for separation from Gentiles, only eating kosher food and the like are not what justifies one in the sight of God. But works of love and mercy—which is what James was talking about—Paul fully supports.
In a later letter, written either by Paul himself or by one of Paul’s students writing in his name, we find similar thinking, where grace and faith, on the one hand, go hand in hand with good works, on the other:
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God—not because of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Eph 2:8–10)
Summary
James and Paul agreed with respect to the essence of the gospel message. But their respective ministries were directed to two very different constituencies ethnically, culturally and geographically. It is not a surprise that their language is not always easy to reconcile.
The letter of James was addressed to the “twelve tribes in the Dispersion,” that is, to Jewish Christians.11 The letter was not addressed to Gentiles, unlike Paul’s letters. Rather, the letter of James reinforced aspects of Jesus’ teaching especially as it related to “doing righteousness” with respect to other human beings. The genuine faith that Jesus called for and James insisted upon was not pious platitudes but an active faith that manifested itself in substantial acts of compassion. A non-active faith runs the risk of being nothing more than a form of Pharisaism in which one doesn’t lift a finger to help one in need (see Matt 23:4, where Jesus says of the Pharisees, “They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger”).
Paul too is reacting against a Pharisaic understanding of works of Law, whereby through works that emphasize purity (and often that means separation from Gentiles) one believes that one has established a righteousness that will be pleasing to God. It is this “works” that Paul says cannot save and will not result in righteousness before God. James does not contradict this idea. He never addresses it.
There were differences between Paul and James, to be sure. But the differences largely centered on their very different constituencies. Paul’s constituency was primarily a Gentile one, while the constituency of James was primarily, perhaps exclusively, Jewish. But on the matter of works they did not differ. Both embraced the good news of God’s gracious provision in Jesus, a provision received in faith, and both urged Christians to practice their faith as Jesus himself taught.
But very importantly, there is no evidence that Paul invented Christianity or altered the early Church’s understanding of the person and work of Jesus. Paul stood in continuity with the original apostles, who after meeting Paul and hearing him out extended to him the “right hand of fellowship” (Gal 2:9).
Chapter 5—Was Jesus a Zealot?
The Real Aims of Jesus
When historians consider Jesus, they try to classify him. They do this with all historical figures. Here are a few examples: Aristotle was a philosopher, but his famous student Alexander the Great was a military commander and empire-builder. The first-century Jewish aristocrat Josephus was an apologist and historian. The early second-century Simon ben Kosibah, who became known as Bar Kokhba (Aramaic, meaning “Son of the Star”), was a charismatic messianic claimant who gave leadership to Israel’s last great rebellion against Rome. Defining, or classifying, these figures helps us to interpret their activities more accurately.
Classifying figures of history is part of the historian’s attempt to place them in the appropriate context. This is very true in the case of Jesus of Nazareth. Because of his multi-faceted activities and teachings, classifying Jesus has not been easy. Emphasizing his role as teacher, some see Jesus as a rabbi. Others think he was more of a prophet or a martyr. Others see him as a political leader, perhaps a king of sorts. More eccentric proposals include Jesus as a Pharisee, an Essene, a magician, or even an Eastern mystic. Another proposal made from time to time argues that Jesus was a zealot.
In this chapter we shall consider the zealot classification, which in one form or another has been proposed from time to time. To understand why it has been proposed, it will be necessary to review not only the evidence that has been offered for it but
