They were fond of personifying virtues and vices, sins and graces. So James personifies sin (1:15), mercy (2:13) and rust (5:3).
(7) They sought to awaken the interest of their audience by pictures and figures from everyday life. The figures of the bridle, the rudder and the forest fire are standard figures in the ancient sermons (cf. James 3:3–6). Among many other illustrations, James vividly uses the picture of the farmer and his patience (5:7).
(8) They frequently used the example of famous men and women as illustrations for their moral. So James uses the examples of Abraham (2:21–3), Rahab (2:25), Job (5:11) and Elijah (5:17).
(9) It was the custom of the ancient preachers to begin their sermons with a paradox which would hold the attention of their hearers. James does that by telling his readers to consider it nothing but joy when they are involved in trials (1:2). In the same way, the ancient preachers often pointed out how true goodness meant the reversal of all popular verdicts on life. So James insists that the happiness of the rich lies in their being ‘ brought low’ (1:10). They used the weapon of irony as James does (2:14–19, 5:1–6).
(10) The ancient preachers could speak with harshness and with sternness. So James addresses his reader as a ‘senseless person’ and calls those who listen to him adulterers (2:20,4:4). The ancient preachers had sharp tongues, and so has James.
(11) The ancient preachers had certain standard ways of constructing their sermons.
(a) They often concluded a section with a vivid antithesis, a pairing of stark opposites, setting the right beside the wrong way. James follows the same custom (cf. 2:13, 2:26).
(b) They often made their point by means of a searching question fired at the hearer, and so does James (4:12).
(c) They often used quotations in their preaching. James also does this (5:20, 1:11, 1:17, 4:6, 5:11).
It is true that we do not find in James the bitterness, the scolding, the frivolous and often broad humour that the Greek preachers used; but it is plain to see that he uses all the other methods which the wandering Hellenistic preachers used in order to win their way into the minds and hearts of men and women.
2. The Jewish world also had its tradition of preaching. That preaching was done mainly by the Rabbis at the services of the synagogue. It had many of the characteristics of the preaching of the Greek wandering philosophers. It had its rhetorical questions and its imperatives and its pictures taken from life, and its quotations and its citations of the heroes of the faith. But Jewish preaching had one curious characteristic. It was deliberately disconnected. The Jewish masters instructed their pupils never to linger for any length of time on any one subject, but to move quickly from one subject to another in order to maintain the interest of listeners. Hence one of the names for preaching was charaz, which literally means stringing beads. The Jewish sermon was frequently a string of moral truths and exhortations coming one after another. This is exactly what the Letter of James is. It is difficult, if not impossible, to extract from it a continuous and coherent plan. Its sections follow each other with a certain disconnectedness. The American scholar E. J. Goodspeed writes: ‘The work has been compared to a chain, each link related to the one before and the one after it. Others have compared its contents to beads on a string . . . And, perhaps, James is not so much a chain of thoughts or beads as it is a handful of pearls dropped one by one into the hearer’s mind.’
James, whether looked at from the Hellenistic or from the Jewish point of view, is a good example of an ancient sermon. And here is, perhaps, the clue we need to its authorship. With all this in mind, let us now turn to ask who the author is.
The Author of James
There are five possibilities.
(1) We begin with a theory worked out in detail by the German New Testament scholar Heinrich Meyer in the early years of the twentieth century and revived by B. S. Easton in the Interpreter’s Bible. One of the most common things in the ancient world was for books to be published in the name of some great figure of the past. Jewish literature between the Testaments is full of writings like that, ascribed to Moses, the Twelve Patriarchs, Baruch, Enoch, Isaiah and people of similar standing in order that the added authority might give greater encouragement to their readers. This was an accepted practice. One of the best-known books in the Apocrypha is the Wisdom of Solomon, in which the later sage attributes new wisdom to the wisest of the kings.
Let us remember three things about James. (a) There is nothing in it which an orthodox Jew could not accept if the two references to Jesus in 1:1 and 2:1 are removed, as they easily may be. (b) The Greek for James is in fact Iakōbos, which of course is the Old Testament Jacob. (c) The book is addressed to ‘the twelve tribes in the Dispersion’. This theory holds that James is nothing other than a Jewish writing, written under the name of Jacob and meant for the Jews who were scattered throughout the world to encourage them in faith and belief amid the trials through which they might be passing in Gentile lands.
This theory is further elaborated in this way. In Genesis 49, we have Jacob’s last address to his sons. The address consists of a series of short descriptions in which each son is in turn characterized. Meyer professed to be able to find in James allusions to the descriptions of each of the patriarchs and, therefore, of each of the twelve tribes, in Jacob’s address. Here are some of his identifications.
Asher is the worldly rich man; James 1:9–11; Genesis 49:20.
Issachar is the doer of good deeds; James 1:12; Genesis 49:14–15.
Reuben is the first fruits; James 1:18; Genesis 49:3.
Simeon stands for anger; James 1:19–20; Genesis 49:5–7.
Levi is the tribe which is specially connected with religion and is alluded to in James 1:26–7.
Naphtali is characterized by peace; James 3:18; Genesis 49:21.
Gad stands for wars and fightings; James 4:1–2; Genesis 49:19.
Dan represents waiting for salvation; James 5:7; Genesis 49:18.
Joseph represents prayer; James 5:13–18; Genesis 49:22–6.
Benjamin stands for birth and death; James 5:20; Genesis 49:27.
That is a most ingenious theory. No one can either finally prove it or disprove it, and it certainly would explain in the most natural way the reference in 1:1 to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion, the tribes scattered abroad. It would hold that some Christian came upon this Jewish tract, written under the name of Jacob to all the exiled Jews, and was so impressed with its moral worth that he made certain adjustments and additions to it and issued it as a Christian book. There is no doubt that this is an attractive theory – but it is possible for a theory to be too ingenious.
(2) Just as the Jews did, the Christians also wrote many books under the names of the great figures of the Christian faith. There are gospels issued under the name of Peter and Thomas and James himself; there is a letter under the name of Barnabas; there are gospels of Nicodemus and Bartholomew; and there are Acts of John, Paul, Andrew, Peter, Thomas, Philip and others. The technical title for these books is pseudonymous, that is, written under a false name.
It has been suggested that James was a letter written by someone else under the name of the Lord’s brother. That is apparently what Jerome thought when he said that this letter ‘was issued by someone under James’ name’. But, whatever else this work is, it cannot be that – because, whenever such a book was written, the author was careful to make quite clear
