The Urban and the Agrarian in the Letter of James

ABSTRACT

Although the letter of James was written to an urban audience, it incorporates examples from nature and agricultural motifs, such as springs and trees (3:11–12), field labourers and harvesters (5:4), and the patient farmer (5:7) who bears similarity to the steadfast Job (5:11) and prayerful Elijah (5:17–18), into the text. This article argues that this agrarian imagery is a literary trope—sometimes subtle and at other times obvious—that serves as a contrast to negative phenomena associated with the city. The opposition apparent in James coheres with the tendency among Graeco-Roman writers to contrast the rural/natural with the urban/artificial. Such a pattern of images supports some of the letter's moral directives.

Keywords:

• James
• urban
• rural
• Graeco-Roman
• moral teaching