NOTES
- R.P. Martin, James, Waco, Texas: World Books, 1988, 29.
- P.H. Davids, The Epistle of James. A commentary on the Greek text, Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 80; F. Mussner, Der Jakobusbrief, Freiburg, Basel, Wien: Herder, 86.
- The Greek phrase in 1:18 literally rendered as ‘word of truth’, undoubtedly refers to wisdom. In 1:15 it is explicitly stated that God is the giver of wisdom. See also E. Baasland, ‘Literarische Form, Thematik und geschichtliche Einordnung des Jakobusbriefes’, Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römische Welt 25/5:3646–3684, 1988, 3655.
- James 1:18 does not explicitly use the phrase ‘everlasting life’. The Greek phrase, translated as ‘so that we may be a kind of first-fruit of that which he created’, is a metaphor referring to eternal life. In the third section of this article, the interpretation of this metaphor will be discussed in more detail.
- This metaphor is traditional. See, e.g., Pr. 2:16 and 5:3–6.
- For an extensive discussion of the reference of these two words, see F. Schnider, Der Jakobusbrief, Regensburg: Friedrich Pustet, 1987, 42.
- This metaphor may allude to passages like Pr. 5:5, which reads (TEV): ‘She will take you down to the world of the dead; the road she walks is the road to death.’ See also Pr. 7:23–27 for the same train of thought.
- Schnider, op. cit. 42.
- The text appears in L. Cohn, Philonis Alexandris opera quae supersunt 1, Berlin: De Gruyter, 1962, 170–201.
- For the complete text, see idem 1–60.
- H. Lichtenberger, Studien zum Menschenbild in Texten der Qumrangemeinde, Gōttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1980, 190–200, argues that this dualistic view of man even permeated the Qumran community.
- James 1:8 says of natural man that he is ‘double-souled’. This term (a hapax legomenon in the New Testament), according to W.F. Arndt and F.W. Gingrich, A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature, Cambridge: University Press, 1957, 200, starts to appear in Christian literature of the early second century, like Hermas, 1 and 2 Clemens, Barnabas and the Didache. This might be an indication of the date of composition of James.
- See E. Zeller, Outlines of the history of Greek philosophy (13th ed., revised by W. Nestle and L.R. Palmer), London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1963, 218–223.
- When the first domino block collapses, the rest will follow.
- Arndt and Gingrich, op. cit. 93.
- Text in A.D. Nock and A.-J. Festugier, Corpus Hermeticum, Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1972.
- Martin, op. cit. 39.
- E. Ruckstuhl, Jakobusbrief. 1.-3 Johannesbrief, Würzburg: Echter Verlag, 1985, 14.
- Schnider, op. cit. 44.
- Text in P. Wendland, Philonis Alexandri opera quae supersunt 2, Berlin: De Gruyter, 1962.
- S. Laws, A commentary on the Epistle of James, London: Adam and Charles Black, 1980, 75.
- M. Dibelius and H. Greeven (rev.), transl. by M.A. Williams, James, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1981, 104.
- Mussner, op. cit. 95.
- Davids, op. cit. 89.
- Dibelius-Greeven, op. cit. 104.
- Laws, op. cit. 76.
- Baasland, op. cit. 3669.
- This viewpoint, again, is traditional. In Pr. 5:15 the man is admonished to be faithful to his own wife. In Pr. 5:17, it is stated that his own children should grow up to help him in his old age.
- This viewpoint would date James just before the onset of asceticism in the middle of the second century.
- If this deduction is correct, then, indeed, Ja. 2:14–26, the pericope on faith and works, would form the core of the epistle. See D. Guthrie, New Testament Introduction, London: Intervarsity Press, 1974, 764, for a discussion of this traditional viewpoint.