James 1.1 and 2.1.

Discussion about the New Testament, apocrypha, gnostics, church fathers, Christian origins, historical Jesus or otherwise, etc.
John2
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Re: James 1.1 and 2.1.

Post by John2 »

Ben,

You cite something in your excellent Shortening of the Days thread that reminds me of something from the Letter of James and I thought I'd comment on it here.

Talmud BM 85b:
Elijah used to frequent Rabbi's academy. One day — it was New Moon — he was waiting for him, but he failed to come. Said he to him [the next day]: "Why didst thou delay?" He replied: "[I had to wait] until I awoke Abraham, washed his hands, and he prayed and I put him to rest again; likewise to Isaac and Jacob." "But why not awake them together?" "I feared that they would wax strong in prayer and bring the Messiah before his time."
Mishnah Ber. 5:2 links praying for rain with the resurrection of the dead and crops:
[We] mention the request for rain in [the blessing of] Techiyat HaMeitim [Resurrection of the Dead]; and [we] ask for rain [by adding the phrase Vetein Tal Umatar Livrakhah] in Birkat HaShanim [Blessing of the Year's crops].

https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Berakhot.5.2?lang=bi

James 5:7-18:
Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near ...

Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.
So here we have grounds for more than just assuming that James and his readers were aware of the implication of messianism and the resurrection of the dead with respect to the last days in the Letter of James. And these similarities are in keeping with the idea that Jewish Christians were a faction of Fourth Philosophy, who Josephus says, aside from their rejection of "the customs of our fathers" (Ant. 18.1.1), "agree in all other things with the Pharisaic notions" (Ant. 18.1.6).

Darlack has an abstract of his thesis "Pray for Reign: The Eschatological Elijah in James 5:17-18" here, which discusses these kinds of similarities:
James uses the prophet Elijah as an example of righteous prayer. This thesis explores the possibility that James may have intended his readers to recognize both historical and eschatological imagery associated with the biblical prophet. First, it shows that in early Jewish literature the eschatological and historical Elijah traditions were not held in isolation of each other. Imagery from descriptions of Elijah’s eschatological return is used to describe the pre-ascension ministry of the prophet, while the eschatological mission of the prophet is described using elements of the historical narrative. Second, the thesis demonstrates that James’ prescript “to the twelve tribes of the Dispersion,” sets a tone of inaugurated and yet-to-be-consumated eschatology, and that the mention of Elijah helps form an eschatological inclusio that frames the letter. Third, the New Testament use of Elijah’s drought outside of James is explored showing again that elements from Elijah’s drought in 1 Kings were used in eschatological contexts, and that Elijah’s three and a half year drought, as mentioned by James, is used to illustrate a period of judgment for the sake of effecting repentance in these contexts. Fourth and finally, the images of rain and drought are viewed through an eschatological lens, revealing their role as covenant blessing and curse, and eschatological judgment and restoration. It is concluded that James’ readers could have recognized the eschatological implications of using Elijah as an example of faithful, righteous prayer, and that James assigns his readers a role similar to that of the eschatological prophet. They are called to endure in the midst of eschatological trials and to effect repentance before the arrival of the soon-coming King.

http://www.oldinthenew.org/?p=143
James' reference to three and half years of tribulation in 5:17 possibly has additional Danielic messianic resonance, as a comment on the bible hub suggests.
... it was probably the time handed down by tradition, being taken by the Jews as a symbol of times of tribulation (cf. Daniel 7:25; Daniel 12:7; Revelation 11:2).

http://biblehub.com/commentaries/james/5-17.htm
So for these reasons (and the fact that it may have been known to Hegesippus, appears to reference Paul and is in a Christian canon) the Letter of James (including the references to the coming of the Lord in 5:7-8) seems messianic to me.
Last edited by John2 on Fri Apr 06, 2018 5:57 pm, edited 11 times in total.
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Re: James 1.1 and 2.1.

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I don't know why everything is italicized above and I'm trying to fix it.
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Re: James 1.1 and 2.1.

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John2 wrote: Fri Apr 06, 2018 3:10 pm I don't know why everything is italicized above and I'm trying to fix it.
There is a line from that very first quote: "I had to wait," but in brackets. The combination of the brackets with that initial letter "I" is being interpreted as the italics code. Just add an empty italics code pair inside the brackets, right before the "I," to break out of it:

Code: Select all

"[[i][/i]I had to wait] until I awoke Abraham...."

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John2
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Re: James 1.1 and 2.1.

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Ah, I see. Thanks, Ben. I fixed it.
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Re: James 1.1 and 2.1.

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As Adamson writes in James: The Man and His Message:
In the highly eschatological [James] 5:16b-18, Elijah, representative of the OT prophets and precursor of the Messiah, is only human like us, but he prays that it might not rain, and see what he effects thereby. Again three years later he prays, recalling the apocalyptic period of disaster (Dan. 12:7; Lk. 4:25f.; Rev. 11:12).

https://books.google.com/books?id=5f23h ... ah&f=false
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Re: James 1.1 and 2.1.

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To me the situation in the Letter of James is similar to that in the Letter of Jude, which cites 1 Enoch regarding the coming of God and applies it to Jesus.

1 Enoch 5:3-9:
The Holy Great One will come forth from His dwelling, and the eternal God will tread upon the earth, (even) on Mount Sinai, [And appear from His camp] and appear in the strength of His might from the heaven of heavens ... And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of His holy ones to execute judgment upon all, and to destroy all the ungodly. And to convict all flesh of all the works of their ungodliness which they have ungodly committed, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.


Jude 1:14-25:
Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him” ... keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life ... to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore!


Paul uses the same word "Savior" to describe Jesus in Php. 3:20, as does James in Hegesippus in EH 2.23:
But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ ...
Now some of the seven sects, which existed among the people and which have been mentioned by me in the Memoirs, asked him [James], ‘What is the gate of Jesus?’ and he replied that he was the Saviour.
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Re: James 1.1 and 2.1.

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John2 wrote: Fri Apr 06, 2018 5:39 pm To me the situation in the Letter of James is similar to that in the Letter of Jude....
My thoughts on Jude:
Ben C. Smith wrote: Sun Oct 29, 2017 8:26 amIn this epistle the Lord seems to be Jesus the Son every time, with the possible (by no means certain) exception of the quotations of scripture. Jude even has a possible counterpart to the Pauline verse which insists upon only one Lord:

Jude [1.]4: 4 For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 8.6: 6 ...yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.

The epistle of Jude, then, may easily fall into the same "traditional" category as the epistles of Paul.
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John2
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Re: James 1.1 and 2.1.

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Ben wrote:
In this epistle the Lord seems to be Jesus the Son every time, with the possible (by no means certain) exception of the quotations of scripture.
Jude's quotations of 1 Enoch in 1:9 and (presumably) the Assumption of Moses in 1:14 appear to me to call God "Lord." And one of the words Jude uses for Jesus in 1:4 (Δεσπότην/master) is also used to describe God in Rev. 6:10, Lk. 2:29 and Acts 4:24, and if these other sources knew that (especially Revelation, given its Jewish Christian background) then I assume Jude did too. The terms used to describe Jesus and God seem interchangeable in Christian writings to me (including the Letter of James), excepting "Father" and "Son," but even then I gather they are still essentially the same being (in a binitarian sense).
But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"
Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones ...
... for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Rev. 6:10:
They called out with a loud voice, saying, "How long, Master, the holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"


Lk. 2:28-29:
Simeon took him up in his arms, praised God, and said, Now, Master, you can dismiss your servant in peace, as you promised.
Acts 4:24:
When they heard this, they raised their voices together to God and said, "Master, you are the one who made the heaven, the earth, and the sea, and everything in them.
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Re: James 1.1 and 2.1.

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So when Jude calls Jesus "our only Master and Lord" in 1:4 does he mean that God isn't their Master and Lord, only Jesus is? That would seem odd to me, if so. But seeing Jesus and God as the same being (with one being "Father" and the other being "Son" but otherwise being the same "Master" and "Lord") makes sense to me. This would be why OT and apocryphal verses that are about God are applied to Jesus by Christians (or to the Messiah by Rabbinic Jews).
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Re: James 1.1 and 2.1.

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John2 wrote: Fri Apr 06, 2018 7:43 pm Ben wrote:
In this epistle the Lord seems to be Jesus the Son every time, with the possible (by no means certain) exception of the quotations of scripture.
Jude's quotations of 1 Enoch in 1:9 and (presumably) the Assumption of Moses in 1:14 appear to me to call God "Lord."
I am drawing a distinction between how an original author may have intended the reference to "the Lord" and how the Christian author may have used that reference.
The terms used to describe Jesus and God seem interchangeable in Christian writings to me (including the Letter of James), excepting "Father" and "Son," but even then I gather they are still essentially the same being (in a binitarian sense).
My problem with this is that the term "binitarian" would directly conflict with the following:
... for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
All of these texts insist that God is one. These authors would absolutely reject a term like "binitarian," just as surely as they would reject Barker's talk of "two gods." Something else (something unitarian) is going on, and I am trying to figure out what it is while still keeping in mind that we are talking about two persons somehow: a Father and a Son.
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