OK understood. I like to explore this because it is sexyBen C. Smith wrote: ↑Sun Sep 13, 2020 3:34 pmIt is very much a live option to me that the epistle of James deliberately opposes Paul. There are apparently deliberate agreements, though, too, and those need to be explained.davidmartin wrote: ↑Sun Sep 13, 2020 3:06 pmA question on what people think about the hypothesis that it's anti-PaulineMrMacSon wrote: ↑Sun Sep 13, 2020 2:26 pmA premise and a question about its veracity?
If James is opposed to Paul (then this is church politics being played out by psuedo-anonymous writings) then the factionalism of the early church comes alive. The same pattern keeps repeating. In disciples elevated or reproached in the gospels, in Galatians and Acts. In the accounts of the church fathers and in the surviving extra-canonical writings. This is a faith that is wildly factionalised and if this were true you'd expect to find evidence for it in the new testament - and there is plenty. So exploring the factions is the obvious way to try to understand the origins and development of it, and painting a picture of the factions to see what problems it might solve.