perseusomega9 wrote: ↑Sun Sep 13, 2020 4:11 pm
One can find various interpolation theories, multipart letter hypotheses, lost letters (Laodikeans?) and even admitted forgeries (which is teh r34l Thessalonians?) in the Pauline Epistles. Are there any such 'partitioning' ideas for James' one and only letter?
I just now skimmed through the introductions of two commentaries on James (those by Sophie Laws and James Hardy Ropes), and could find no mention of partition hypotheses. They both mention the old hypothesis (which I
have explored here before) concerning James 1.1 and 2.1 being interpolated with the only two direct references to Jesus, but I can find nothing more extensive than that.
I did happen across this reference in Laws:
1 Clement 32.4-33.1: 32.4 So too we who have been called through his will in Christ Jesus are made upright not through ourselves, through our own wisdom or understanding or piety or the deeds we have done with a devout heart, but through faith, through which the omnipotent God has made all these people upright, from the beginning of the ages. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. 33.1 What then shall we do, brothers? Shall we grow idle and not do what is good? Shall we abandon our acts of love? May the Master never let this happen to us! Instead, we should hasten with fervor and zeal to complete every good work.
Clement seems to fend off the same misunderstanding of faith that James does. Laws herself argues that Clement is fully dependent here upon Paul's own treatment of faith and works, however, and not upon James.