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After a brief introduction (55 pages, defending a generally traditional view of the letter), the commentary proceeds phrase by phrase, Greek appears in transliteration, but in footnotes it is not.
Book of james commentary series#
While Adamson is still a useful commentary, McKnight’s contribution goes far beyond what the NICNT series expected thirty-five years ago. McKnight’s commentary is another excellent contribution to the NICNT series, replacing James Adamson’s 1976 volume. Scot McKnight is an unusual in that he is a respected biblical scholar yet is able to write with a pastor’s heart on topics which speak to important contemporary issues. Scot McKnight, James (NICNT Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2011). As with most of the recent volumes in the Anchor series, John includes detailed bibliographies at the end of each section, including German and French scholarship. Johnson draws parallels to Second Temple Period Jewish literature as well as Greco-Roman moralists. All citations in the commentary portion are in-text. The introduction has a long section on history of interpretation, asking the question, “How was the voice of James heard” by the church?” The commentary itself is based on the Greek text, but all Greek is transliterated. Johnson dates the book early, written by a Jewish Christian in Palestine who had access to an early form of Jesus tradition (perhaps Q).
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I find his description of the similarities and differences between Paul and James helpful, concluding that the contrast is distorted by focusing on a single topic (justification by faith). In fact, the introduction is worth the price of the book. Johnson’s commentary replaced the rather slender volume by Bo Reicke (remarkable for including the epistles of Peter and Jude in a mere 221 pages!) By contrast, Johnson’s commentary begins with 164 pages of introduction to the letter of James alone. Luke Timothy Johnson, The Letter of James (AB New York: Doubleday, 1995). I am not convinced by Eisenman, but the book is an interesting read. Eisenman’s book is massive and develops a view that Paul and James represent a major rift in the earliest church. Painter concludes with a brief review of the idiosyncratic James, The Brother of the Lord by Robert Eisenman. John Painter’s Just James (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1999) is a highly detailed monograph on James in Christian tradition, beginning with Acts and Paul, then Eusebius, Nag Hammadi, and the Christian Apocrypha. Richard Bauckham’s essay in this book James and Jesus is excellent, and I have found Craig Evans’s article on James and Qumran very helpful.
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Bruce Chilton and Jacob Neusner edited a volume of essays on James: The Brother of Jesus (Louisville: Westminster John Knox: 2001).
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I should mention a couple of other books which I have found helpful for studying James. My preference is to read this book as very early, perhaps predating Paul (or at least written at the same time as Galatians or Thessalonians). (Again, this is in contrast to Paul’s style of writing.) Many commentaries observe that James is not unlike the book of Proverbs, but few develop this idea that much because (in truth) it is not that much like Proverbs! One option is to read James as a late-compilation of James’s sayings, written after his death in the mid-60’s A.D. The book is very loosely structured, almost as if it is a compilation of sayings and short teachings rather than a book with a clear argument. The reformation stream of Christianity struggled with James, Luther’s disdain for the book is an example of a preference for Pauline theology over and above James.Īnother issue with James is the genre. There are a number of later apocryphal stories which develop this conflict well beyond the biblical data. This is a well known problem, since James says that faith without works is dead (James ) while Paul says that one is justified by faith, not by good works. Commentaries on James necessarily must deal with the potential conflict between James and Paul.