Christians, their corroborative evidence will become more and more significant to us. If, as in our own judgment they ought to be, they are accepted at their face value, their testimony becomes of primary im- portance, and would suffice of Itself to assure us of the attitude of mind our Lord's followers cherished towards Him from the beginning. We shall present their testimony then frankly from this our own point of view, without stopping to argue our right to do so. It will thus at least be made apparent that the whole body of writings gathered Into what we call the New Testament unite in commending to us one lofty view of Christ's person. For In all these letters, too, as in those which have already claimed our attention, Jesus appears fundamentally as the divine object of the reverential service of Christians.
Among these letters a special Interest attaches to the Epistles of James and Jude, because of their au- James' and thorship by kinsmen of our Lord accord- Qh^ ^\ i^g to the flesh, who moreover did not
High believe In Him during His earthly man-
ifestation (Jno 7^) : to which is added In the case of the Epistle of James, its exceedingly early date (a. d. 45), — a date antecedent to that of any other of the canonical books. Not only does not the simple ' Jesus ' occur in either of these Epistles or even the simple ' Christ,' but our Lord Is uniformly spoken of by des- ignations expressive of marked reverence. Both writers describe themselves simply as " servants " — that Is, " bond-servants," " slaves,"^ — James " of God and of
1 We must not press, however, the ignoble connotations of " slaves " to our modern minds: entire subjection is all that is imputed. Cf. Mayor on Jude i.
264 The Designations of Our Lord
the Lord Jesus Christ" (i^), and Jude with striking directness simply " of Jesus Christ " ( i ) . The ac- knowledgment of Jesus as their ' Lord ' implied in this self-designation is emphasized in both Epistles by the constant employment of this title in speaking of Jesus.
James speaks of our Lord by name only twice, and on both occasions he gives Him the full title of rever- ence: 'the (or our) Lord Jesus Christ' (i^ 2^) — coupling Him in the one case on equal terms with God, and in the other adding further epithets of divine dignity. Elsewhere he speaks of Him simply as ' the Lord' (^7,8 [14], 15^ 2 jj^ contexts which greatly enhance the significance of the term. The pregnant use of ' the Name,' absolutely, which we found current among the early Christians as reported in the Acts, recurs here; and James advises In the case of sick people that they be prayed over, while they are anointed with oil "in the Name" (5^^). The "Name" intended is clearly that of Jesus, which is thus in Christian usage substituted for that of Jehovah, A unique epithet, equally implying the deity of the Lord, is applied to Him in the exhortation, " My brethren, hold not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
*the Glory' Glory, with respect of persons" (2^). ' The Glory ' seems to stand here in ap- position to the name, " our Lord Jesus Christ," further
2 Sven Herner, op. cit., thinks that ' Lord ' is used of Jesus only at S'^'S. Mayor on i''^ thinks it probable that it is used of Jesus also at 5[i4],i5_ Herner remarks (p. 42): "The Epistle of James knows the expression 'The Lord Jesus Christ' (i^ 2^) and, therefore, uses xupioi of Christ. Since this is the case, we do not venture definitely to deny that Christ is meant in the expression ' the coming of the Lord ' (5' seq.)^
The Catholic Epistles 265