are distributed after the manner of the Old Testament writers; the place of worship ie the eynagogne ( eh. ii. 2) ; the definition of the faith they possessed is the Jewish creed, the Bh'ma Israel, that 'God is one,' ( eh. ii. 19) ; the oaths prohibited are Jewish ( eh. v. 12, etc.); the sins denounced are those to which the Jews were addicted-pride, self-conceit, ostentation, overbearing, fraud " (Bassett, ' The Catholic Epistle of St. James,' p. xlii.). 2. The somewhat wide salutation ie practically limited to Christians by the following d.8u..q,ol p.ov, and eh. ii. 1. That it is addressed to Christian Jews is also implied in eh. i. 18; ii. 7; v. 7, 14. There is force also in Hntber's remark, that "if the author as a SovAo~ of Christ had written to non- Christiane, his Epistle could only have had the intention of leading them to faith in Christ; but of such an intention there is not the slightest trace found in the Epistle" (Introduction to' Commentary on St. Jamee,' p. 11). We cannot, however, understand the Epistle aright unless we remember that those to whom it ie addressed, in becoming Christians, had not ceased to be Jews. We are probably prone to exaggerate the gulf which existed between Jews and Christiane in the early days of the Church.1 At first the preaching of the apostles was "rather a pnri.fication than a. contra- diction of the popular doctrine." Those who were present in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost must have carried home little more than the fact of the Messiahship of Jesus and the barest rudiments of Christianity. The gospel preached by those " who were scattered abroad upon the persecution which arose about Stephen" wonld be somewhat fuller, though still incom- plete. It was preached " to none but Jews only ; " but it spread the new faith over a wide region-" as far as Phenice and Cyprus and Antioch." Thus Christian communities would be founded in the Jewish quarters in most large cities; but it must have been years before they ceased to be Jews and were entirely separated from the synagogue with a definite and com- plete organization of their own. A careful examination of the account of St. Paul's missionary labours as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles shows ue that, even with the apostle of the Gentiles, it was often a matter of time before hie converts were separated from the synagogue. (1) At Antioch in Pisidia tae separation was made after two sabbaths. (2) At Iconium it was made at once. (8) At Thessalonica for three sabbaths St. Paul was sufl:ered to preach in the synagogue. (4) At Berrea apparently the whole synagogue was converted en masse. (5) At Corinth for "ome time St. Paul "reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath." (6) At Ephesus it was three months before "Paul separated the disciples." 1 Very striking and significant is the foot that men who "had not so much as heard whether the Holy Ghost was given," and who had been only baptized "into John':1 baptism," are nevertheless styled 1-l"lhrr"' (Acts x.ix. 1-7). viii INTRODUCTION TO
In other cases, where men laboured, by whom the "liberty of the gospel" was not so emphatically preached, it was probably far longer before the separation was ma.de. Nor is it likely that Bercea. was the solitary syna.gogne whose members were won over en masse to the Christian faith. For some years Jewish Christians would go on attending their synagogues and observing the Law as strictly as other Jews, only superadding to it "the faith of onr Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory." That they would do so is evidently supposed by St. James, from his remark about Moses in .Acts xv. 21, and again from his description of the "many thousands of the Jews which believe, who are all iealous of the Law" (Acts xxi. 20). It is to such e.s these that he is writing. Not, perhaps, to a definitely organized and m~ed Christian Chnrch consisting of Jews and Gentiles, but rather to those synagogues which, like that of Bercea, had embraced Christianity. To these he writes in the style of one of the old prophets. 1 Their synagogue was still open to all Jews. Into it the rich man might freely enter. Though not actually a" brother," still there was sufficient likelihood of the message reaching him for St. James to pen words of sternest denunciation, bidding him weep and howl for the miseries that were coming upon him. Thes@ communities of Jewish Christians, in the mind of St. James, stood in the position of Israel of old, and required jnst the same treatment at the hands of Christian teachers and prophets as J udrea and Samaria had received from the prophets of the old covenant (see especially eh. iv. 1-10 and v. 1-6, with notes). This theory of the relative position of the writer and his hearers will, it is believed, satisfactorily account for the remarkable language used, and the allusions to sins which, on any other theory, appear almost incredible in a Christian community. The object of the Epistle is evidently to exhort these Jewish Christians to patience under the trials to which they were exposed. The Epistle begins and ends with this (eh. i 2 and v. 7). The special trials were probably those of persecution from unbelieving J ewe. To this there is apparently allusion made in eh. ii 6 (see note). Bnt while writing with this special object, St. James is not unmindful of the general needs of his readers, and takes occasion (1) to warn them against varions sins and evil tendencies of which they stood in danger; and (2) to instruct them in various points of Christian morality.1 The Epistle, like the sapiential books of the Old Testament, which have so largely influenced the thoughts and phraseology of its writer, is almost impossible to analyze. The following scheme will, however, serve to show the principal subjects treated of, and the order in which they are dis- cussed:- 1 "The Epistle of St. James is the farewell voice of Hebrew prophecy " (Words- wortb ). 2 On tLe position of St. James as the great teacher of moral rectitude re.ther
than uf ductrin.e, see a striking passage in. F. W. Robertaon's 'Sermon.a,' vol. iii, p, 1, »eq. 'l'HE GENERAL EPISTLE OF JAMES. i:c