Has God Not

Chosen the Poor?

The Social Setting of the Epistle

of James

David Hutchinson Edgar

Journal for the Study of the New Testament

Supplement Series 206

Copyright © 2001 Sheffield Academic Press

Published by Sheffield Academic Press Ltd

Mansion House

19 Kingfield Road

Sheffield S11 9AS

England

www.continuumbooks.com

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 1-84127-182-9

Contents

Preface

Abbreviations

Introduction

Chapter 1

Approaches to the Interpretation of the Epistle of James

Chapter 2

The Self-Presentation of the Author

Chapter 3

The Presentation of the Addressees

Chapter 4

Reading the Text: James 1:2–18

Chapter 5

Reading the Text: James 1:19–3:18

Chapter 6

Reading the Text: James 4:1–5:20

Chapter 7

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index of References

Index of Authors

Preface

This book is a revision of my doctoral thesis, supervised by Professor Seán Freyne, and accepted by the University of Dublin in 1996. I am deeply indebted to Professor Freyne for his wise and understanding guidance of my work through the years of postgraduate study and beyond, and for the personal warmth which, as much as his fine scholarship, has been an example to those who have studied under him.

I am also grateful to the examiners of my thesis, Revd Terence McCaughey of the University of Dublin and Professor Philip Esler of the University of St Andrews, for their insightful and constructive comments on my work. Professor Richard Bauckham of the University of St Andrews has also been generous and helpful in his supportive criticism of my thesis, as has Dr Fearghus O Fearghail of St Kieran’s College, Kilkenny. Friends and colleagues in the School of Hebrew, Biblical and Theological Studies, Trinity College, Dublin, have also provided greatly appreciated support.

Thanks are also due to Professor Stanley Porter, editor of the JSNT Supplement Series, and to the staff of Sheffield Academic Press for their assistance during the publication process. A number of important works on the Epistle of James have been published in the time between the completion of the doctoral thesis on which this book is based and the publication of the book itself. I have endeavoured to make due recognition of such works in the revision of my own text, but inevitably engagement with some of these works is a little more sparse than the treatment of books which were available to me during the whole period of my research.

Most of all, thanks are due to my family, whose support in many ways has been inestimable. My wife, Shuna Hutchinson Edgar, has lent considerable assistance in the preparation of this book. For this, as well as for the profound personal enrichment her love and inspiration bring to my life, I am most grateful. Particular mention must also be made of my parents, Louise Edgar and the late Robert Edgar, who from an early age encouraged (and funded) me in the love of learning, without which this work could ...