syncretism, where Jewish, Greek, Oriental and ultimately Christian elements intermingled. In general, then, James’s environment would seem to be the meeting of Christian, Jewish and Hellenistic thought, at a popular and unsophisticated level. The attempt to establish more precisely the situation of James within this general environment will focus on three areas: first, the social situation of James and his readers in the life of the Hellenistic world; secondly, their location