gentile as well as Jewish Christians.76 The early Christians came to understand that God’s eschatological people included both gentiles and Jews. James, then, may have “transferred” the term from its original Jewish roots and applied it broadly to the church of his day. However, given the other indications of audience in the letter, a reference to Jewish Christians is more likely. In this view, James would be addressing these Jewish Christians as the nucleus of a restored and renewed Israel.77 The
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