The Expositor's Bible: The General Epistles of St. James and St. JudePlummer, Alfred
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The General Epistles of St. James and St. Jude
Plummer, Alfred
Bible. James -- Commentaries; Bible. Jude -- Commentaries
But it will be worth while to quote a decided expression of opinion,
on each side of the question immediately before us, from the writings
of scholars who are certainly well qualified to give a decided
opinion. On the one hand, Bernhard Weiss says, "It has been
incorrectly held by most that the author adheres very closely to Jesus
Sirach.... But it must be distinctly denied that there is anywhere an
echo of the Book of Wisdom."[38] On the other hand, Dr. Edersheim,
after pointing out the parallel between Ecclus. xii. 10, 11, and James
v. 3, concludes, "In view of all this it _cannot be doubted_ that both
the simile and the expression of it in the Epistle of St. James were
derived from Ecclesiasticus." And then he gives some more coincidences
between the two writings, and sums up thus: "But if the result is to
_prove beyond doubt_ the familiarity of St. James with a book which at
the time was evidently in wide circulation, it exhibits with even
greater clearness the immense spiritual difference between the
standpoint occupied in Ecclesiasticus and that in the Epistle of
St. James."[39] And Archdeacon Farrar quotes with approval an estimate
that St. James "alludes more or less directly to the Book of the
Wisdom of Solomon at least five times, but to the Book of
Ecclesiasticus more than fifteen times.... The fact is the more
striking because in other respects St. James shows no sympathy with
Alexandrian speculations. There is not in him the faintest tinge of
Philonian philosophy; on the contrary, he belongs in a marked degree
to the school of Jerusalem. He is a thorough Hebraiser, a typical
Judaist. All his thoughts and phrases move normally in the Palestinian
sphere. This is a curious and almost unnoticed phenomenon. The
"sapiential literature" of the Old Testament was the _least_
specifically Israelite. It was the direct precursor of Alexandrian
morals. It deals with mankind, and not with the Jew. Yet St. James,
who shows so much partiality for this literature, is of all the
writers of the New Testament the least Alexandrian, and the most
Judaic."[40]
Let us endeavour to form an opinion for ourselves; and the only way in
which to do this with thoroughness is to place side by side, in the
original Greek, the passages in which there seems to be coincidence
between the two writers. Want of space prevents this from being done
here. But some of the most striking coincidences shall be placed in
parallel columns, and where the coincidence is inadequately
represented by the English Version the Greek shall be given also.
Other coincidences, which are not drawn out in full, will be added, to
enable students who care to examine the evidence more in detail to do
so without much trouble. Two Bibles, or, still better, a Septuagint
and a Greek Testament, will serve the purpose of parallel columns.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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