Customer Reviews

The Letter of James: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (Anchor Bible, Vol 37A)

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A reader who encounters the Epistle of St. James without preconceptions is unlikely to see anything in it that would account for its position as one of the most disputed and problematic works in the New Testament canon. On the surface, the book is a series of apparently disjointed reflections and injunctions, emphasizing the absolute goodness of God, human responsibility for sin, the need to restrain intemperate speech and other passions, and the deadness of religious faith that does not lead to action on behalf of the poor and suffering. Both form and content reflect what one would expect from a very early Christian writing in the tradition of Jewish Wisdom literature.

If the same reader consults the typical modern commentary, he will get a very different picture: of a pseudonymous composition, dating from as late as 150 A.D., whose real point is to attack the theology of St. Paul (which is allegedly either misrepresented or misunderstood). This negative view goes back as far as Martin Luther, who branded James "a right strawy epistle" and only reluctantly included it in his translation of the Bible.

Luke Timothy Johnson's commentary ably defends the epistle against its detractors and reveals the profound beauty of its thought. In a lucid fashion, with almost (but only almost) no academic jargon and turgidity (he really ought to find synonyms for "rich" as an adjective and worry less about James' failure to use "gender-neutral" language), Johnson presents a wealth of information about the epistle's literary and historical background, its reception by the Church and its place in Christian thought and worship. Especially acute is his analysis of James' line of argument, which he shows to be remarkably coherent, albeit not linear and easy to grasp.

There has lately been a revival of scholarly interest in James, "the Brother of the Lord". Before turning to the solid but plodding John Painter ("Just James") or the wild-eyed Robert Eisenman, one would do well to absorb Johnson's thorough and informative study.

No one to date has argued for the unity of the argument of the letter of James more systematically and more cogently than L. T. Johnson. While M. Dibelius' atomized reading of James continues to dominate the critical approach, Johnson's rejection of his basic premise that James is a series of unrelated moral exhortations is both fresh and appealing. Johnson's well-researched historical scholarship is balanced by his close reading of the text. Johnson discovers the overarching theme of the message of James in the antithesis between friendship with the world and friendship with God (Jas 4:4). The unity of James' argument is discovered in the injunction against "double-mindedness," the attempt to live according to two perceptions or measures of reality (or two "wisdoms": the world's measure and God's measure. James' discussion of faith and works fits this overall framework, directed against those who claim to embrace God's measure (faith), but whose works reveal another wisdom at work in their members.

Johnson could have followed through on a number of exegetical issues he just touches on. For example his identification of the OT prophetic idiom in James' call to covenant conversion (Jas 4:7-10) is a promising avenue which he fails to explore. Johnson is also inconsistent in his thesis that James is a protreptic discourse, an address to a community of profession (i.e. "the faith of Jesus Christ" (Jas 2:1)) calling for consistency of life with profession. Johnson fails adequately to take into consideration the particular address to "the twelve tribes of the diaspora" (Jas 1:1) governs the scope of the discussion as it limits James' audience. Where, however, he does remember his thesis, the commentary is very insightful and profitable.

As with the Anchor Bible series a familiarity with theological idiom and a basic understanding of Greek is requisite.

Overall, this is an excellent commentary. I am using it along with 2 others in study of James. Johnson is long on technical and historical background, but is often short on application. Once in a while, verse background is quite brief, and I've found this at times when I was looking for more.

The introduction is second to none, with Johnson's survey of the interpretation of James of highest value. Johnson explodes the myth of the Paul vs. James debate, demonstrating that this is purely a modern controversy thrust on the text. Johnson further shows that from a historical perspective, that the faith vs. works debate, is also a modern development. The church through the ages has held that these two emphases of salvation and their authors have never been viewed as contradictions.

This is the most comprehensive James commentary currently on the market, plain and simple. It offers an extended meditation not only on how the letter of James fits into the New Testament, something all commentaries engage, but it also succinctly incorporates an impressive milieu of works contemporary to James that help to flesh out both its composition and its meaning.

Furthermore, scholarship in the Epistle of James has been notoriously focused on the "James v. Paul" fight, while ignoring some of the unique qualities of the letter that make it what it is. Johnson expertly engages the Pauline question without dwelling on it, and places, rightly so, the emphasis back squarely on the letter itself, letting its theological voice be heard in its own right.

For anyone serious in the area of biblical studies who wants an insightful and deep commentary on one of the most controversial and neglected works of the NT, I recommend this work highly.

Luke Timothy Johnson is a very much respected NT scholar from Candler School of Theology. When you take and read his commentary on James it feels that the author put all his heart in writing this commentary. The commentary is very informed and attractive. L. T. Johnson is conservative and humble while discussing the authorship of James. He identifies the author as James the brother of Jesus and proves it. L. T. Johnson's chapter on history of interpretation is really good, because the author shows to the readers how the letter of James was understood during the history of Christianity. L. T. Johnson use a big amount of sources in studies of James and interacts with them but always shows his opinion. If you want to have a solid work on James buy L. T. Johnson's work. D. Moo, C. Blomberg and L. Johnson are very solid and conservative works on James.

There is a very thorough scholarly introduction to the epistle with discussions on the relationship between James and Paul and the highly influential 19th century interpetation of F.C. Baur and his "Early Catholicism" that depicted James at war with Paul and the Gentile party.

The commentator dispels such antiquated fantasies about James and Paul and argues that James and Paul are not at odds, but share different concerns. James's discussion of justification is not at odds with Paul's. This is all the more impressive since the author is a Roman Catholic.

Originally published in 1995, Luke Timothy Johnson's `The Letter of James' is an instalment in the Anchor Bible commentary series. For those unfamiliar with the author Johnson is a on a short list of leading contemporary `critical' New Testament scholar. The following comments pertain to the soft cover version of the text. Potential readers are well advised to peruse the available on-line portion of the text prior to purchase.

While providing a good overview of opposing interpretive opinions Johnson advocates early dating, traditional authorship and a generally unified reading of the James, as opposed many critical scholars who have tended to advocate a late, pseudonymous and discontinuous interpretation, in other words reading James as largely a response to Pauline theology.

As previous reviewers have noted this is an outstanding academic commentary within an excellent series (Anchor Bible). A knowledgeable commenter and skilled communicator Johnson's analysis is simply masterful - resulting in an invaluable resource to scholars and laymen alike. The text is laid out in what has become the standard format for modern commentaries; an introduction, situating the text and detailing issues such as socio-cultural context , authorship, dating, intended audience, historic reception and the like followed by an section by section translation and analysis of the text. The analysis in turn, is composed of notes and a commentary, the commentary being focused on broad issues of content and interpretation (of interest to all readers) while the notes examine issues of a more academic nature, i.e. manuscript variants, terminology and literary antecedents.

The one small criticism I have of the text is that of physical size - it is smaller than the hard-cover instalments I have in this series and the reduced size results in a dense 400 page text with tiny font. If cost is not a crucial issue I would suggest considering the hard-cover edition. Despite this small drawback, I highly recommend the text for readers seeking a good modern academic commentary on the letter of James

"..... Luke Timothy Johnson is Professor of New Testament at the Candler School of Theology, Emory University, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Hew has won Lilly Endowment fellowships and has WRITTEN NUMEROUS ARTICLES AND BOOKS ON THE NEW TESTAMENT FOR SCHOLARS AND LAYPEOPLE."

[from the book of the front flap]