Criswell Theological
Review 1.1 (1986) 113-135.
Copyright © 1986 by The
JAMES, THE WISDOM OF JESUS
JOHN
A. BURNS
I. Introduction
The Scope and Purpose
When
the Epistle of James is studied, it is regarded as a book of
wisdom. But what kind of wisdom is it? With what
biblical parallels
can it be connected? Given that it is practical,
with what matters does it
register concern? Does it speak directly to all
mankind or is it specifi-
cally directed to the
believer? Are the issues that presented themselves
to the 1st century church pertinent for this
century? It is the intention of
this article to speak to the foregoing questions.
It has always been difficult to
trace the outline as found in this
epistle. While it is not the purpose of this
article to trace the argument
of James as it develops, one cannot ignore the
importance of develop-
ing arguments within the
epistle. The wise man desires bases on which
he can affirm his spiritual vitality. The book of
James presents the tests
of faith. As the believer encounters opportunities
to walk in wisdom,
and employs the provisions given by the Lord,
genuine growing faith
will be evident. Faith always is appropriated in
concrete circumstances
applied to specific attitudes and acts.
The Wisdom Tradition in
the Ancient World
Collections of wise sayings were
found in every part of the OT
and NT biblical worlds.1 In its subject
matter, the sayings of the wise
embraced one's practical, everyday conduct and
gave advice about
proper behavior in the royal courts. Its message was
ostensibly simple:
1 R. B. Y. Scott, The Way of Wisdom in the Old Testament (
1971) 23f.
114
CRISWELL THEOLOGICAL
REVIEW
whoever takes this counsel is "wise,"
whoever ignores wisdom's warn-
ing is a "fool."
The OT expects the father of the family to teach his
children these words, e.g., "my son" Prov 1:8-9:18; 22:17-24:22.
Most
of the proverbs of ancient literatures, including the OT, are
short statements which pertain to the varied facets
of life. These are
sayings which describe the successful life--which
can be learned
through the pursuit of wisdom.
Wisdom in the OT
The object of OT wisdom is twofold:
1. To instruct the student to
explore life's meaning through reflec-
tion, inquiry, and debate.
2. To guide the learner in living,
through the rules of God's moral
order.
The Wisdom literature of the OT is
usually a reference to the
books of Ecclesiastes, Job, certain Psalms (19; 27;
104; 107; 147; 148),
and especially the book of Proverbs. Also, there
are books of Hebrew
literature outside the OT canon which are cast in
this literary mold.
Wisdom in the NT
Of the books of the NT, James is
often identified as an example of
wisdom literature.2 There is no question
that this epistle, as other
portions of the NT (e.g., 1 Cor
1-4 and the Sermon on the Mount), are
of the essence of divine wisdom. It is another
matter to identify
the epistle of James as wisdom literature, since
this is a literary
classification.
II. The Wisdom Tradition and James
There are a number of differences
between the characteristics of
Wisdom
literature and James that disqualify it as Wisdom literature,
though, of course, this epistle presents the wisdom of
God. The
following observations should be considered:
1. James does not exhibit the
paternal tone (e.g., "my son") found
often in Wisdom literature. In fact, there is no
emphasis on any age
group.
2. There is an absence of rhetorical
questions in James' argument
and in his introduction (cf. Prov
1:22).
3. There is a congratulatory and
often exclamatory form of speech
employed in Wisdom literature, as in Prov 3:13 and 28:19. This form is
2 Donald W. Burdick, "James" in The Expositor's Bible Commentary, (12 vols;
Burns: JAMES, THE WISDOM
OF JESUS 115
also found in the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the
Mount, but it is a
form never found in James.
4. The four key words of Prov 1:6, showing the various literary
forms employed in Proverbs, are: proverbs (Hebrew masal), parables
(melisa),
wise words and riddles, verbal puzzles (hida).
The most important of these forms is
the masal, “likeness,
com-
parison.” It is often expressed
in verse couplets. Other masal
expres-
sions emphasize contrast,
antithesis3 (Prov 10:1; 25:1; 26:11).
James
does not employ such literary devises as these
models or paradigms.
5. The message of James is not
formed around the figures of the
wise and the simple, a frequent device to teach
truth in the wisdom
literature (Prov 10:1).
Also, varieties of poetic
parallelism, including numerical paral-
lelism, commonly used in
stating the sentiments of OT wisdom, do not
appear in James.
What does the absence in James of
structures, forms and vocabu-
lary common to OT wisdom
literature indicate? It means that James is
not fashioned after, nor dependent on, an OT model.4
There is no
adequate reason why the NT should include
literature cast in the same
form as Proverbs, Job or Ecclesiastes. The epistle
of James gains no
advantage in imitating the wisdom formulas. If the
author wished to
cast his epistle after the wisdom model, he would
have made use of its
peculiar literary features.
Literary Parallels in
James
The Old Testament. Of course
James, like the rest of the NT,
breathes the wisdom of God, but its literary
characteristics are indica-
tive of NT forms of
expression, even though the writer of this epistle
has been steeped in OT and Incarnational
thought.
James was familiar with the Hebrew
OT as well as the LXX. His
vocabulary of 570 words includes 73 of which are
not used in the rest of
the NT--and 46 of that number are found in the LXX.
Certain
idiomatic Hebraisms are frequent.5 It
should be noted that OT per-
sonages are employed as illustrations.
The book of James cannot be
explained as a reapplication of the
OT message. The Epistle's author reflects the
teaching of Jesus Christ
too broadly to allow that conclusion.
3 Samuel P. Tregelles, Gesenius' Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testa-
ment Scriptures (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1949) 517.
4 James Hardy Ropes, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the
Epistle of St.
James (ICC; Edinburgh: T.
& T. Clark, 1971) 18-19.
5 James Adamson, The Epistle of James (NIC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976) 18.
116
CRISWELL THEOLOGICAL
REVIEW
The New Testament. It is clear
that James preserves directly the
truth (some call it tradition, possibly a neutral
term) of Jesus. This is the
immediate background of the wisdom of James, rather
than the OT.
But
this Epistle does not rest on the four Gospels, nor on
the full range
of the Synoptics--it
reflects the specific teaching of Jesus in the Sermon
on the Mount and a few other loci.6
It seems better, then, to refer to
James as NT wisdom, or the
wisdom of Jesus. It is well to remember that Jesus
heightened the
ethical demands (Matt 5-7; Luke 6) for his
disciples far above the
nature and scope of application of the OT. Like Jesus,
James expects
his teaching to produce an altered, new life. In
fact, James' wisdom
specifies how the believer lives to please God. In
the light of the
Father's
constant presence and in view of His coming at the eschaton
(the consummation, the Judge of the ages), the believer must
not
merely think but must live in a way which honors God.
III. Wisdom in James' Epistle
The effective means by which a
believer becomes practically wise
is prayer (1:5). If God is seen as the source of
all provision, then the
superintendence by His will offsets the
human desire to prosper apart
from God's wise provision.
The Way of Wisdom
J
(Matt
18:18-20; 21:22 // Mark 11:24; John 14:13-14; 15:7 and 16:23).
These
are promises based on the believer's relationship to God. Because
of this personal dimension, the prayer of faith is
effective in securing
both daily wisdom (1:5) and in the cure of the
repentant, ailing sinner
(5:15).
Such an extreme measure in that believer's life calls
forth the
demonstration of wisdom in a changed
life, a living statement of faith
in the wisdom of God.
The well-debated passage 2:18-26,
especially v 20, is written to the
brethren (2:15) with the idea of the fulfilled
Christian life in mind. The
vain man is one in whom there is no recognizable
fulfillment of the
divine purpose (1:4; 3:2). God's intention includes
both the forensic
righteousness conferred on the
believer by God and the practical
demonstration of applied
righteousness by the wise believer.7 Paul,
too, stresses both elements: being a child and
living like a child of God.
6 Peter W. Davids, "James and Jesus" in Gospel Perspectives, Vol. 5 (
JSOT
Press, 1984) 66-67.
7 Leslie Mitton, The Epistle of James
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1966) 103.
Burns: JAMES, THE WISDOM
OF JESUS 117
Practical
righteousness is the wise life; it is characterized by freedom
from one's limitations and is a life dependent on
God, who is the author
of all good (1:17).
The subjects which
concern the wise believer are: the source of
wisdom, regeneration, the nature and use of God's
Word, the control of
one's response to others (especially favoritism), the
response of
righteous faith, the error of grasping at life
apart from the will of God,
and the confession of sin.
James presents the two ways of life
available to the believer: there
are two ways to deal with trials and temptations,
to respond to God's
Word, to relate to wealth, to approach faith,
and to use the tongue.
There
is a choice between "wisdoms," and between the two ways to
cope with one's desires. Also, there are
alternatives to the tendency to
judge, to be arrogant, and to be self-centered.
Finally, James reminds
us of the alternatives to impatience, deception,
and to the bondages of
prayerlessness.
These two ways of life are not
simply presentations of an inferior
and a superior lifestyle. The wisdom of the
individual materializes:
should he or she choose the prayer path? Spiritual
gain or loss will
result. However, what James presents is not an option
for the believer--
it is obligatory. The necessity of a Christian
lifestyle is indicated by the
frequency of James' injunctions; there are
fifty-four imperatives in one
hundred eight verses. James reproves, rebukes
and exhorts through the
use of the prohibitive subjunctive.8
The commands address the thoughts,
emotions and the activity of
the will. Some of these commands emphasize one's
attitude, while
others specify individual acts. At times, the nature
of the word-
meaning demands a complex idea of the attitude
with acts growing
therefrom. Of course, in dealing
with the Christian personality, the
total personality of body, soul and spirit, are
included in any response
to God's Word. At tUnes
there are distinct emphases which involve one
aspect of the personality more than the others.
The Attitude of the Wise
Christian
The word (1:2) for testing is peirasmo<j;9 some have taken this
word to mean only or principally
"persecution." However, that posi-
tion ignores an entire range
of human experiences which require
wisdom. Secondly, it would require an unnecessarily
late date for
James,
one which would allow for later developments of persecution
8 H. E. Dana and J. Mantey, A Manual Grammar of
the Greek New Testament
(Toronto: Macmillan, 1955) 171.
9 H. Seesemann, "[peira" TDNT
6 (1968) 23-26.
118
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REVIEW
beyond the local (less intensive) level. Thirdly, this
word is used of
common circumstances of misfortune (peirasmo<j) in Plutarch's
work.10
The
term then covers a range of experiences from internal, moral
pressure to exterior circumstances and, whenever
indicated context-
ually, to persecution. This
first of James' tests of faith concerns faith
under pressure (chap 1).
What should be the wise believer's
attitude in response to dis-
appointments, sorrows, hardships,
persecutions, and temptations?
James
(1:2) says the response should be joy--not just joy at the end of
the experience but throughout it all (indicated by
the present participle
"knowing"). The verb describing the expressed response
is an aorist
tense, indicating that on each occasion of danger to
the soul the trial
should be counted joy. Counting it joy is prescribed,
not suggested.11
"Counting"
is a bookkeeping term; it emphasizes what one must
conclude, perhaps regardless of what one
observes. These conscious
acts are possible--because there is happiness in
experiencing whatever
contributes to the Christian's spiritual growth.
This understanding of
happiness is traceable to Jesus' Beatitudes where
the blessed man (cf.
Ps
1) rejoices under unusual circumstances. The Christian attitude
expresses itself in decisive, conscious acts,
rejoicing in the opportunity
they provide for the Lord to work His blessing in
their growth: "that
they might be complete" (i!na h#te
te<leioi).
Wisdom and Testing
In the midst of this opportunity for
growth, there are two areas of
danger. The first area of danger (1:2) is that the
testing will suddenly
and frequently (o!tan) overtake us. The word
"fall" (peripe<shte)
in
classical Greek designates an unplanned and
undesirable event;12 in 2
Macc 10:4, it describes
The
only other NT use of the word "fall" describes the ambush of the
man who "fell" among thieves on the
Jerusalem-Jericho road (Luke
10:30).
The strength of a testing often is that we never know
when it
will occur.
The predicament caused by testing
points out that wisdom will be
necessary. The verb "to ask" occurs twice
in 1:5-6 (both present
imperatives); seeking wisdom from the giving-God is
the normal
procedure.
The second danger (1:4) is that the
believer will seek God's
wisdom, but will stop seeking and applying God's
wisdom before it has
10 LSJ
1221.
11 Joseph B. Mayor, The Epistle of St. James (Grand Rapids:Zondervan, 1954) 33.
12 LSJ
1249.
Burns: JAMES, THE WISDOM
OF JESUS 119
fully accomplished its purposes, a perfect work (e@rgon te<leion). The
command is to "keep on letting patience achieve"
God's intention
(e]xe<tw). Wisdom is given to
teach us proper attitudes. It is possible that
we will not allow the full extent of God's
purposes. This failure of faith
may cause us to (1) lie our way out of further
distresses, (2) simply
give up under pressure, and (3) to yield to
self-pity, bitterness and
discontent, rather than to patience.
It is God's wisdom to insist on
faith, suggested by the present tense
of the imperative: "let him continue to ask
in faith" (1:6). It refers to a
simple act of coming to Jesus with a specific need in
mind, knowing
that a partnership has been formed through
confidence in Him. When
one is characterized by wavering (1:6), there is no
such confidence that
the prayer will be heeded, that one cannot decide whether
to trust God
or not. A sea rages within him but without
resolution; there is only
unsettled behavior. Continual hesitation does not
promote fellowship
with God. This is contrary to wisdom.
Wisdom as Skill
There is necessary activity and
persistence in the exercise of
wisdom. In Matt 26:39 and Luke 22:42, Jesus prays
unwaveringly for
wisdom, "not my will. . . ." Note Peter's
hesitation and its consequences
(Matt
14:25-31). The wise are only so when they act
wisely. James
instructs us to learn attitudes as a part of
wisdom.
The word "wisdom" is used
only twice in James (1:5 and 3:13-18),
but the concept is developed throughout the book.
Wisdom in the
secular sense was used to designate one's skill
in an art or handicraft; it
had reference to the most exact sciences. It was
also employed in a
religious sense of the Divine essence of pure and
immutable being. In
that application, wisdom indicated the most envied
and elevated
existence. The idea of wisdom occurs extensively
in the LXX. The
verb, noun and adjective complex occurs over 300
times, most often in
the wisdom books, but quite frequently in the
historical books.13 There
it specifies technical skill and knowledge as, for
example, in describing
the ability of the Tabernacle's craftsmen, such as Oholiab and Bezalel.
The
prominent ideas specified are those of experience in life, with its
problems, and of success in living. Emphasis is
heavily on the side of
activity rather than thought. Wisdom is revealed
by practice and in
personal piety.
Though wisdom describes innate
skill, clever conduct, and a
knowledge of culture, the OT speaks often of the
wisdom possessed by
13 Edwin Hatch and Henry
A. Redpath, A
Concordance to the Septuagint (3 vols;
Rapids: Baker, 1983) 2. 1278-81.
120
CRISWELL THEOLOGICAL
REVIEW
God
and the wise response expected in His creatures as they honor His
Word.
Wisdom and Obedience
In the NT, the wisdom in which Jesus
grew continually was also
obedience to the revealed Word of God (Luke 2:40).14
His under-
standing and use of God's wise revelation caused
his enemies to marvel
(Mark
6:2). Stephen manifests God's wisdom in his witness. Paul
expounds the theology of wisdom, especially as it
relates to Christian
growth. The wisdom of the Lamb in the Revelation of
John specifies
his ability to interpret the mysteries of the last
times.
James' epistle emphasizes wisdom in
living out the life of Christ in
ordinary human circumstances. It is the wisdom
that comes from God;
it is opposed to the wisdom of this world; it does
not serve those who
champion the other, immoral "wisdom."
The wisdom of which James speaks
does not derive from human
experience; it is not selfish. It signifies a
spiritual understanding of
God's
will for man's life and a welcome compliance in the whole of
one's life.
What effect does wisdom have on
one's attitudes and ensuing
actions? James warns against faulty judgments of
boasting and self-
deception. There are six imperatives in Jas
1:9-22, all but one of them
in the present tense; the exception is de<casqe
in 1:21. This pas-
sage shows examples of how to cope with temptations
to double-
mindedness.
In 1:9-11, the example of failure to
trust God (double-mindedness)
concerns material wealth and its accompanying
prestige.15 James,
throughout this epistle, as here, presents the
tests of faith, the evidences
by which we can be assured that our faith is
actively single-minded, the
opposite of diakrino<menoj.
In 1:9, the second of four uses of
the conjunction de< appears; each one
indicates a new development in the argument in
this section of the
book (1:5, 9, 19 and 22).
Wisdom and Wealth
Rather than telling fellow
Christians that it is permissible to
assume a low profile, though they are socially insignificant,
he com-
mands each one to
"glory" or "boast" (a word used most often in Paul's
epistles in a pejorative sense). God is to be
glorified, of course, not
14 U. Wilckens,
"Swfi<a" TDNT 7 (1971) 496-528.
15 Bo Reicke,
The Epistles of James, Peter and Jude (AB;
Garden City: Doubleday,
1964) 15.
Burns: JAMES, THE WISDOM
OF JESUS 121
because of one's poverty in contrast to the
affluence and influence of
others, but because God's plan for such ones is the
equality to be found
in Christ. His acceptance in the Son is intended
to sustain him amid
testing. Without this support, he may be tempted
to seek a solution in
opting for a security similar to the influential man
who depends on
wealth and influence to extricate him from potential troubles.
Lest the
"rich" man seek to settle his problems apart from the
Lord's wisdom,
James
(1:10) reminds him to exult in the position he shares with his less
able brother. Both rich and poor have access and are
equally dependent
on the provision of God. Matt 5:12 has a similar
command to the
spiritually alert to exult, knowing that the wages
for life's experience
are not payable on earth. In J
God,
either through practiced intrigue or despondency which may
even lead him to think God has forsaken him (1:13).
The physical
dimensions of life are transitory--this realization
is a mark of wisdom
(1:11;
see also 5:1-6). The error (1:16) against which James warns
seems best related to the foregoing section where a
careless believer.
allows faithlessness to grow to fruition. Vv 13-15
contain several
negative notes, while those of vv 17-1.8 are
positive. The command is
properly rendered "Stop being deceived"
(1:16).16 Deception is a token
of the unused provision of wisdom.
Wisdom and Rank
The wise instructor commands (1:19)
the demonstration of God's
mind in the believer's conduct. The gifts of God and
the birth by God
are sufficient to produce a life reflecting a
relationship with God. The
wise Christian has a distinctive purpose (note the
parallel constructions
of
ei]j
to> to with the infinitive) in living.17
The last construction with ei]j is
changed from an infinitive to a noun (o]rgh<) to introduce emphatically
the subject of the next section (1:20-27) with its
warning against wrath
in speech and conduct (1:26). Reception of the
Word of God results in
the traits of a Rabbi's good pupil as one who
is" . . . quick to hear, slow
to forget. . . ."18 However, James
upgrades the word "forget" to
"speak," which in this context is the hesitation to
speak rashly or in
anger. He also adds a warning against acts of wrath
which are the result
of self-assertion as over against God's will.
16 Peter W. Davids, Commentary on
James (NIGTC;
1982)
86.
17 Arthur Carr, The General Epistle of James (CGT;
1899) 22.
18 APOT
707.
122
CRISWELL THEOLOGICAL
REVIEW
Wisdom and Growth
The counsel of God's wisdom aims at
implanting His word into toe
Christian's
character (e@mfuton) in 1:21.19 The "rooted word"--that is its
nature--is welcomed (de<casqe)
into a life, like elements of nutrition
being continually absorbed into a plant to make it
grow.
The element which makes this
growth-pattern possible is "meek-
ness" (1:21). Jesus calls himself
"meek" in Matt 11:29; He places
"meekness" in the forefront of the qualities of the
"blest" (Matt 5:4, 5).
It
is willingness to acknowledge the will of God in one's life, the
opposite of the exercise of anger (3:13, 17), and
is an expression of
righteousness (1:20).20
The potency of the "rooting-word" results in the
character of Christ transforming (sw<zw) the entire life of the
Christian
(yu<xh). The intended goal for
the believer is not learning; it is deeds
(1:22).
Just as spiritually unproductive as
double-mindedness is the
attempt to combine faithfulness to Christ, in
other connections, with
unfaithfulness in relations with other
Christians. The second test of
faith relates to the deceptively gentle pressure of
favoritism (chap 2).
Believers
are admonished to stop trying (e@xete) to combine faith in
Christ
with the discrimination of persons (2:1). This snobishness
ignores
injustice for fear of the powerful (2:6). Such
conduct respects the
person of man, but disrespects the person of God.
These perpetrators
are judges with evil thoughts (2:4).
In one of three OT quotations in
James (2:8-11), there is evidence
of Semitic grammatical influence: the future is
used as a categorical
imperative, "love your neighbor." 21
The form emphasizes the exercise
of the will; it is a command. The emphasis on a
controlled use of the
will is seen in these imperative verbs of
"saying" and "doing" (2:12). A
third test focuses on personal commitment (2:14-26).
The believer
"enwisened," recognizes the
unity of the Law which reflects the unity
of the Law-giver's will. Believers are to be
influenced by God's wisdom
so that they won't express their impatience with
those in need (2:16).
The
language here was used to let one know he was being dismissed.
The
next word in the imperative (u[pa<gw)was
used to say goodbye to
beggars. It signaled that contact with the
needy-one was over; the
subject was closed. Wisdom should control the
emotions. Wishing the
19 Sophie Laws, The Epistle of James (HNTC;
1980) 82.
20 BAGD
704.
21 W. E. Oesterley, "The General Epistle of James" The Expositor's Greek New
Testament (5 vols;
Burns: JAMES, THE WISDOM
OF JESUS 123
one who needs warm clothing and sufficient food to
have them
indicates only a hearer not a doer of the Word.
The word "comforted"
(xorta<zesqe) means, "to feed
someone until they are full" (2:16).22 It is
no more excusable to ignore God's revealed will in
respect to treatment
of people's needs ("loving one's
neighbor") than it is to reject God's
admonitions not to murder and to avoid adultery
(2:11).
The emphasis of the verb "to
have" (2:18) shows what potentially
belongs to one. The chiastic structure of these
verses (2:18-26) means
to tie faith to works inseparably. Without faith,
there would be no
reason to do any works. Also, without faith, there
would be no relation
to the dynamic power necessary to perform the
works. It is also
necessary to recall the sort of works expected in
this passage: "saying"
and "doing" what the principle of love
demands. The point is not just
to do what man will see, but what God expects the
result of their faith
to be also (2:20). Personal commitment to God
moves beyond empty
claims (2:18) either to man or to God. The vain man is
one who does
not employ wisdom (2:20). It is interesting that Abrah