Exegesis of James
I. Background
The exegete of Holy Scripture in order to properly understand the full meaning of the passage must have a thorough knowledge of the background of the passage. It is important to know the author, intended readers and hearers, date, place of writing, occasion and purpose, and the literary genre of the passage. This paper will do all of these in a way that will give the reader a clear understanding of all that is necessary and important to know and understand about the background information on the epistle of James. Also, this paper will give an outline of James 4:1-10 , a paraphrase and exegetical notes on the passage.
Authorship
The author of the book of James, Iakobos in the Greek, does not identify himself clearly. This leaves the task of sorting through the facts known to deductively decide the author of the book of James. There are four probable James in the New Testament. One James is James the son of Zebedee. This James was a brother to John and also one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ. A second James is James the son of Alphaeus. Also an apostle, James the Son of Alphaeus, was mentioned only in the list of the apostles. Some equate this James with 'James the younger' in Mark 15:40 while others consider James the younger a separate man. A third is James the Father of Judas. This is not Judas Iscariot. This James is named as one of the twelve apostles in Luke 6:16. The fourth is James the Lord's brother. While Jesus was involved in his earthly ministry his brothers, including James, were not believers, but after Jesus death James quickly rose into prominent position in the Jerusalem church (Moo19-20; Lea519-520).
The most likely of the four James mentioned to ...
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...d enemies of God. James ends in this passage of scripture with an exhortation to the Christians to return to God in humbleness, and He will receive them with love.
Bibliography:
Works Cited
Davids, Peter. New International Greek Commentary on James. Grand Rapids, MI : Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1982
Laws, Sophie, Harpers New Testament Commentary on James. San Francisco, CA: Harper and Rows Publishing., 1980.
Lea, Thomas D. The New Testament: Its background and Message. Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1996.
Moo, Douglas J. James: Tyndale New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press, 1996.
Nystrom, David. James. NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing, 1997.
Zodhiates, Spiros. The Complete Wordstudy Dictionary. Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishing, 1993.
Carson, D. A. New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition. 4th ed. Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994.
The Gospel of John, the last of the four gospels in the Bible, is a radical departure from the simple style of the synoptic gospels. It is the only one that does not use parables as a way of showing how Jesus taught, and is the only account of several events, including the raising of Lazarus and Jesus turning water into wine. While essentially the gospel is written anonymously, many scholars believe that it was written by the apostle John sometime between the years 85 and 95 CE in Ephesus. The basic story is that of a testimonial of one of the Apostles and his version of Jesus' ministry. It begins by telling of the divine origins of the birth of Jesus, then goes on to prove that He is the Son of God because of the miracles he performs and finally describes Jesus' death and resurrection.
...yne A. The HarperCollins Study Bible New Revised Standard Edition . New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993. 1645-1722. Print.
New International Version. [Colorado Springs]: Biblica, 2011. BibleGateway.com. Web. 3 Mar 2011. Accessed 22 April 2014.
James I was born in 1566 and died in 1625. He belonged to the House of Stuart along with all the other Kings of Scotland and a few from England. James I became the King of England when Elizabeth I, his cousin, died. This happened in the year 1603. When he took over the English throne, he was also the King of Scotland and ruled under the name of King James IV. He ruled both England and Scotland until he died. Charles I, James’s son, was the successor to both of the thrones. James believed in the divine right of kings, the ability to rule as a king from God, not the people. James had many thing named after him, and Jamestown is probably the most famous other that the King James Version of the Bible.
Metzger, B. (1997). The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance. New York.
Toronto: Bucknell University Press, 1990. p. 102-115. New Testament of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Nashville: National Publishing, Inc. Company, c. 1968. -
New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1997. Osborne, Grant R. Revelation. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2002.
Bromiley, Geoffrey William, Fredrich, Gerhard, Kittel, Gerhard. “Theological Dictionary of the New Testament.” Struttgart, Germany. W. Kohlhammer Verlag. 1995. Print.
Carson, D, & Moo, D. (2005) An introduction to the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
New Testament. Vol. 2. Edited by Gerhard Kittel. Translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1964.
Collins, John J. A Short Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2007.
Talbert, Charles H. Ephesians and Colossians. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007The New Interpreter's Bible: General Articles and Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections for Each Book of the Bible, Including the Apocryphal deuterocanonical Books. Vol. XI. Nashville: Abingdon Press, ©1994-2004.
Holy Bible: Contemporary English Version. New York: American Bible Society, 1995. Print. (BS195 .C66 1995)
REFLECTION ON A HOMILY BY GREGORY THE GREAT In Gregory’s homily it seems the congregation has trouble understanding the command of our Lord to love as He has. This entails loving even our enemies as Christ has. Yet, how do we love those who harm us? Often we believe that any harm to us demands a distorted form of justice.