Smit Partiality James

7/28/2019 Smit Partiality James

1/11

JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA 59

Exegesis and Proclamation

"ShOW no partiality ..." (James 2:1-13)

DJ. Smit

A. EXEGETICAL

In the Common Lectionary (1983) this pericope is prescribed for Proper 19, Year B.In the newest Lutheran lectionary it is used on Proper 18. Obviously, this adds nothingto the exegesis, and to the thrust of the proclamation, unless one takes the juxtaposition with the other readings into account, namely Proverbs 22:1 -2,8-9 and Psalm 125(Lesson 1) and Mark 8:27-38 (Gospel), according to the Common Lectionary. Sincethis reading forms part of a series of readings from James, Proper 18 until Proper 21,and the reading from Mark forms part of a series of readings from Mark 7:1 to Mark13:32, Proper 17 until Proper 28, it is however obvious that there is no logical relationintended between James 2 and the pericope from Mark.

The Common Lectionary refers only to verses 1 -5,8-10 and 14-17. It is not obviouswhy verses 6-7 and 11 -13 are left out, since they form an integral part of the pericope.In addition, it is not necessary to include verses 14-17. For the purposes of this discussion verses 1-13 will be taken as a unit.

1. It is notoriously difficult to find an overall theme or purposein James. "Those seeking an argument in James will be disappointed" (Johnson):

The teaching in James is not reducible to proposition or argument, but it was not meant to be. Asin all wisdom literature, its reference is not to logic but to life. Its statements are to be tested notagainst their internal consistency but against their correspondence to reality (Johnson).

Under the influence of form criticism, especially since Dibelius, it has been taken forgranted by most scholars that James belongs to a very special genre, and that it is "aparanetic document of instruction." This would mean that the ethical exhortations inJames are loose proverbs, without a definite order or theme, frequently joined with akey word as the only transition. In this, it strongly resembles Jewish wisdom literature(according to Spitta, Meyer, Windisch et al it probably ivas a Jewish document,although this point of view has been abandoned by many).

The result of this approach has been that scholarly work concentrated on finding the(wisdom) traditionsbehind the different, almost isolated proverbs and exhortations inJames. In the process, any idea of unity, coherence, thrust or perspective in James

has almost completely been discarded.


2/11

60 EXEGESIS & PROCLAMATION

Dibelius, in fact, in his influential thesis, explicitly rejected the idea of unity in James,arguing that it is simply a series of unrelated sections without any subordination, pattern or coherence The characteristics of paranesis, according to him, are "pervasiveeclecticism," "lack of continuity," "repetition of identical motifs in different places,"

and "the inability to construct a single frame" of audience and circumstances intowhich all the moral exhortations would fit

Against this backdrop, Frankemolle has recently made a very interesting contribution Using pragmatics as theoretical framework, and therefore starting from the conviction that authors do things withwords, with what they write, he argues that the scholarly research into the traditions of the exhortations has been legitimate and extremelyhelpful, but that it is necessary to go a step further According to him one must recognize that, ultimately, James is a single document, written by a particular person, witha specific rhetorical purpose, to an implicit audience

Precisely in the way this author uses, selects, combines, interprets and applies

traditional material, well-known to and accepted by the readers as well, one candetect the purposeof the writing, its thrust A question which has been neglected, butone which we must ask, says Frankemolle, is the question as to what the authorwanted to do with this writing, what the author wanted to strengthen in the readers/listeners and what he wanted to oppose, which kinds of conduct he wanted to criticiseand to which kinds of conduct he wanted to call them

Put differently, if indeed James' reference is "not to logic but to life," which kind oflife or praxis is he addressing and in which directions does he want that praxis to betransformed?

Frankemolle finds the answer to these basic questions in 1 1-12, James introduc

tion According to him, James provides the readers here, in a nutshell, with everythinghe is going to develop in more detail

Several other scholars have recently also argued for the fact that James is a carefully constructed work and that these introductory verses play an important role in thestructure, e g Francis, Adamson, Davids

What is the purpose of this "epistle"9 According to Frankemolle one finds hereimplicitly the description of a crisis in the congregation(s) and in the individual believers to whom James is writing they are divided in themselves, as individuals and ascongregations, they experience tensions and conflict

This lack of unity, coherence, integration, in themselves and amongst themselves,

comes to the fore in James in a variety of ways they experience temptations andtrials, they doubt and are tossed about, they lack wisdom, and claim wisdom but donot show it, they are unstable and double-minded, they are poor and/or rich and haveproblems with both, etcetera

It is with a view to this, says Frankemolle, that James exhorts them He wants tohelp them to deal with these conflicts and this lack of integration In 1 4 he uses twoimportant words, teleion and holoklros, "perfect" and "complete", which arerepeated and emphasized throughout the epistle, and which clearly demonstrate hispurpose He wants them to be perfectand complete, as individuals ad communitiesHe wants to transform their tensions, contradictions, conflicts into whole-ness, com-

plete-ness, integration, unity, peace, healingThroughout the epistle, the seemingly unrelated moral exhortations all deal withthese conflicts and this purpose of completeness unity and peace within them and


3/11


between groups and classes in the congregation(s), must be transformed into"peace, the harvest of righteousness" (3:18).

Many examples of these conflicts are given - between faith and works; confessionand action; prayer and life; wisdom and conduct; insight and deed - but they are all

related to a lack of solidarity amongst themselves, to conduct that is asocial and unbecoming - they reflect the divisions between rich and poor, wise and not-wise, leadersand powerless.

Frankemlle uses Theissen's well-known analyses of forms of early HellenisticChristianity to show that those Christians indeed had to deal with serious problems ofsolidarity and integration, because they, contrary to other religious groups of the time,did not limit their membership to people from a specific social class or life-sphere, butincluded everybody. Instead of being the religious component of a homogenoussocial group, restricting their worship as something "apart," they deliberately chose tobe heteronomous and to include everyone. This obviously caused serious and painful

problems for their internal coherence. The problems which James is addressing, areto be seen against this background, argues Frankemlle.

Of special importance is the way James tries to influence the readers/listeners. Intypical paranetic fashion, he does not claim to teach them something new, butreminds themofwhat they already know and accept and exhorts them to practiseimplement that knowledgeandthoseconvictions. In the well-known tradition of widom, he appeals to their own knowledge and almost common Christian sense. Thepoint is that he is trying to show them that they donot, in spite of whattheymaytlive according to the thingstheyclaim to believe, and that this is the causeofso moftheir difficulties with themselvesandwith oneanother.

Already in 1:22-25, he gives a deliberate clue to this, using the image of a mirror."The readers are reminded of what they already know and urged to act on that knowledge . . . The 'mirror of forgetting' in 1:23-24 at least suggests the motif of memory,so familiar in paranesis" (Johnson).

2. The thrustof this particular pericope, 2:1-13, is clear and it makes good senseagainst the background of Frankemlle's thesis. Part of the conflict among them iscaused by, but also demonstrated in, the fact that they showpartiality(verse 1 ), RSV,they act "with respect of persons," KJV, "theytreatpeople in different ways becausof their outward appearance, "TEV.

The clue is given in the expression prospolempsia, "Ansehen der Person,"Parteilichkeit, " "bezeichnet die WertungdesMenschen nicht nachdem, was esondern nachdem, waserbesitztundscheint,""partiality," "favouritism," "respectpersons," "aanneming van die persoon," or, in the excellent paraphrase of the TEV,"treating people in different ways because of their outward appearance."

In a literal sense, it means "to lift (someone's) face." In the background one can finda Hebrew construction, from the life-context of ceremonies of greeting in the ancientEast: someone falls on the ground to greet someone and the addressed person thenlifts the other's face by allowing them to get up, thereby acknowledging the personand granting respect and honour.

The common use in the Old Testement of the expression prospolempsia, "aanneming van die persoon," is therefore in judicial contexts, where it depicts unfairfavouritism towards some people especially the powerful and rich because they are


4/11


Contrasting this attitude is the action of God, who does not "judge with respect ofpeople," but impartially, which, inconcreto, means that God acts on behalf of the poorand downtrodden, the powerless and suffering, the marginalized, who "do not count,"who "do not receive respect and honour" according to the "normal" standards of

human societyThere are many examples from the Old Testament to demonstrate this tradition,forming the backdrop of James' exhortation Consider, for example, Lev 19 15, Deut1 17, Ex 23 2-3, and Deut 16 18-20

Jugdes shall judge the people with righteous judgement You shall not pervert justice youshall not show partiality, and you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise ansubverts the cause of the righteous Justice, and only justice, you shall follow that you may liveand inherit the land which the LORD your God gives you

Especially helpful to understand James' tradition, is Deut 10 17-19

For the LORD your God is God of gods and LORD of lords, the great, the mighty and the terribGod, who isnot partialand takes no bribe Heexecutesjustice for the fatherless and thewandloves thesojourner, giving himfood andclothing Love the sojourner therefore for yousojourners in the land of Egypt

Many of these thoughts are obviously present in James' exhortations In theimmediate preceding verse 1 27 he has called "pure and undefiled religion beforeGod and the Father" "to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world, this world or society that teaches one that the "normal"thing to do is to "act with respect to persons," to honour the rich and powerful, to show

partiality, to ignore "the orphans and the widows," in James days the socially powerless and marginalized, the people without faces, with influence, without "glorious outward appearance " "Pure and undefiled religion" is to let one's conduct be determined by God and not by the customs and practices of society at large

It may therefore be very deliberate that James refers to Jesus Christ, in verse 1, as(the Lord) "of glory," tes dokss Pure and undefiled religion is to let one's conduct bedetermined by the glory of Jesus Christ, the glory which they have seen, and not bythe (superficial) "glory" of the "glorious outward appearances" of the rich and powerful, even if the conduct of other people (who have not seen the glory of Christ) isindeed determined by their glory

3. The structure or logicof the pericope is clear as well In verse 1 he makes his basicclaim It is nothing new or exceptional, but an integral part of the Jewish and Christiantradition which they accept and affirm and he expects them to agree, without any hesitation

In verses 2-4 he gives one possible illustration of his point He does not say thatthey actually do precisely this, but it serves as a typical example of something thatmay happen among them He wants them to think about the implications of conductof that kind, and to recognize themselves in the mirror Verse 4 therefore provides theconclusion "Have you (in that case) not made distinctions among yourselves9"

In other words He assumes that they will definitely agree with his basic exhortation(verse 1 ) on impartiality They do not, however, according to him, practisewhat theybelieve and he wants them to see this discrepancy and to admit that The illustration


5/11


In verses 5-11 he changes toa different style of discourse. Instead of an example,he now uses the rhetoric of rational argument to try and convince them. He starts withthe friendly "Listen, my dear brothers."

One can distinguish three arguments:-The first one, 5b-6a, is that conduct of that kind contradicts God's own actions. Godchooses those whom the world regards as poor to be rich in faith, but they humiliatethe poor.That is inexplicable, since they ought to strive to follow God.

The second argument, 6b-7, appeals to their own experience. In chapter 5 he willreturn to that and treat it more extensively. Through the ages many people have hadthe same experience: Is it not the rich who oppress them, who drag them to court, whodespise the name in which they were baptized? The implication is clear: Why are theythen so overly friendly towards the rich - and at the same time insulting and withoutcare or sensitivity towards the poor?

The third argument, 8-11, is pastoral. Can they defend their conduct by saying thatthey are only loving their neighbour (the rich and powerful, coming into the worshipservice), thereby fulfilling God's own will for their lives? No, says James. That is nottheir real motive. There is something more at stake. It is a demonstration of their all toohuman partiality, the fact that they have learnt, like all people, that it is wise and cleverconduct to favour the rich and powerful, since they can perhaps award you, while youcan hardly expect anything from the poor, from orphans, widows, marginalized. Theydo not act out of neighbourly love, fulfilling God's will, but "they treat people in differentways according to their outward appearance," and thereby they "commit sin and areconvicted by the law as transgressors."

The conclusions of verses 12 and 13 are important. God's judgment is intimatelyrelated to the way we judge others. Partiality in our words and actions, leading to alack of mercy on our side, will result in a lack of mercy on the side of the impartial God.However, impartiality on our side, which, in effect, will mean a preferential option forthe poor, mercy towards those who "normally" do not count, will triumph in God'sjudgment.

The fact that he mentions both "speak" and "act" is noteworthy. The wrong use ofspeech, of "doing things with words," is extremely important for James and he willdeal with that again, in different contexts and in great detail.

This pericope, therefore, becomes the first of the important mirrors in which theyought to recognize themselves, in order to transform their own speech and conductaccordingly.

4. Exegetes disagree, however, on some questions of detail.

a. It is difficult to know to whom James is referring in his description of "the well-dressed man with gold rings." He does not explicitly call this person "rich", althoughhe calls the second person "a poor man, dressed in shabby clothing."

Some commentators have therefore argued that it is a Roman of equestrian rank,"a Roman politician being favored as he tries to influence the church" (Reicke).

Although this may be worth contemplating with a view to the sermon, it is not necessary to follow this suggestion.b. Closely related is the question concerning the nature of the "assembly" (2) or


6/11


James uses the term sunagge, synagogue, which is remarkable, since this is theonly use of sunagge for a Christian meeting in the New Testament and since Jamesdoes know the common term ekklsia (5 14), church, congregation

Again, commentators have offered different solutions Recently, Davids defended

the thesis (of W Ward) that the scene portrays not a worshiping congregation, buta judicial assembly

If one remembers that partiality in biblical literature almost exclusively concerns judicial settings and posits a Sitzim Leben of a church-court built upon and finding its legal basis inthe Jewish synagogue s beth-din, the example clarifies itself The assembly is a judicial assembly of the church and both litigants are strangers to the process

With a view to preaching, the example also makes perfect sense when applied to ameeting of worship, so that a final decision on this exegetical problem is not necessary

c. The expression diakrmomaiin verse 4 is important It is the same expressionused in the key-context of 1 6 where it is translated with "doubt " It also means "to bedivided," "double-hearted," mit sich selbst uneins sein, bei sich selbstUnterscheidungen machen "

The en heautois is therefore better translated with "among yourselves" than with"in yourselves," "in your hearts," "inside yourselves " The reference as a whole isthen to discriminating among themselves, which would mean that both parties wereChristian, thereby showing themselves to be judges with evilthoughts (4b), "evillymotivated" or "evil-thinking judges "

In diakrmomai, therefore, James combines the motifs of "wavering" (within them

selves) and "discriminating" (among themselves), both demonstrating their lack ofindividual and social integrity and whole-ness, leading to conflict within and amongthem

d. Many exegetes underscore the fact that the oppression by the rich which theyexperienced (6-7), was seemingly caused not only by the fact that they were believers, but (also) because they were poor

"We merken nog op, dat hier met Staat, dat de arme christenen voor de rechtbank gesleept weden, omdat ze christen waren Het gaat hier alleen om sociale eilende, maatschappelijk onrecht(Grosheide)

"If these Christians discriminate against the poor in such a fashion, they show themselves noton the side of the God who chose the poor, but on the side of the rich who persecute the churc

The church knew well that God has chosen the poor The concept of election was deeply rootedin both Jewish and Christian thought God chose Israel and thus the Jews thought of themselvesas God s elect Likewise God has chosen groups for his new people and one of the favoredgroups is 'the poor This election is based on the Old Testament passages in which God is saidto care for the poor and the resulting fact that 'poor' became a term for the pious Thisbackground naturally stands behind Jesus declaration of the election of the poor and Jesusdeclaration is certainly behind James statement

The rich oppress the church, no distinction is made between oppression because they are poor

and oppression because they are Christian Nor should there be, for the charge stems from theOT tradition of the oppression of the poor by the wealthy This is precisely the context in whichtheverb katadunasteuoo frequently appears in the LXX


7/11


oppressor as wealthy and powerful, however, and so it is not surprising to find the title 'rich' usedin the intertestamental period .. ." (Davids).

B. HERMENEUTICAL

1. The way James uses this as "a mirror of recognition" will be important inevery newcontext as well. In which ways do we, the present hearers, fail to live according to this

knowledge of common Christian wisdom?

The sermon will, therefore, not so much have the function of teaching the listeners

knowledge, convictions and values we do not already know and accept, but the function of revealing to us where and how we fail to act accordingly.

Preachers will have to reflect on the most appropriate ways in which this pericope

can once again play the role of amirror.

Several expositors point to the fact that the danger of "partiality" in congregations

and the church is precisely that it can become so much part of our thought and action,

so common, natural, widespread and accepted, that we may no longer recognize it inour own lives and institutions.

2. Perhaps examples from the history of Christianity will be helpful in order to provide

such mirrors. Like the story of Nathan to David, and like the stories of James ("for if. . . " ; "if . . ."; " i f . . . " ) , preachers may perhaps use the stories of other Christians and

churches as mirrors to help present-day believers recognize themselves, and seeing

the distance, the discrepancies, between what we also think, believe and confess. . .

and what we actually do and accept as normal, natural conduct.

Most preachers will find it easy to tell stories from the history of Christianity to show

how often and how deeply the church has been compromised by structures of wealth,

power, class, race, sex, nation, volk, colonization, oppression, force, war and vio

lence, so that it "showed partiality," acted in accordance with the rules accepted bysociety at large, and treated human beings accordingly, and not according to the faith

the church confessed.

3. It is obvious how radically apartheid and more specifically the theology of apar

theid, the spirituality of apartheid and the apartheid church order, is unmasked as un

Christian "partiality," most literally treating human beings and felJow believers "ac

cording to their appearance," thereby "making distinctions among themselves and

becoming judges with evil thoughts."

Underlying apartheid is an anthropology, a way of viewing humanity, which

deserves no place in the Christian church.

In the collection of essays Apartheid is a heresy bothAllan Boesak and Archbishop

Desmond Tutu address this issue. Boesak writes under the title "He made us all, but.

Racism is a form of idolatry inwhich the dominant group assumes for itself a status higher thanthe other, and through its political, military, and economic power seeks to play God in the livesof others.. .

Racism has brought dehumanization, has undermined black personhood, destroyed the human-

beingness of those who are called to be the children of God. It has called those who are theimage of the living God to despise themselves, for they cannot understand why it should be their

bl k h ll f h h h d h h ibl i l


8/11


Christians and the Church have provided the moral and theological justification for racism andhuman degradation

Apartheid means that the most important thing about a person is not that he or she is a humanbeing created in the image of God with inalienable rights, but his or her racial identity It means

that racial identity determines, with an overwhelming intensity, everything in a person's life

Archbishop Tutu comments in the same spirit

Apartheid says that the most important thing about us is our ethnicity, some biological attributethat is really an irrelevance in determining our human worth It exalts a particular biologicalcharacteristic to a universal principle determining what it means to be human Some are morehuman than others "Blacks are human, but ' Skin colour and race assume an importancethey never had in the Scriptures

For mypart, its mostvicious, indeed its most blasphemous aspect, is not the great suffering itcauses its victims, but that it can make a child of God doubt that he is a child of God For thatalone, it deserves to be condemned as a heresy

4, In this regard, Held gives a very instructive analysis of this pericope when he discusses the status confessione in the South African churches

He argues that the expression prospolempsiais the Biblical expression closest toour modern concept of "discrimination," that the epistle of James provides us with anexample of the seriousness with which the early church addressed problems of thisnature, having a bearing on Christian life, and that this is the only pericope in the NewTestament where discrimination within the Christian congregation is treated as part ofthe apostolic preaching

He then gives an excellent and detailed treatment of the issue

5. Again, preachers in different congregations and churches will have to find theirown applications, the "mirrors" best suited to their particular congregations This"partiality" is practised on many levels, it has many faces It will be best to do whatJames did Not to point the finger of accusation at other people, but to help the peoplelistening to the preaching to see themselvesin the mirror

In each church and congregation, we have our own ways of "treating people in different ways because of their outward appearance," whether they are black, white,rich, poor, men, women, elderly, children, powerful and influential, leaders andrespected, or powerless and marginalised

In many South African churches one will find the same kind of problem to whichJames refers in his example, namely that the church - in spite of the fact that they arepoor, oppressed, powerless, "black", themselves - pay much more respect and honour to the rich and powerful, than to the poor, the women, the widows, the orphans,the children, among their own members There are many and understandablereasons for this - in the light of the norms that are accepted in society at large and thepossible advantages - but in the church it remains sin, a denial of God's own actions,of Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, and a transgression of the will of God

In many South African churches one will even find that the church itself is structuredand organised, whether officially and openly, or subtly, in terms of discrimination, of

"treating people differently according to who they are and how they look "The problem is that we can become so accustomed to this, that we may fully andenthusiastically agree with the rejection of "partiality" and "discrimination," and still


9/11


ought to be. We may, for example, reject racism, yet practise sexism.It is because of this that we need examples, mirrors, to help us to see ourselves and

the discrepancies between theory and practice in our own congregations and lives.

C. HOMILETICAL1. One could start by pointing out that James is trying to deal with conflict, both in theindividual believers and in the congregations. It is typically Jewish wisdom literature,giving practical advice and moral exhortation, with a view to transforming the praxisof the readers/listeners.

In order to understand 2:1-13,one must start with 1:21 -27. James urges them to dothe Word of God. He uses the image of a mirror, arguing that they must recognisethemselves in the mirror, see the discrepancies between what they believe and whatthey do, and then transform their actions.

The essence of the religion they ought to practice, is to take care of orphans and

widows in their suffering and to keep themselves from being corrupted by the customsand norms of society at large.

They must be liberated, set free, in order to be able to do this (1:25), and then theywill be happy.

For all of this, see A/1.

2. The first concrete example, the first mirror in which he wants them to look and recognize themselves, is given in 2:1-13. They are warned against prejudice, againstpartiality, against favouritism, against discrimination, against treating people in different ways because of their outward appearances.

This contradicts the acts of God the Father, as they know him from Old Testamenttraditions and in Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory (verse 1 ).See A/2.

3. In a very important illustration James tries to convince them that, even though theyagree with his rejection of discrimination, they still practise that in their own congregations (verses 2-4).

In a series or arguments he then tries to convince them that their actions do notagree with their faith in Jesus Christ (verses 5b-6a, 6b-7, 8-11 ).

He closes with an urgent appeal that they should transform their words and actions,in order that God's mercy will triumph over his judgment (verses 12-13).

See A/3.

4. In order that the present-day listeners will again recognize themselves in the mirror, so that their lives may be transformed, preachers ought to look for illustrationsunmasking present-day discrimination, in spite of what believers may claim and confess (B/1).

Examples from the history of Christianity (B/2) and apartheid-South Africa (B/3 and4) may be helpful.

However, we discriminate between people "because of their outward appearance,"in a variety of ways, and we ought to see, recognize, confess and change that (B/5).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Commentaries


10/11


F Grunzweig (Wuppertaler Studienbibel)F Mussner (Herder) Freiburg Herder VerlagA Ross (NICOT) Grand Rapids Wm Eerdmans 1970W Schrge (NTD) Gttingen Vandenhoeck & RuprechtG S Sloyan (Proclamation) Philadelphia Fortress Press 1977E L Smelik (PNT) Nijkerk CallenbachR V G Tasker (Tyndale) Grand Rapids Wm Eerdmans 1979

HomileticalG Eichholz, Herr tue 4, Wuppertal Emil Muller Verlag, 1955,470-481A Falkenroth, HF 3/4 Erg , Neukirchen Neuktrchener Verlag, 1981,395-402F Hertel, NCPH 4B, Stuttgart Calwer Verlag 1982, 204-211 Jrns, GPM 1982, Gottingen Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 402-410 G Phrfer, Interpretation 3/82, 278-283J A Schutte, Laat my lewe om te loot, Johannesburg De Jong 1976, 71-74E Thompson, Augsburg Sermons - Epistles, Minneapolis Augsburg 1978, 219-222

AdditionalJ Adamson, James, the man and his message, Grand Rapids Wm Eerdmans 1989E Baasland, "Der Jakobusbnef als Neutestamentliche Weisheitsschrift", StTh 36,1982,119-139Ch Burchard, "Gemeinde in der stohemen Epistel", Kirche Fs G Bornkamm, 315-328G Eichholz, Glaube und Werk bei Paulus und Jakobus, Mnchen Chr Kaiser Verlag 1961F O Francis, "The form and function of the opening and closing paragraphs of James and 1 John," ZNW 61 (1970), 110-126H Frankemlle, "Gespalten oder ganz Zur Pragmatik der theologischen Anthropologie des Jakobusbnefes", Kommunikationund Solidaritt (red H-U von Brachel/N Mette), 160-178A S Geyser, "The Letter of James and the social condition of his addressees", Neotestamentica 9 (1975), 25-33L Goppelt, Theology of the New Testament Vol 2, Grand Rapids Wm Eerdmans 1982H J Held, "Glaube ohne 'Ansehen der Person ", Zukunft aus dem Wort Helmut Class zum 65 Geburtstag (Hrsg G Metzger),Stuttgart Calwer Verlag, 1978, 209-226L Johnson, The writings of the New Testament An Interpretation, Philadelphia Fortress Press, 1986,453-463E Kasemann, Jesus means freedom, Philadelphia Fortress Press 1969, 85-100U Luck, "Die Theologie des Jakobusbnefes", ZThK 81,1984,1-30

W Nicol, "Faith and works in the Letter of James", Neotestamentica 9 (1975), 7-24Review and Expositor 1986/3G Schille, "Wider die Gespaltenheid des Glaubens -Beobachtungen am Jakobusbnef", Theologische Versuche 9,1977,71-89D J Smit, "In a special way the God of the destitute, the poor and the wronged", in A moment of truth (eds G D Cloete & D JSmit), 53-65, and 143-148 Grand Rapids Wm Eerdmans 1984J Soucek, "Zu den Problemen des Jakobusbnefes", EvTh 18,1958,460-468W S Vorster, "Disknminasie en die vroee kerk gedagtes oor partydigheid in Jakobus 2 1 -13", Eenheid en konflik (red C Breyten-bach), Pretoria NGKB, 1987,134-149

J Zmijewski, "Christliche 'Vollkommenheit Erwgungen zur Theologie des Jakobusbnefes", Studien zum Neuen Testamentund seiner Umwelt, A Fuchs (red) 50-78


11/11

^ s

Copyright and Use:

As an ATLAS user, you may print, download, or send articles for individual use

according to fair use as defined by U.S. and international copyright law and as

otherwise authorized under your respective ATLAS subscriber agreement.

No content may be copied or emailed to multiple sites or publicly posted without the

copyright holder(s)' express written permission. Any use, decompiling,

reproduction, or distribution of this journal in excess of fair use provisions may be a

violation of copyright law.

This journal is made available to you through the ATLAS collection with permission

from the copyright holder(s). The copyright holder for an entire issue of a journal

typically is the journal owner, who also may own the copyright in each article. However,

for certain articles, the author of the article may maintain the copyright in the article.

Please contact the copyright holder(s) to request permission to use an article or specific

work for any use not covered by the fair use provisions of the copyright laws or covered

by your respective ATLAS subscriber agreement. For information regarding the

copyright holder(s), please refer to the copyright information in the journal, if available,

or contact ATLA to request contact information for the copyright holder(s).

About ATLAS:

The ATLA Serials (ATLAS) collection contains electronic versions of previously

published religion and theology journals reproduced with permission. The ATLAS

collection is owned and managed by the American Theological Library Association

(ATLA) and received initial funding from Lilly Endowment Inc.

The design and final form of this electronic document is the property of the American

Theological Library Association.

Date post:	03-Apr-2018
Category:	Documents
Upload:	ptralejo
View:	228 times
Download:	0 times

Smit Partiality James

Documents