The Structure of the Epistle of James

Does James’ epistle have a coherent structure that helps us interpret the epistle? Mark Taylor in his Ph.D dissertation surveys the existing studies on this subject and summarises his conclusion as follows:-

According to Taylor, all proposals thus far have four things in common.

First, they all deviate from Dibelius and insist that James is not a hodge-podge of ethical practices penned down without any noticeable coherence, any definable continuity, or any theological objective, which would prevent any contextual interpretation.

Second, while there is no “scholarly consensus regarding the details of the structure of James” ... “there is a growing sense that the text of James is a literary, coherent whole ... with its catchwords, theme expansion and recapitulation, ... bears the marks of intentionality (and displays) even a sequential progression at points.” To identify the structure of James, therefore, would be immensely helpful in grasping and applying its message.

Third, “many (scholars) are convinced that Chapter 1 holds the key to the letter’s structure,” since it “functions to introduce the letter’s major themes that are subsequently expanded in the letter body.”

Fourth, they are virtually all persuaded that “major blocks, such as James 2:1-13, 2:14-16, 3:1-12, and 4:1-10, and smaller units like James 1:2-4, 3:13-18, and 5:1-6 exhibit a discernible structure and a sustained treatment of a unified topic.” This justifies the conclusion that the letter is a more or less “coherent literary whole,” even if the question remains, “how the units in James relate to one another in order to accomplish James’ purpose for writing.” The latter calls for “a convincing analysis,” which takes “the surface syntactical structure in the text itself” seriously,” “demonstrates how the major themes of perfection, law, judgment, speech and action in James work together,” and “how by way of quotation (explicit and implicit) and allusion ... James appropriates the ‘law’ in the light of the teaching of Jesus.” The bottom line is that on each of the four counts the study of James has made a good deal of progress, even if much eludes us as yet, and a finished product is not in sight!

I have generally taken the third of the positions mentioned, that chapter 1 is the key to the somewhat loose structure of the epistle of James. The Greek word “peirasmos” is translated as trials, tests and temptation and can mean any of these or all of them. Chapter one puts forward a thesis that trials or tests of ones faith makes one grow (1:2) in his spirituality but can also destroy a person if his response to the test is incorrect (1:13-14). This does not make the test bad, but our response bad (1:17), just as sin does not make the Law bad but shows our inner nature to be sinful (Rom 7:7-8).

After making this premise James then begins to illustrate what the wrong responses are to different kinds of tests. This is which takes most modern readers by surprise as they on reading the word “trials” assume some disaster or extremely difficult situation. But that is not what James means. Rather it is how you handle day to day situations like

a. James 2:1-13 – how do you respond when a rich and powerful man meets with you! (This passage has a small digression for those who feel that James is nit-picking with peccadilloes – a small sin has the same end as a large sin!)

b. James 3:1-12 – how do you conduct yourself in your day to day speech.

c. James 4:1-6 How do you deal with conflict or how do you desire with the petty wants of our natural self.

Each of the passages have a digression at the end. James 2 ends with James 2:14-26 on works being a result and proof of faith. James 3 ends with James 3:13-17 on the wisdom of humility which comes from God and controls our speech. James 4 ends with James 4:7-17 calling for repentance and turn to trust in God.

James 5 is a closing exhortation again using the theme of faith.