_THE PERSONS ADDRESSED IN THE EPISTLE;
THE JEWS OF THE DISPERSION._
"James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve
tribes which are of the Dispersion, greeting."--JAMES i. 1.
These words appear to be both simple and plain. At first sight there
would seem to be not much room for any serious difference of opinion
as to their meaning. The writer of the letter writes as "a servant of
God and of the Lord Jesus Christ," _i.e._ as a Christian, "to the
twelve tribes which are of the Dispersion," _i.e._ to the Jews who are
living away from Palestine. Almost the only point which seems to be
open to doubt is whether he addresses himself to all Jews, believing
and unbelieving, or, as one might presume from his proclaiming
himself at the outset to be a Christian, only to those of his
fellow-countrymen who, like himself, have become "servants of the Lord
Jesus Christ." And this is a question which cannot be determined
without a careful examination of the contents of the Epistle.
And yet there has been very great difference of opinion as to the
persons whom St. James had in his mind when he wrote these words.
There is not only the triplet of opinions which easily grow out of the
question just indicated, viz. that the letter is addressed to
_believing Jews_ only, to _unbelieving Jews_ only, and to _both_:
there are also the views of those who hold that it is addressed to
Jewish and Gentile Christians regarded _separately_, or to the same
regarded _as one body_, or to _Jewish Christians primarily_, with
references to Gentile Christians and unconverted Jews, or finally to
_Gentile Christians primarily_, seeing that they, since the rejection
of Jesus by the Jews, are the true sons of Abraham and the rightful
inheritors of the privileges of the twelve tribes.
In such a Babel of interpretations it will clear the ground somewhat
if we adopt once more[24] as a guiding principle the common-sense
canon of interpretation laid down by Hooker (_Eccles. Pol._ V.
lix. 2), that "where a literal construction will stand, the farthest
from the letter is commonly the worst." A literal construction of the
expression "the twelve tribes of the Dispersion" will not only stand,
but make excellent sense. Had St. James meant to address all
Christians, regarded in their position as exiles from their heavenly
home, he would have found some much plainer way of expressing himself.
There is nothing improbable, but something quite the reverse, in the
supposition that the first overseer of the Church of Jerusalem, who,
as we have seen, was "a Hebrew of Hebrews," wrote a letter to those of
his fellow-countrymen who were far removed from personal intercourse
with him. So devoted a Jew, so devout a Christian, as we know him to
have been, could not but take the most intense interest in all who
were of Jewish blood, wherever they might dwell, especially such as
had learned to believe in Christ, above all when he knew that they
were suffering from habitual oppression and ill-treatment. We may
without hesitation decide that when St. James says "the twelve tribes
which are of the Dispersion" he means Jews away from their home in
Palestine, and not Christians away from their home in heaven. For what
possible point would the Dispersion (ἡ διασπορά) have in such a
metaphor? Separation from the heavenly home might be spoken of as
banishment, or exile, or homelessness, but not as "dispersion." Even
if we confined ourselves to the opening words, we might safely adopt
this conclusion, but we shall find that there are numerous features in
the letter itself which abundantly confirm it.
It is quite out of place to quote such passages as the sealing of "the
hundred and forty and four thousand ... out of every tribe of the
children of Israel" (Rev. vii. 4-8), or the city with "twelve gates,
... and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve
tribes of the children of Israel" (Rev. xxi. 12). These occur in a
book which is symbolical from the first chapter to the last, and
therefore we know that the literal construction cannot stand. The
question throughout is not whether a given passage is to be taken
literally or symbolically, but what the passage in question
symbolizes. Nor, again, can St. Peter's declaration that "ye are an
elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own
possession" (1 Pet. ii. 9), be considered as at all parallel. There
the combination of expressions plainly shows that the language is
figurative; and there is no real analogy between an impassioned
exhortation, modelled on the addresses of the Hebrew prophets, and the
matter-of-fact opening words of a letter. The words have the clear
ring of nationality, and there is nothing whatever added to them to
turn the simple note into the complex sound of a doubtful metaphor. As
Davidson justly remarks, "The use of the phrase _twelve tribes_ is
inexplicable if the writer intended all believers without distinction.
The author makes no allusion to Gentile converts, nor to the relation
between Jew and Gentile incorporated into one spiritual body."
Let us look at some of the features which characterize the Epistle
itself, and see whether they bear out the view which is here
advocated, that the persons addressed are Israelites in the national
sense, and not as having been admitted into the spiritual "Israel of
God" (Gal. vi. 16).
(1) The writer speaks of Abraham as "our father," without a hint that
this is to be understood in any but the literal sense. "Was not
Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his
son upon the altar?" (ii. 21). St. Paul, when he speaks of Abraham as
"the father of all them that believe," clearly indicates this (Rom.
iv. 11). (2) The writer speaks of his readers as worshipping in a
"synagogue" (ii. 2), which may possibly mean that, just as St. James
and the Apostles continued to attend the Temple services after the
Ascension, so their readers are supposed to attend the synagogue
services after their conversion. But at least it shows that the
writer, in speaking of the public worship of those whom he addresses,
naturally uses a word (συναγωγή) which had then, and continues to
have, specially Jewish associations, rather than one (ἐκκλησία)
which from the first beginnings of Christianity was promoted from its
old political sphere to indicate the congregations, and even the very
being, of the Christian Church. (3) He assumes that his readers are
familiar not only with the life of Abraham (ii. 21, 23), but of Rahab
(25), the prophets (v. 10), Job (11), and Elijah (17). These frequent
appeals to the details of the Old Testament would be quite out of
place in a letter addressed to Gentile converts. (4) God is spoken of
under the specially Hebrew title of "the Lord of Sabaoth" (v. 4); and
the frequent recurrence of "the Lord" throughout the Epistle (i. 7;
iii. 9; iv. 10, 15; v. 10, 11, 15) looks like the language of one who
wished to recall the name Jehovah to his readers. (5) In
discountenancing swearing (v. 12) Jewish forms of oaths are taken as
illustrations. (6) The vices which are condemned are such as were as
common among the Jews as among the Gentiles--reckless language, rash
swearing, oppression of the poor, covetousness. There is little or
nothing said about the gross immorality which was rare among the Jews,
but was almost a matter of course among the Gentiles. St. James
denounces faults into which Jewish converts would be likely enough to
lapse; he says nothing about the vices respecting which heathen
converts, such as those at Corinth, are constantly warned by St. Paul.
(7) But what is perhaps the most decisive feature of all is that he
assumes throughout that for those whom he addresses the Mosaic Law is
a binding and final authority. "If ye have respect of persons, ye
commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors. ... If thou
dost not commit adultery, but killest, thou art become a transgressor
of the law" (ii. 9-11). "He that speaketh against a brother, or
judgeth his brother, speaketh against the law, and judgeth the law"
(iv. 11).
Scarcely any of these seven points, taken singly, would be at all
decisive; but when we sum them up together, remembering in how short a
letter they occur, and when we add them to the very plain and simple
language of the address, we have an argument which will carry
conviction to most persons who have no preconceived theory of their
own to defend. And to this positive evidence derived from the presence
of so much material that indicates Jewish circles as the destined
recipients of the letter, we must add the strongly confirmatory
negative evidence derived from the absence of anything which specially
points either to Gentile converts or unconverted heathen. We may
therefore read the letter as having been written by one who had been
born and educated in a thoroughly Jewish atmosphere, who had accepted
the Gospel, not as cancelling the Law, but as raising it to a higher
power; and we may read it also as addressed to men who, like the
writer, are by birth and education Jews, and, like him, have
acknowledged Jesus as their Lord and the Christ. The difference
between writer and readers lies in this, that he is in Palestine, and
they not; that he appears to be in a position of authority, whereas
they seem for the most part to be a humble and suffering folk. All
which fits in admirably with the hypothesis that we have before us an
Epistle written by the austere and Judaic-minded James the Just,
written from Jerusalem, to comfort and warn those Jewish Christians
who lay remote from his personal influence.
That it is Jewish _Christians_, and not unbelieving Jews, or Jews
whether believing or not, who are addressed, is not open to serious
doubt. There is not only the fact that St. James at the outset
proclaims himself to be a Christian (i. 1), but also the statement
that the wealthy oppressors of his poor readers "blaspheme the
honourable Name by which ye are called," or more literally "which was
called upon you," viz. the Name of Christ. Again, the famous paragraph
about faith and works assumes that the faith of the readers and the
faith of the writer is identical (ii. 7, 14-20). Once more, he
expressly claims them as believers when he writes, "My brethren, hold
not _the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ_, the Lord of glory, with
respect of persons" (ii. 1). And if more be required, we have it in
the concluding exhortations: "Be patient, therefore, brethren, _until
the coming of the Lord_.... Stablish your hearts: for _the coming of
the Lord_ is at hand" (v. 7, 8).
Whether or no there are passages which glance aside at unbelieving
Jews, and perhaps even some which are directly addressed to them,
cannot be decided with so much certainty; but the balance of
probability appears to be on the affirmative side in both cases. There
probably are places in which St. James is thinking of unbelieving
Israelites, and one or more passages in which he turns aside and
sternly rebukes them, much in the same way as the Old Testament
prophets sometimes turn aside to upbraid Tyre and Sidon and the
heathen generally. "Do not the rich oppress you, and themselves drag
you before the judgment-seats?" (ii. 6), seems to refer to rich
unconverted Jews prosecuting their poor Christian brethren before the
synagogue courts, just as St. Paul did when he was Saul the persecutor
(Acts ix. 2). And "Do not they blaspheme the honourable Name by which
_ye_ are called?" can scarcely be said of Christians. If the
blasphemers were Christians they would be said rather to blaspheme the
honourable Name by which _they themselves_ were called. _There_ would
lie the enormity--that the name of Jesus Christ had been "called upon
them," and yet they blasphemed it. And when we come to look at the
matter in detail we shall find reason for believing that the stern
words at the beginning of chapter v. are addressed to unbelieving
Jews. There is not one word of Christian, or even moral, exhortation
in it; it consists entirely of accusation and threatening, and in this
respect is in marked contrast to the equally stern words at the
beginning of chapter iv., which are addressed to worldly and godless
Christians.
To suppose that the rich oppressors so often alluded to in the Epistle
are _heathen_, as Hilgenfeld does, confuses the whole picture, and
brings no compensating advantage. The heathen among whom the Jews of
the Dispersion dwelt in Syria, Egypt, Rome, and elsewhere, were of
course, some of them rich, and some of them poor. But wealthy Pagans
were not more apt to persecute Jews, whether Christians or not, than
the needy Pagan populace. If there was any difference between heathen
rich and poor in this matter, it was the fanatical and plunder-seeking
mob, rather than the contemptuous and easy-going rich, who were likely
to begin a persecution of the Jews, just as in Russia or Germany at
the present time. And St. James would not be likely to talk of "the
Lord of Sabaoth" (v. 4) in addressing wealthy Pagans. But the social
antagonism so often alluded to in the Epistle, when interpreted to
mean an antagonism between Jew and Jew, corresponds to a state of
society which is known to have existed in Palestine and the
neighbouring countries during the half-century which preceded the
Jewish war of A.D. 66-70. (Comp. Matt. xi. 5; xix. 23, 24; Luke i. 53;
vi. 20, 24; xvi. 19, 20.) During that period the wealthy Jews allied
themselves with the Romans, in order more securely to oppress their
poorer fellow-countrymen. And seeing that the Gospel in the first
instance spread chiefly among the poor, this social antagonism between
rich and poor Jews frequently became an antagonism between unbelieving
and believing Jews. St. James, well aware of this state of things,
from personal experience in Judæa, and hearing similar things of the
Jews of the Dispersion in Syria, reasonably supposes that this
unnatural tyranny of Jew over Jew prevails elsewhere also, and
addresses all "the twelve tribes which are of the Diaspora" on the
subject.[25] In any case his opportunities of knowing a very great
deal respecting Jews in various parts of the world were large. Jews
from all regions were constantly visiting Jerusalem. But the knowledge
which he must have had respecting the condition of things in Palestine
and Syria would be quite sufficient to explain what is said in this
Epistle respecting the tyranny of the rich over the poor.
The _Diaspora_,[26] or _Dispersion of the Jews_ throughout the
inhabited world, had been brought about in various ways, and had
continued through many centuries. The two chief causes were _forcible
deportation_ and _voluntary emigration_. It was a common policy of
Oriental conquerors to transport whole populations, in order more
completely to subjugate them; and hence the Assyrian and Babylonian
conquerors of Israel carried away great multitudes of Jews to the
East, sending Eastern populations to take their place. Pompey on a
much smaller scale transported Jewish captives to the West, carrying
hundreds of Jews to Rome. But disturbances in Palestine, and
opportunities of trade elsewhere, induced large multitudes of Jews to
emigrate of their own accord, especially to the neighbouring countries
of Egypt and Syria; and the great commercial centres in Asia Minor,
Alexandria, Antioch, Ephesus, Miletus, Pergamus, Cyprus, and Rhodes
contained large numbers of Jews. While Palestine was the battle-field
of foreign armies, and while newly founded towns were trying to
attract population by offering privileges to settlers, thousands of
Jews preferred the advantages of a secure home in exile to the risks
which attended residence in their native country.
At the time when this Epistle was written three chief divisions of the
Dispersion were recognized--the Babylonian, which ranked as the first,
the Syrian, and the Egyptian. But the Diaspora was by no means
confined to these three centres. About two hundred years before this
time the composer of one of the so-called Sibylline Oracles could
address the Jewish nation, and say, "But every land is full of
thee,--aye and every ocean."[27] And there is abundance of evidence,
both in the Bible and outside it, especially in Josephus and Philo,
that such language does not go beyond the limits of justifiable
hyperbole. The list of peoples represented at Jerusalem on the Day of
Pentecost, "from every nation under heaven," tells one a great deal
(Acts ii. 5-11. Comp. xv. 21, and 1 Macc. xv. 15-24). Many passages
from Josephus might be quoted (_Ant._ XI. v. 2; XIV. vii. 2; _Bell.
Jud._ II. xvi. 4; VII. iii. 3), as stating in general terms the same
fact. But perhaps no original authority gives us more information than
Philo, in his famous treatise _On the Embassy to the Emperor Caius_,
which went to Rome (_c._ A.D. 40) to obtain the revocation of a decree
requiring the Jews to pay divine homage to the Emperor's statue. In
that treatise we read that "Jerusalem is the metropolis, not of the
single country of Judæa, but of most countries, because of the
colonies which she has sent out, as opportunity offered, into the
neighbouring lands of Egypt, Phœnicia, Syria, and Cœlesyria, and
the more distant lands of Pamphylia and Cilicia, most of Asia, as far
as Bithynia and the utmost corners of Pontus; likewise unto Europe,
Thessaly, Bœotia, Macedonia, Ætolia, Attica, Argos, Corinth, with
the most parts and best parts of Greece. And not only are the
continents full of Jewish colonies, but also the most notable of the
islands--Eubœa, Cyprus, Crete--to say nothing of the lands beyond
the Euphrates. For all, excepting a small part of Babylon and those
satrapies which contain the excellent land around it, contain Jewish
inhabitants. So that if my country were to obtain a share in thy
clemency it would not be one city that would be benefited, but ten
thousand others, situated in every part of the inhabited
world--Europe, Asia, Libya, continental and insular, maritime and
inland" (_De Legat. ad Caium_ xxxvi., Gelen., pp. 1031-32). It was
therefore an enormous circle of readers that St. James addressed when
he wrote "to the twelve tribes which are of the Dispersion," although
it seems to have been a long time before his letter became known to
the most important of the divisions of the Diaspora, viz. the Jewish
settlement in Egypt, which had its chief centre in Alexandria. We may
reasonably suppose that it was the Syrian division which he had
chiefly in view in writing, and it was to them, no doubt, that the
letter in the first instance was sent. It is of this division that
Josephus writes that, widely dispersed as the Jewish race is over the
whole of the inhabited world, it is most largely mingled with Syria on
account of its proximity, and especially in Antioch, where the kings
since Antiochus had afforded them undisturbed tranquillity and equal
privileges with the heathen; so that they multiplied exceedingly, and
made many proselytes (_Bell. Jud._ VII. iii. 3).
The enormous significance of the Dispersion as a preparation for
Christianity must not be overlooked. It showed to both Jew and Gentile
alike that the barriers which had hedged in and isolated the hermit
nation had broken down, and that what had ceased to be thus isolated
had changed its character. A _kingdom_ had become a _religion_. What
henceforth distinguished the Jews in the eyes of all the world was not
their country or their government, but their creed, and through this
they exercised upon those among whom they were scattered an influence
which had been impossible under the old conditions of exclusiveness.
They themselves also were forced to understand their own religion
better. When the keeping of the letter of the Law became an
impossibility, they were compelled to penetrate into its spirit; and
what they exhibited to the heathen was not a mere code of burdensome
rites and ceremonies, but a moral life and a worship in spirit and
truth. The universality of the services of the synagogue taught the
Jew that God's worship was not confined to Jerusalem, and their
simplicity attracted proselytes who might have turned away from the
complex and bloody liturgies of the Temple. Even in matters of detail
the services in the synagogue prepared the way for the services of the
Christian Church. The regular lessons--read from two divisions of
Scripture, the antiphonal singing, the turning towards the east, the
general Amen of the whole congregation, the observance of the third,
sixth, and ninth hours as hours of prayer, and of one day in seven as
specially holy--all these things, together with some others which have
since become obsolete, meet us in the synagogue worship, as St. James
knew it, and in the liturgies of the Christian Church, which he and
the Apostles and their successors helped to frame. Thus justice once
more became mercy, and a punishment was turned into a blessing. The
captivity of the Jew became the freedom of both Jew and Gentile, and
the scattering of Israel was the gathering in of all nations unto God.
"He hath scattered abroad; He hath given to the poor: His
righteousness abideth for ever" (Ps. cxii. 9; 2 Cor. ix. 9).
[24] See _The Pastoral Epistles_ in this series, pp. 285-6.
[25] See Salmon, _Introduction to the N.T._, p. 502, 4th ed. (Murray,
1889); Renan, _L'Antechrist_, p. xii.; Ewald, _History of Israel_,
vol. vii., p. 451, Eng. Tr. (Longmans, 1885); Weiss, _Introduction to
the N.T._, vol. ii., pp. 102-3 (Hodder and Stoughton, 1888).
[26] See the immense amount of information collected in Schürer, _The
Jewish People in the Time of Christ_, div. ii., vol. ii., pp. 219-327;
also Westcott's article "Dispersion," in Smith's _Dict. of Bible_;
Herzog and Plitt, _Real-Encykl._, vol. vii., pp. 203-8; and esp.
Philo, _Legat. ad Caium_.
[27] Πᾶσα δὲ γαῖα σέθεν πλήρης καὶ πᾶσα θάλασσα.