It can be mentioned here that Jesus was called "the righteous one" in Acts 3:14 and Acts 7:52.[*]The Righteous One: The reputation of James as a holy man and teacher, as well as his eventual martyrdom, led him to be called the Righteous one or James the Just. There could also be some influence here from the Septuagint, which uses the word righteousness or justice (Genesis 32:10 LXX) with Jacob. This is a word that patristic writers also use with respect to the Septuagint Jacob. These are of course the same name.
Acts 3:14
But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,
Acts 7:52
Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have.
James 5:6
You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.
But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,
Acts 7:52
Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have.
James 5:6
You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.
The phrase in James 5:6 also mentions "the just one," who was condemned and killed. Ben Smith once offered this suggestion:
In the context of the letter, ascribed to James, it is plausibly a reference to Jesus, similar to Acts 3:14 and Acts 7:52.Verse 6 sounds like a pretty good description, honestly, of the death of James. I have nearly always been of the opinion (not well formed, but distinct) that the epistle of James is pseudonymous, and this verse strikes me as the author's homage to its namesake: speaking in his name to condemn the very sorts of people who supposedly put him to death.
While it may or may not directly witness to James being called "the just one" (even if pseudeipigraphic), it would not be surprising if it was later read by others as prefiguring the death of James himself (as one devout commentary says, "whose slaughter is here divinely foretold"). So it's possible that the Epistle of James pre-dates later reference to James as "the just one" but also helped solidify this title. This is compatible with both pseudepigraphic and authenticity hypotheses on the origin of the epistle.
Preventing us from readily adopting this hypothesis as being a full explanation here is the fact that the Epistle of James was largely not cited in the extant texts that we're reading of the second century and, when we finally see some reference, with some qualification. This doesn't mean that it wasn't read by someone in the second century, but it may not have been widely influential with the same authors that we know about who refer to James as "the just."
Statistics: Posted by Peter Kirby — Sat Apr 06, 2024 10:20 pm