Sayings of Jesus in James Chapters 1-2

This book is my doctoral dissertation from the Vrije Universiteit (Free University) in Amsterdam. I still have about ten copies left if you would like to purchase one for $30.

Frequently in a New Testament Introduction you will read the statement that there are more sayings of Jesus in the Epistle of James than all the other epistles put together. However, the form of the sayings is not very close to the sayings found in the Synoptic Gospels. In fact, sixty authors have discovered over 180 parallels with the Sayings of Jesus but two-thirds of these scholars only agree on six specific parallels. This book attempts to discover the reason for the similarities and the diversity.

Basically four approaches have been taken to solve this problem. The dominant oldest tradition is that the source was the personal memory of James, the brother of Jesus. Other scholars think that the Epistle of James was dependent upon the Gospel of Matthew. Still others insist that it is a Jewish document which explains the differences with the Jesus tradition. A fourth solution attempts to show that the genre of paraenesis is the explanation for the similarity and yet divergence from the Synoptic tradition. The history of these four proposals is presented in chapter one.

Then in chapter two I study James use of preexistent material, especially the Old Testament. It turns out that James quotes the Old Testament on six occasions with introductory formulas to authoritatively ground his arguments. James does not do this with the Sayings of Jesus. What explains this difference?

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