clear then that a word of truth which is not merely to be heard but (like John iii. 21) is to be done, must somehow be comprehended under the concept of law, that is, of a rule of action; and the concepts λόγος ἀληθείας and νόμος τῆς éλevlepías, i. 18, 22, and 25, must coincide to a great extent, though not completely. But what kind of law is meant by the perfect law of liberty? That we cannot think of a Christian rule of life different from the Mosiac law, like the nova lex which was thought of in the second century, is proved by the passage noted above (ii. 10, 11) in which two of the Mosaic Ten Commandments are adduced as constituent parts of that vóμos; while, on the other hand, there is nothing to suggest a distinction from the Mosaic law. And yet the mere Mosaic law, in the sense in which it formed the Jewish rule of life, cannot be meant either; for it is no vóμos téλelos, and still less a νόμος τῆς ἐλευθερίας, and there is nowhere mention of the ritual part of the Mosaic law. The expression vóμos Téλetos reminds us of Jesus' declaration in the Sermon on the Mount, that He wished to fulfil the law, that is, to make it perfect. Now, since that fulfilment consists in giving the individual commandments their true meaning as parts of the fundamental commandment of love to God and to our neighbour, and since James, in an expression directly reminding us of Jesus' words as to the greatest commandment, declares the commandment of love to our neighbour to be νόμος βασιλικός, the foremost and dominating commandment, the conclusion forces itself upon us that he can only have meant by the perfect law, the Mosaic law as expounded by Jesus. And it is called "the law of liberty," not because it is given for the state of Christian freedom, for redeemed men, for such concepts are unknown to the Epistle, and the phrase cannot be naturally made to yield them,1 but simply because it is not a slavish law constraining from without, but a law of the heart which freely obeys. A law of love-and according to ii. 8, the law of liberty is that to James-can only rule from within, and therefore freely, since love can neither be commanded nor threatened, but only guided from within, that is, freely or not at all. The expression reminds us of Jeremiah's prophecy of the new covenant, in which the 1 Against Weiss, N. T. Theol i. 251. BEYSCHLAG.—I. 23 On the other law is to be written on the heart and put in the inward parts, and as James calls the Aéyos aλndeías, which, according to i. 23, includes the commandment of the law of liberty, a λόγος ἔμφυτος, we learn from his own lips the way in which the perfect law has become spiritualised to the Christians, and thus at the same time a law of liberty. It is easy to see how closely this view of the gospel, on the one hand, as a promise of the kingdom of heaven, and on the other, as the perfected and spiritualised law, follows Jesus' method of teaching, in which, besides the glad tidings of the near approach of the kingdom, there is an exhibition of that kingdom's demand for righteousness in a more spiritual exposition of the Mosaic law, and at the close of the Sermon on the Mount there is a demand, almost in the same words as in James, for a hearing and doing of the word. hand, no greater contrast can be conceived, in form at least, to the Pauline mode of teaching, in which law and gospel are the opposite poles of divine revelation, than this view, which brings the gospel itself, at least as seen from one side, under the notion of law. If in this contrast James has the Old Testament joy in the law on his side, and the devout life of the Old Testament saints in the commandments of God (cf. the TараKÚTтev, the steeping oneself in the law, i. 25), it cannot be denied that the greater keenness and comprehensiveness of theological idea is on the side of Paul. For if the saving character of the gospel cannot be sufficiently comprehended in the notion of promise, how much less in that of law ! The power by which the law is put within men and written on their hearts, and so made the law of liberty, is neither promise nor legislation, and yet it is the main thing. This power James knows and rejoices in (i. 18), but he is not yet able to grasp its significance as the central point of Christian thought and teaching, or to make it his startingpoint in exhibiting Christianity in its novelty and peculiarity. This also means, that to him Christ, the personal source of that power, has not yet become the central point of his doctrinal thought. § 4. JESUS THE CHRIST AND LORD For this is the remarkable thing that distinguishes the Epistle of James from all other New Testament writings, that the person of the Saviour comes so little to the front in it. Apart from the greeting, there is but one passage (ii. 1) that declares anything directly about Him. Not that the Epistle does not contain, in the way of suggestion and presupposition, everything which the first apostolic Church and preaching has and honours in the one name in which alone is salvation. Jesus is indeed Xplorós, the Messiah; the name Christ has become His own name, and that is confession enough. But Jesus is also κύριος, ὁ κύριος ἡμῶν (i. 1, ii. 1), and James calls himself His Soûλos, just as he names himself the Soûλos of God. He knows Him, therefore, as One who is exalted to the right hand of God and to divine honour, as the addition Xploròs Tês dóns (ii. 1) expressly attests: he knows that for salvation he depends not only on God, but also on Jesus Christ. The worthy name mentioned in ii. 7 (κaλòv ŏvoμa), which is named over the readers, and is reviled by their persecutors after the custom of "naming over anyone the name of Him whose he is to be, can only be the name of Jesus, which in baptism was named over the readers, that so they might become His possession." And so, too, the faith of the readers is directed to Jesus as it is to God: it is a TÍOTIS TOÛ Kuρíον ημŵν 'Inσoû (ii. 1).1 Now if, in spite of this, the name of the Saviour falls into the background in James, so that it is only twice mentioned, that is due chiefly to the fact that he is wont to consider Christianity solely as the completion of Judaism, as a crowning of God's way of salvation begun with Abraham, and he goes back beyond the person of the historical Mediator of salvation to the yet higher Author of eternal salvation. It is God who has regenerated him and his readers through the word of truth-of course through Christ. It is God who will finally judge men by the law of liberty offered to them (ii. 12, iv. 12)-of course through Christ, 1 That the genitive Toй xvρíov uv is to be taken in the objective sense =belief in Jesus, just as in the synoptic ioris eoй (Mark xi. 22), cannot in the least be doubted, since a riots so in the subjective sense is an absurdity. whose judicial parousia is near at hand (v. 8). Since God has already justified Abraham just as the Christian hopes to be justified by Him (ii. 21, 23); since God has already given the law through Moses, which, made perfect and planted in the heart through Christ, now rules those who believe in Him, the author does not yet feel himself urged, like the later writers of the New Testament, to give distinct prominence in his preaching to the epoch-making significance of Christ's appearance, although he fully recognises it in his heart. On the other hand, he puts the name of Jesus in the background, because, whilst he has felt the power of His saving work, he has not yet fully comprehended its meaning. As in the case of the first apostles, so also in the case of James, it is the prophetic and kingly offices on which all weight is laid. Jesus is the Prophet who has perfectly revealed the purpose of God, and the King in whose grace they hope in the judgment—the high-priestly office of Christ is essentially unrevealed to their understanding. The second birth has been brought about by the word of truth which Jesus has preached, and by the joyful message of the kingdom of God which He has promised to them that love Him (i. 12, ii. 5). This word has been planted in the heart as a power of sanctification and deliverance, whilst God has been making the fertilising rain of His Spirit follow on the sowing of Jesus (iv. 5). The completed saving work of Jesus thus presented itself to James as to the original apostles. He does not think of Christ's death upon the cross, for he has not unbelieving Jews before him to whom he would have to hold it up as blood-guiltiness, and he does not yet think of it as an expiating saving act, as is clear from the fact that he connects the forgiveness of sins only with the conversion of the sinner (v. 20) and with pious prayer and intercession, after the manner of the Old Testament (v. 15). More significant to him is the glory into which Jesus has entered through His death, and in which He will speedily return (v. 8). It is significant that the one christological declaration of the Epistle which goes beyond the name of Saviour, refers to this glory: τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τῆς δόξης (ii. 1). Whether we refer the difficult τῆς δόξης, which in any case has an adjective sense, to the whole expression or specially to Xploтoû (Messiah of glory), it at least expresses the expectation of that day on which Jesus will reappear in a glory which He did not yet possess on earth, and the view that, in virtue of this glory, He will justify to the full the names Xplorós and kúptos given to Him by faith. Then will He judge the world (v. 9), and give to those who love God and have believed on His Anointed the crown of life, the promised kingdom. And one feels from the prophetic swing of his closing chapter (v. 1-8) how eagerly in the author the πίστις ̓Ιησοῦ was directed to this fulfment in the future of all Messianic expectations. CHAPTER IV FAITH AND WORKS § 1. CONCEPT OF WORKS His readers' practical defects and the practical tendency of James' own thought give the result that, although the objective announcements of salvation are so scanty, the main ideas of subjective Christianity, faith and works, are fully discussed. This appears specially in the celebrated section (ii. 14-26) which treats of justification by faith and by works. But insistence on an active Christianity comes earlier into prominence as a main concern of the Epistle. In i. 4, vжоμový is to have its perfect work, that is, to achieve all that is possible for it in virtue of which the Christian man shall be seen perfect and complete, that is, morally perfect. So also in the following chapters, works are not separate acts apart from the Christian character, but the practical proofs and confirmation of that character. The doer of works (πOINTǹs, ěpyov, i. 25) does not perform certain Pharisaic good works, he is a doer of the word which has been planted in his heart, and in which he lives and moves (i. 21, 25): that perfect law of liberty is a unity throughout all its commandments, and therefore can only be kept or transgressed as a whole (ii. 10, 12). His works, therefore, are exhibitions of love to God and to his neighbour, and they appear in other parts of the Epistle as the fundamental requirements of both law and gospel (i. 12, ii. 5, 8), or, in i. 27, as religion, pure and undefiled, mercy, |