Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Sources and abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The history of research and the present investigation
- 3 The inner texture of James 2.1–13
- 4 The intertexture of James 2.1–13
- 5 The social and cultural texture of James 2.1–13
- 6 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index of sources and authors
- Index of biblical references
- Index of subjects
1 - Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Sources and abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The history of research and the present investigation
- 3 The inner texture of James 2.1–13
- 4 The intertexture of James 2.1–13
- 5 The social and cultural texture of James 2.1–13
- 6 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index of sources and authors
- Index of biblical references
- Index of subjects
Summary
This investigation concerns itself with the socio-rhetorical function of an apparent allusion to a saying of Jesus in the Epistle of James. It approaches James as an instance of written rhetorical discourse, a text that seeks to modify the social thought and behavior of its addressees. It presupposes a broad scholarly consensus, according to which the text appropriates a tradition of Jesus' sayings, and it seeks to ascertain the social texture of one particular allusion to a saying of Jesus in James 2.5 by a rhetorical analysis according to Greco-Roman conventions.
The reasons for choosing James 2.5 are significant. First, practically all previous investigations that give serious attention to James' use of Jesus tradition identify James 2.5 as an important allusion to a saying of Jesus (Deppe, 1989, pp. 89–91, 237–38). Second, this verse occurs in a unified argument (James 2.1–13) which is one of the three rhetorical units that, in the opinion of the scholarly majority, have the greatest potential for disclosing the thought, piety, and style of the text (Dibelius, 1975, pp. 1, 38–45, 47–50). Third, we shall see that James 2.1–13 displays a definite pattern of argumentation that evinces Greco-Roman rhetorical strategies.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Voice of Jesus in the Social Rhetoric of James , pp. 1 - 24Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000