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The New International Commentary on the New Testament
The Epistle of James
Book by Adamson, James
227 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1976
18 people want to read
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July 7, 2025
Adamson analyzes the catholic epistle of James with an emphasis on comparing ancient literature. He reads James as a Hellenized Jewish Christian hortatory letter, comparing and contrasting the work between Jewish Rabbinical writings and Greek philosophers. This work interacts with textual-critical issues.
The format of the book begins with a section overviewing the authorship, audience, date, purpose and main themes of James. Each chapter proceeds to walk verse by verse through the text, emphasizing comparisons to other ancient literature and analyzing the grammar, syntax, and literary style of the Greek text. The author seems to synthesize the theology of James with first century Christian and Jewish thought. The format takes a unique turn, because rather than addressing significant interpretive or textual issues in the body of the chapter, "Excurses" are tacked on the end of each chapter to address these. Apart from interacting with the original languages, Adamson also highlights important translational differences, even addressing significant older translations like the KJV and RV.
The biggest weakness of this book is that Adamson does not address what he believes about the authorship of the epistle in the section of the introduction entitled "authorship." The most he states under that heading is that the author's name is James and has a Galilean background. He makes some connections to the James in Acts. This ambiguity is clarified over a span of 100 pages where Adamson drops 5 or 6 clues about his position on authorship, where he finally admits that he believes the author is James the Lord's brother. If you have a section in your introduction called "authorship," I shouldn't have to piece together your position on authorship by combing 100 pages.
The format of the book begins with a section overviewing the authorship, audience, date, purpose and main themes of James. Each chapter proceeds to walk verse by verse through the text, emphasizing comparisons to other ancient literature and analyzing the grammar, syntax, and literary style of the Greek text. The author seems to synthesize the theology of James with first century Christian and Jewish thought. The format takes a unique turn, because rather than addressing significant interpretive or textual issues in the body of the chapter, "Excurses" are tacked on the end of each chapter to address these. Apart from interacting with the original languages, Adamson also highlights important translational differences, even addressing significant older translations like the KJV and RV.
The biggest weakness of this book is that Adamson does not address what he believes about the authorship of the epistle in the section of the introduction entitled "authorship." The most he states under that heading is that the author's name is James and has a Galilean background. He makes some connections to the James in Acts. This ambiguity is clarified over a span of 100 pages where Adamson drops 5 or 6 clues about his position on authorship, where he finally admits that he believes the author is James the Lord's brother. If you have a section in your introduction called "authorship," I shouldn't have to piece together your position on authorship by combing 100 pages.
Displaying 1 of 1 review