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What Are They Saying About the Letter of James?
This book surveys some of the scholarship on the letter of James from the past thirty years, covering questions of authorship and audience, structure and rhetoric, themes, and relationship to some of the sayings attributed to Jesus. †
128 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2009
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April 9, 2026This book was a helpful introduction to scholarship on the book of James from the 1980s-2010. Batten did a great job summarizing the scholarship without showcasing what she thought about said scholarly works. I'm leaving it unrated because of its category. I wasn't moved by the book, but I was informed. One doesn't read this book in order to better understand the book of James. This wasn't the author's goal. The goal was to help readers better understand the field and discipline of studying the book of James. I rate more so based on the former rather than the latter. If someone asked me how they can dive into a rigorous study of James, I would point them to this book as a good intro.
May 26, 2021
This is the first book I’ve read in the WATSA series (“What Are They Saying About”) but is unlikely to be my last. To be honest, I’m not sure how large the audience for the WATSA series is but WATSA: What Are They Saying About: The Letter of James was ideal for me. As an older, retired professor who taught inter-disciplinary studies in another field than Biblical Studies, I haven’t been able to read as many of the new works on biblical books as I’d like. Actually, I was putting together an annotated list of biblical resources for the Sunday School and Bible Study leaders in our church and was pleasantly surprised at how many books I could recommend had copyright dates long after I finished my graduate degree. But the beautiful thing about the WATSA series is that the authors survey, recapitulate, and, to some extent, analyze what has been published in the field recently (In the full bibliography, there were only ten (10) listings from before I finished my graduate degree.). So, this volume is ideal for me and probably, for new students in biblical studies.
After a brief introduction, Alicia J. Batten (who wrote her dissertation on James) offers a very useful overview of scholars who debate whether the genre of the book is actually a letter or a teaching device. The most useful of these debates (at least for me) was the discussion of structure (most scholars saw various incidents of chiasmus in the book as a whole or sections of the book) and rhetoric (sharing the technical terms of classical rhetoric like: exordium (theme), narratio (basic facts), propositio (main point), argumentio (evidence or reasoning for the main point), and peroration (conclusion), even though the various scholars divided the book differently, all saw most of these as present.
Another discussion dealt with authorship and audience. Some accept (as an Occam’s Razor) James the Just (brother of Jesus) (assuming the core of the book would have come together prior to 62 (CE/AD)) while others see this as a later document using James’ name as an appeal to authority well after James’ martyrdom. With the latter, the book might have been an introduction to all the books usually called either the Catholic or General Epistles. There were more options on “audience” in that some scholars took the 12 tribes of the Diaspora as literal meaning Jews and others as Jewish Christians while others recognize the metaphorical nature of James’ audience as the “new Israel,” the Church.
Unfortunately, it seemed like space constraints restricted the discussion of thematic considerations in James. This may be personal, but it seemed like too much of the space was spent on the idea of James versus Paul. Both authors deal with faith and law, but it seems like much of the debate centers around evidence from absence (as with debates on Christology). Of the other theological issues considered (ever so briefly), I liked the emphasis on “perfection/completion” and eschatology.
One of the nice discussions was about James and the sayings of Jesus. I particularly liked the quoted phrase that “James was a witness to the sayings of Jesus that were ‘in the air.’” (p. 74) Others saw James’ awareness of the sayings of Jesus as somewhere between the posited document of “Q” and the more detailed presentations in Matthew (p. 75). Most agree that James didn’t merely copy Jesus’ teachings for his book but “…mined them as sources of inspiration to create his own wise proverb on the subject.” (p. 77)
Judging from WATSA: What Are They Saying About: The Letter of James, the WATSA theory is an ideal resource for students and pastors who have not specialized in the study of a given book and, as a result, haven’t kept up on the debates and potential discoveries in the research.
After a brief introduction, Alicia J. Batten (who wrote her dissertation on James) offers a very useful overview of scholars who debate whether the genre of the book is actually a letter or a teaching device. The most useful of these debates (at least for me) was the discussion of structure (most scholars saw various incidents of chiasmus in the book as a whole or sections of the book) and rhetoric (sharing the technical terms of classical rhetoric like: exordium (theme), narratio (basic facts), propositio (main point), argumentio (evidence or reasoning for the main point), and peroration (conclusion), even though the various scholars divided the book differently, all saw most of these as present.
Another discussion dealt with authorship and audience. Some accept (as an Occam’s Razor) James the Just (brother of Jesus) (assuming the core of the book would have come together prior to 62 (CE/AD)) while others see this as a later document using James’ name as an appeal to authority well after James’ martyrdom. With the latter, the book might have been an introduction to all the books usually called either the Catholic or General Epistles. There were more options on “audience” in that some scholars took the 12 tribes of the Diaspora as literal meaning Jews and others as Jewish Christians while others recognize the metaphorical nature of James’ audience as the “new Israel,” the Church.
Unfortunately, it seemed like space constraints restricted the discussion of thematic considerations in James. This may be personal, but it seemed like too much of the space was spent on the idea of James versus Paul. Both authors deal with faith and law, but it seems like much of the debate centers around evidence from absence (as with debates on Christology). Of the other theological issues considered (ever so briefly), I liked the emphasis on “perfection/completion” and eschatology.
One of the nice discussions was about James and the sayings of Jesus. I particularly liked the quoted phrase that “James was a witness to the sayings of Jesus that were ‘in the air.’” (p. 74) Others saw James’ awareness of the sayings of Jesus as somewhere between the posited document of “Q” and the more detailed presentations in Matthew (p. 75). Most agree that James didn’t merely copy Jesus’ teachings for his book but “…mined them as sources of inspiration to create his own wise proverb on the subject.” (p. 77)
Judging from WATSA: What Are They Saying About: The Letter of James, the WATSA theory is an ideal resource for students and pastors who have not specialized in the study of a given book and, as a result, haven’t kept up on the debates and potential discoveries in the research.
December 28, 2023
This overview of scholarship about James seems a solid and useful introduction for a non-New Testament scholar such as myself.
March 9, 2013
As a primer on the Letter of James, this book discusses foundational issues such as genre, structure, authorship, themes, and allusions to the sayings of Jesus, especially the Sermon on the Mount. The strength of the book is in its survey of the contemporary commentaries, dissertations, and monographs on the study of James.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews