The Voice of Jesus in the Social Rhetoric of James

A study of the social rhetoric of the Epistle of James.

Wesley Hiram Wachob (Author)

9780521660693, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 January 2000

266 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.9 cm, 0.49 kg

'It impresses as a work of scholarship, and shows that scholarly conclusions need to be taken seriously by the Church at large.' Eric Franklin, Church Times

This programmatic socio-rhetorical investigation approaches the Epistle of James as an instance of written deliberative rhetoric, and it seeks to ascertain the social texture of James 2.5, a rhetorical performance of language that in other contexts is explicitly attributed to Jesus. Utilizing the conventions of Greco-Roman rhetoric, Dr Wachob successively probes the inner texture, the intertexture, the social and cultural texture, and the ideological implications of the rhetoric in James 2.1-13. He analyses James' activation of antecedent texts in the LXX, common conceptions and topics in the broader culture, and also sayings in the Jesus tradition. He concludes that James emanates from the same milieu as the pre-Matthean Sermon on the Mount and shows James 2.5 to be an artful performance of the principal beatitude in that early epitome of Jesus' teachings.

Acknowledgements and note on 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 ancient authors
Index of modern authors
Index of Old Testament and Apocrypha
Index of New Testament
Index of subjects.

Subject Areas: Biblical studies & exegesis [HRCG]