Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Moral World of James - James Riley Strange
The Moral World of James - James Riley Strange
World of James
Studies in Biblical Literature
Hemchand Gossai
General Editor
Vol. 136
PETER LANG
New York • Washington, D.C./Baltimore • Bern
Frankfurt • Berlin • Brussels • Vienna • Oxford
James Riley Strange
The Moral
World of James
PETER LANG
New York • Washington, D.C./Baltimore • Bern
Frankfurt • Berlin • Brussels • Vienna • Oxford
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability
of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity
of the Council of Library Resources.
Printed in Germany
F o r Laura
Contents
Editor's Preface xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Abreviations xv
C h a p t e r Four. W a y s N o t T a k e n by James:
T h e Everyday Practice o f G r e c o - R o m a n Relgion 87
Divine Healing T h r o u g h Magic and S h r i n e s 87
T a m i n g Divine Powers in the G r e e k Magical Papyri 89
T h e G o d Powerful and B e n e v o l e n t at Epidauros 95
T h e G o d W h o Directs Destinies: Asklepios and Aelius Aristides ... 1 0 0
Confession o f S i n s in Asia M i n o r 107
T h e Confession Inscriptions 108
Conclusion:
Morality and Religion in James and Select G r e c o - R o m a n T e x t s 112
Notes 117
C h a p t e r Five. T h e W a y T a k e n by James?
T h e Deeds o f the C o m m u n i t y in 1 Q S 163
T h e C o m m u n i t y at Prayer 163
Confessing the S i n s o f the C h i l d r e n o f Israel 170
C o r r e c t i o n : Reproof, Isolation, and Exile 173
C o n c l u s i o n : Morality and Religion in J a m e s and Select Judaic T e x t s .... 177
Notes 184
C h a p t e r S i x . C o n c l u s i o n : T h e M o r a l W o r l d o f James 191
Notes 194
M o r e than ever the horizons in biblical literature are being expanded beyond
that which is immediately imagined; i m p o r t a n t new methodological, theologi
cal, a n d hermeneutical directions are being explored, often resulting in signifi
cant c o n t r i b u t i o n s to the world o f biblical scholarship. It is an exciting time
for the academy as engagement in biblical studies c o n t i n u e s to be heightened.
T h i s series seeks to make available to scholars and institutions, schol
arship o f a high order, and which will make a significant c o n t r i b u t i o n to the
ongoing biblical discourse. T h i s series includes established and innovative di
rections, covering general and particular areas in biblical study. F o r every vol
ume considered for this series, we explore the question as to w h e t h e r the study
will push the horizons o f biblical scholarship. T h e answer must b e yes for in
clusion.
In this volume J a m e s Riley Strange examines the m o r a l compass in
the b o o k o f J a m e s focusing particularly o n J a m e s 5 : 1 3 - 2 0 . In asking the prin
cipal question o f the study, "how does making morals construct c o m m u n i t y in
early Christianity", the a u t h o r carefully and extensively examines this text. H e
notes that the religious elements within the text, namely: prayer, healing, con
fession and correction are the modes o f proper c o n d u c t for the basis o f the
moral foundation o f the c o m m u n i t y . H e argues that the moral foundation o f
early Christianity is n o t founded o n morals a n d religion o f the G r e c o - R o m a n
world o r o f the Judaic world, b u t o n the basis o f the J a c o b e a n qualities. T h i s is
a well d o c u m e n t e d and persuasive argument a n d o n e w h i c h I believe will sure
ly be e m b r a c e d by many scholars. T h i s study is an i m p o r t a n t a n d wide-ranging
addition to the already well established body o f scholarly work o n this idea,
and it is o n e that I believe will surely expand the discourse o n this t h e m e in
significant ways.
H e m c h a n d Gossai
Series Editor
Acknowledgments
AB Anchor Bible
ABD Anchor Bible Dictionary. Edited by D. N. Freedman. 6 vols. New York, 1992
AMS Asia Minor Studien
ANRW Aufstieg und Niedergang der romischen Welt: Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spie
gel der neueren Forschung. Edited by H. Temporini and W . Haase. Berlin,
1972-
Bib Biblica
BJS Brown Judaic Studies
BN Biblische Notizen
BNTC Black's New Testament Commentaries
BR Biblical Research
BSac Bibliotheca sacra
BT The Bible Translator
BTB Biblical Theology Bulletin
BWK Die Beichtinschriften Westkleinasiens. Edited by Georg Petzl. Bonn, 1994
BZNW Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft
CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly
CJAS Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity
CIL Corpus Inscriptionum Latinamm
CTR Criswell Theological Review
CurBS Currents in Research: Biblical Studies
DSD Dead Sea Discoveries
EvQ Evangelical Quarterly
HTR Harvard Theological Review
ICC International Critical Commentary
JBL Journal of Biblical Literature
JPT Journal of Pentecostal Studies
JR Journal of Religion
JSNTSup Journal for the Study of the New Testament: Supplement Series
JSOTSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament: Supplement Series
LCL Loeb Classical Library
xvi • JAMES RILEY STRANGE •
Introduction:
The Epistle of James as
Community Instruction
I magine a place where the beliefs that people profess and the things that
they do form a seamless fabric. Because they claim that G o d is singular, a
generous giver o f good things, a n d n o respecter o f h u m a n distinctions, b u t
a merciful and just judge w h o soon will render a verdict o n all o f humanity,
they t o o take up single-minded action, maintaining undiluted devotion to
G o d , caring for those w h o have n o e c o n o m i c recourse, seating the p o o r in
their assemblies beside the wealthy, slandering n o o n e , praying for all. Con
ceive o f a c o m m u n i t y in which all members—sown with divine wisdom—shun
the warring factiousness that is the inevitable offspring o f earthly wisdom, and
instead cultivate peacemaking in the assembly as their c o m m o n aim, maintain
ing purity by spurning the values o f the world and submitting their own wills
to G o d ' s . Imagine a people w h o e n d u r e hardship with unwearied hope, w h o
patiently await the salvation o f the Lord. Envision a place where the rich put
their trust in G o d ' s providence just as the destitute do, where the sick find
healing, where sins are openly confessed and forgiven, and where those w h o
stray are sought o u t and returned to the fold.
S u c h is the vision set forth by the author o f the Epistle o f J a m e s . It is a vi
sion b o t h o f and distinct from the Hellenistic Mediterranean world. T h e au
thor, after all, wrote a m o n g peoples w h o thought that h u m a n behavior
mattered. F o r centuries, philosophers, legislators, and pious citizens o f this
region prized right actions, and they developed rational, legal, a n d religious
systems to preserve the values and structures o f b o t h large societies and small
associations. Y e t the vision is also distinctive. T h e a u t h o r o f James, a m e m b e r
o f a sect linked to Jesus as well as the world o f T o r a h , also t o o k up the task o f
morals-making in the m e d i u m o f writing, but sought to regulate actions by ap
peals to a particular Christian perspective. T o him, it was self-evident that,
a m o n g all o t h e r groups within the Empire, those w h o kept the faith o f the
Lord Jesus C h r i s t lived as G o d intended.
2 • JAMES RILEY STRANGE •
8
world. I f C h r i s t i a n morality so resembles the morality o f its neighbors, how
do we distinguish it from its environment?
Finally, what links are there between morals and religious practices in ear-
ly Christian texts? Christian writers regularly base codes for correct c o n d u c t in
religious transformation, submitting the will to G o d , a n d hope for reward a n d
escape from p u n i s h m e n t at the final j u d g m e n t . S u c h c o n c e r n s are linked to
religious acts o f the community—rites o f initiation, sacred meals, corporate
worship, reading o f scripture, r e m e m b e r i n g the words o f the founder, and
others—all d o n e rightly. S i n c e Christian writers do n o t clearly distinguish be
tween the moral behavior o f individuals and the religious practices o f c o m
9
munities, how were Christian practices also moral activities, a n d how were
10
moral acts regarded as religious?
T h e careful study o f a single case, namely the c o m m u n i t y instruction
found in J a m e s 5 : 1 3 - 2 0 , provides a way o f answering these questions. Schol
ars have long n o t e d the epistle's focus o n morality within c o m m u n i t i e s and its
c o n n e c t i o n to religious profession a n d practice. M a n y have characterized the
work as an example o f either G r e c o - R o m a n o r Jewish hortatory literature that
11
freely appropriates and passes o n Jesus traditions without ascription. The
letter is a comparatively c o m p a c t example o f Christian morals-making, com
posed early in the life o f the new religious m o v e m e n t , a n d working with the
teachings o f its founder. J a m e s 5 : 1 3 - 2 0 is a good case study because in these
verses the a u t h o r prescribes a constellation o f religious practices in a particu
larly c o n c e n t r a t e d m a n n e r and to a particular collection o f groups. T h e horta
tory language o f the passage, however, suggests that this is n o m e r e t a x o n o m y
o f rites, b u t a prescription o f religious practices that are in effect moral re
sponses to crises within those groups. T h e a u t h o r prescribes prayer, healing,
confession, and correction as modes o f proper c o n d u c t within c o m m u n i t i e s ,
in contrast to m o d e s o f improper c o n d u c t that he has earlier c o n d e m n e d .
A preliminary reading o f J a m e s 5 : 1 3 - 2 0 introduces the passage's provoca
tive c o m b i n a t i o n o f elements, and prepares the way for a consideration o f how
best to approach the questions it raises.
In the preceding section I have used the terms "moral" and "religious" to
m e a n different things, a distinction that requires clarification. Throughout
this study, by "moral discourse," I refer to language that is intended to shape
the way a group behaves. T h e discourse largely appeals to right t h o u g h t and is
grounded in the authority o f the author. M o r a l discourse is directed toward
m e m b e r s o f a particular group, conceived either broadly (as in a society) o r
narrowly (as in a local c o m m u n i t y o r congregation). " M o r a l " is an adjective
describing acts, a n d "morals" and "morality" refer to the c o n d u c t itself in
terms o f Tightness a n d wrongness rather than, say, in terms o f legality or reli
gious propriety. F o r purposes o f clarity I use the terms "moral," "morals," and
"morality" rather than "ethical" and "ethics." In this investigation, ethical a n d
ethics identify second-order reflection o n right behavior, while m o r a l and mo
rality refer to first-order instruction in what is right and wrong. Ethics has to
d o with rules for right behavior derived by rational argumentation, while mo
31
rality finds its warrant in authority. In the texts to b e examined, m o r a l dis
course is characterized by its attempts to persuade readers to a d o p t certain
mindsets and ways o f behaving, by its attention to virtues and vices, a n d by a
c o n c e r n for the group c o h e s i o n created by virtues o r corruption b r o u g h t o n by
vices.
"Religious discourse" casts a particular act as an obligation to a deity. Cer
tain expectations must be m e t in order for it to b e legitimate: such c o n d i t i o n s
include the particular day o r time o f day o f its performance, the adherence to
a set order, prescribed body postures o r gestures, whether it should b e accom
panied by a particular liturgy, a required mindset o f the suppliant, a n d so o n .
In religious discourse, the c o n c e r n is with the validity o f the practice: D i d it
m e e t the religious obligation o r fail to m e e t it? W a s it received by the god, o r
• T H E EPISTLE O F JAMES AS C O M M U N I T Y I N S T R U C T I O N • 7
was it addressed to the wrong one? W i l l it have the desired result, o r will er
rors in its execution void its effect? Religious discourse reveals a c o n c e r n with
the boundary between the holy and the m u n d a n e : acts performed according to
prescription have the power to transform ordinary m o m e n t s and locations in
to sacred times a n d spaces, whereas those performed incorrectly remain within
32
the realm o f the p r o f a n e .
A "religious practice" o r "act" is quite simply a response to a deity. T h i s
33
broad definition includes b o t h ritualistic a n d spontaneous behaviors, and
the c o n d u c t o f b o t h c o m m u n i t i e s a n d individuals as "religious." A text may
characterize a religious practice with either primarily religious discourse (con
cerned with h o w the act meets a religious obligation) o r with m o r a l discourse
(casting it as a virtuous deed). W h a t these many a n d varied acts share in
c o m m o n is the premise that they are directed toward a divine b e i n g o r beings.
It is also i m p o r t a n t to n o t e that the terms "religious" a n d " m o r a l " need n o t
coalesce. A text may indeed present religious practices within a m o r a l frame
work, b u t as J a m e s 4 : 3 demonstrates, it might be possible to perform a reli
gious practice in an i m m o r a l way, o r as Kierkegaard reminds us, o n e can
34
c o m m i t an act that suspends morality for the sake o f a religious d e m a n d .
B o t h m o r a l a n d religious discourses play a part in the c o n s t r u c t i o n o f
c o m m u n i t i e s . T h i s observation draws o n a p o i n t made by W a y n e Meeks: the
m e c h a n i s m s for the formation o f c o m m u n i t i e s c a n n o t b e separated from the
process o f moral formation. A l t h o u g h Meeks restricts his observations to the
C h r i s t i a n c o m m u n i t i e s that were founded in the m o v e m e n t ' s first decades, it
is possible to apply his remarks to religious, social, a n d political groups o f
35
many sorts, and indeed to entire s o c i e t i e s . Religious discourse plays a similar
role. W h e t h e r it does so explicitly o r implicitly, the performance o f religious
36
rituals serves to define o n e group over against a n o t h e r . T h i s is a fundamen
tal task o f religions in general a n d o f new religions in particular: to define the
social order in terms o f the people w h o hold a particular worldview and w h o
37
take up a particular way o f life that e m b o d i e s that view. H e n c e , the prescrip
tion o f inter-communal o r inter-societal acts defines outsiders as well as insid
ers, for those w h o do n o t behave in the approved way, o r w h o worship
according to a different form, fall outside the group, either because the group
excludes t h e m o r because they reject the group's self-imposed m o r e s .
M o r a l and religious discourse also maintain c o m m u n i t i e s by laying o u t
means o f c o r r e c t i o n , restoration, a n d exclusion, as well as by establishing me
chanisms that provide for the well-being o f group m e m b e r s . T h e Mishnaic
regulations o f heave offering to be c o n s u m e d by priests a n d their families can
be understood as religious discourse devoted t o the m a i n t e n a n c e o f holy Is
38
rael's way o f life (a society). Similarly, the election o f "table servers" in Acts
8 JAMES RILEY STRANGE
44
god to help s o m e o n e e l s e . Benediction—asking the god's blessing for h u m a n
beings—is an example o f this s e c o n d sul>type. W e shall see that a blessing—in
particular, a blessing directed toward God—may function as a precatory prayer.
S p o k e n prayers bring people into c o m m u n i c a t i o n with a deity, and they
are b o u n d by the time o f their performance. W h e n people stop speaking a
prayer, it is finished. Inscribed prayers, o n the o t h e r hand, are ongoing. Pray
ers affixed to doorposts and gates transform the m u n d a n e activities o f entering
and leaving i n t o acts o f sacred significance, and m o n u m e n t s b e a r c o n t i n u a l
witness to the deity's gracious deeds for future generations, b u t they also may
45
ensure the god's c o n t i n u e d care in the future.
Healing as a religious practice refers to the curing o f various maladies by
invoking the power o f a god. In this way it is distinguished from the a n c i e n t
practice o f m e d i c i n e and its various techniques (the application o f poultices,
the taking o f medicines, bathing, letting o f b l o o d , and o t h e r prescriptions by
healing professionals). Divine healing may require smearing with o i n t m e n t s
or bathing, b u t it clearly requires the power o f a god in order to b e effective.
In many instances, a god prescribes an act that the sick person has already at
tempted to n o avail, and it now works because the god c o m m a n d s it. In cases
such as these, the act takes o n the c o m p l e x significance o f a symbol, demon
strating the faith o f the o n e healed, o r h o n o r i n g the healing god.
As a heuristic category, divine healing may also b e distinguished from
magic. W h a t differentiates o n e from the o t h e r is that magic lacks the e l e m e n t
o f mutual devotion between h u m a n s and deity. T h r o u g h the ritual the daimon
is b r o u g h t under o n e ' s c o n t r o l for a time, a n d is dismissed w h e n n o longer
needed. T h e transaction does n o t require a system o f favor or charis, n o r does
46
it necessitate that the person b e pious o r particularly m o r a l .
Hypothetically, as a religious practice, confession o f sins may o c c u r in two
forms: acknowledging o n e ' s sins directly to G o d , o r confessing to a n o t h e r per
son. T h e s e c o n d type may also entail confessing to the person w h o m o n e has
wronged.
In the texts considered here, c o r r e c t i o n is a means for enforcing rules for
behavior in a group. T h e s e rules can pertain to the informal association o f
friendship, a particular c o m m u n i t y o r collection o f them, the polis, o r to entire
empires. In the case o f smaller associations, correction enforces the c o m m u
nity's boundaries by keeping "in" the insiders and by expelling to the outside
those w h o refuse to c o n f o r m . W i t h i n these kinds o f groups correction has a
forensic function, enforcing group rules by threat o f sanction. W i t h i n a cul
ture, correction works separately from the legal system, relying u p o n social
pressures and confrontation between peers to enforce social n o r m s .
10 JAMES RILEY STRANGE •
T h e questions raised at the outset o f this chapter (how does morals making
define c o m m u n i t y in C h r i s t i a n texts? how do we distinguish between Chris
tian and non-Christian morality?) require a c o m p a r i s o n between the Epistle o f
James and o t h e r texts. M o r a l and religious discourse, and particular moral
and religious practices, form the details for the c o m p a r i s o n . T h e procedure
for that c o m p a r i s o n n o w must b e set forth.
T h e purpose o f comparative work is to cause the individuality o f each text
47
to stand o u t clearly when it is viewed alongside another, similar t e x t . It is
worth heeding J o n a t h a n Z. S m i t h ' s cautions a b o u t the n o t i o n o f what is
" u n i q u e " in the c o m p a r i s o n o f Christianity with o t h e r religions. In this b o o k ,
" u n i q u e " c o n n o t e s , as S m i t h puts it, "a reciprocal n o t i o n which confers n o
special status, n o r does it deny—indeed, it demands—enterprises o f classifica
tion and interpretation. A is u n i q u e with respect to B , in this sense, requires
4 8
the assertion that B is, likewise, u n i q u e with respect to A . " Certainly the im
49
plication that the Epistle o f J a m e s bears "incomparable v a l u e " in relation to
o t h e r texts must b e avoided. Rather, throughout, "unique" and "distinctive"
are applied as S m i t h ' s hypothetical t a x o n o m i s t does, spelling out "the u n i q u e
50
differentium that allows the classification o f this o r that...species." In this
case, texts may b e c o m p a r e d because they belong to the same species—or ge
nre—broadly conceived. T h a t species comprises texts that link the health o f a
group to the practice o f morality a n d / o r religion.
It is also worth n o t i n g Luke J o h n s o n ' s critique o f S m i t h ' s work. Smith
produced a labor o f analysis, dismantling the work o f o t h e r scholars to unveil
the anti-Catholic bias that guided their assumptions and c o n c l u s i o n s . In his
(quite successful) efforts to p o i n t o u t the problem o f regarding early Christian
ity as sui generis—and h e n c e incomparable and incomprehensible—Smith of
fered n o alternative m e t h o d for establishing the "discourse o f difference" for
w h i c h he h i m s e l f called. Instead, he suggested a way o f understanding early
Christianity as a m e m b e r o f a class ( G r e c o - R o m a n religions) without being
able to distinguish it from o t h e r m e m b e r s o f the same class. V a r i o u s types o f
early Christianity reflected either a "locative" o r "utopian" world-view m o r e or
less like o t h e r G r e c o - R o m a n religions o f late antiquity, with the result that
51
Christianity simply faded i n t o its b a c k g r o u n d .
As a corrective to S m i t h ' s lacuna, in this project, the broader class to
which texts belong forms t h e starting point. It is the similarities between
things, after all, that allows those things to be c o m p a r e d in the first place, and
similarities allow for a generic application o f the term "unique." T o borrow
an example from an English cliche, it is possible to compare apples with or-
• T H E EPISTLE O F JAMES AS C O M M U N I T Y I N S T R U C T I O N • 11
T h e task in this project differs in important ways from Neusner's and S o n n ' s ,
and so the procedure must also diverge from theirs at s o m e points. T o begin
with, whereas N e u s n e r and S o n n speak o f categories that comprise entire reli
gious systems, here, "category" consistently refers to ways o f constructing a
practice. Categories provide answers to the questions, W h o performs the
practice? For whose benefit? T o what end? G i v e n the assumptions about the
ways that b o t h religion and morality construct c o m m u n i t y , certain answers are
o f particular interest: a group performs the practice o r an individual does, and
perhaps a particular kind o f individual; the practice is d o n e for the benefit o f
either the individual or the group (or because the god benefits from it); the
" c o m m u n i t y " constitutes a discreet congregation (a small-scale c o m m u n i t y ) , or
the polis, or a particular understanding o f culture (large-scale c o m m u n i t i e s ) ;
the practice is a moral act or has n o moral capacity; the practice has conse
q u e n c e s for the individual o r for the c o m m u n i t y in the here and now, or its
effects are fulfilled in the age to c o m e ; and so o n .
S e c o n d , rather than deciding a priori w h i c h categories o f the epistle form
the basis o f comparison, here the procedure will b e to derive categories
through a careful reading o f J a m e s . T h i s shift in procedure requires a corre
sponding adjustment in terms: here, the structures o f thought and social con
structs uncovered by analysis comprise "diagnostic categories," because
through t h e m will be better understood, n o t simply what the author says
about religious practices and morality, b u t what is at stake in his instruction.
T h e s e categories will aid in the diagnosis o f the moral vision expressed in the
letter: how it derives from the author's understanding o f G o d , h u m a n s , and
their relationship, and how it reveals a telos: the formation o f the c o m m u n i t y ,
the goal o f religious faithfulness, and the e n d that is c o m i n g . Furthermore,
due to the nature o f the investigation, the religious system o f the epistle forms
the central piece. O t h e r texts will help to illuminate that system and will
themselves be illuminated, b u t there simply is n o t space to give t h e m the same
attention that the Epistle o f James receives.
In C h a p t e r 2, close analysis o f J a m e s 5 : 1 3 - 2 0 in the c o n t e x t o f the whole
letter yields diagnostic categories that comprise the epistle's presentation o f
prayer, healing, confession, and correction. T h e s e categories will answer such
questions as w h o performs a specific practice (an individual, a c o m m u n i t y , a
14 •JAMES RILEY STRANGE*
Notes
11. For recent studies, see John S. Kloppengborg, "The Emulation of the Jesus Tradition in
the Letter of James," in Reading James with New Eyes: Methodological Reassessments of the
Letter of James, ed. Robert L. Webb and John S. Koppenborg (London and New York:
T & T Clark, 2 0 0 7 ) , 1 2 1 - 1 5 0 ; Patrick J. Hartin, James and the Q Sayings of Jesus, JSNTSup
47 (Sheffield, U.K.: JSOT Press, 1991), 4 2 - 4 3 ; T. Y. Mullins, "Jewish Wisdom Literature
in the New Testament," JBL 6 8 (1949): 3 3 9 . Among the noted commentaries on James
that pursue this topic, see James Hardy Ropes, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the
Epistle of St. James, I C C (New York: Charles Scribner & Sons, 1916), 1 6 - 1 8 ; Martin Di-
belius, James: A Commentary on the Epistle of James, rev. Heinrich Greeven, trans. Michael
A. Williams, Hermaneia (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976), 1 - 1 1 , 2 6 - 3 4 ; Sophie Laws,
The Epistle of James, B N T C (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1993), 6 - 2 6 ; Ralph P. Martin,
James, W B C 4 8 (Waco: W o r d Books, 1988), lxxxii-xcviii; Wiard Popkes, Der Brief des Ja-
kobus, T H N T (Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2001), 5 9 - 6 9 ; Luke Timothy John
son, The Letter of James: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, A B 3 7 A
(New York: Doubleday, 1995), 1 6 - 2 5 , 2 6 - 4 6 . See also Joseph B. Mayor, The Epistle of
James, 3rd ed. (London: Macmillan, 1913); repr. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel Publica
tions, 1990, 1 2 8 - 4 5 ( 4 3 8 - 5 5 ) .
12. 5:12, however, is also directed to the community as a whole and forbids a certain type of
religious practice (oath-taking), and must be kept in conversation with this passage. The
whole issue of units and transitions in James is problematic. In Letter of James, 3 2 5 - 2 6 ,
Johnson argues that verse 12 should be included as a transition to the final section; cf.
also Laws, Epistle of James, 2 1 9 , and Mayor {James), who in his contents (10) and notes
( 5 4 0 - 4 1 ) treats 5 : 1 2 - 2 0 as a unit, but without explanation. Martin (James, 199) follows
the divisions of the NA27 and brackets verses 1 9 - 2 0 as the epistle's conclusion. In Der
Jakobusbrief, HTKNT, 1 3 / 1 (Freiberg, Basel, and Vienna: Herder, 1964), Franz Mufiner
breaks the epistle down into much smaller independent units ( 5 : 1 3 - 1 5 , 1 6 - 1 8 , 1 9 - 2 0 ) .
Contrast Popkes, Brief des Jokobus, 3 1 4 , who reads all of 5 : 7 - 2 0 as a unit constructed
around the instructions concerning patience and prayer. This construal of James's or
ganization appears to follow that of Ropes, St. James, 293, who characterizes 5 : 7 - 2 0 as
"Counsels for the Christian Conduct of Life" that stand in contrast to "the censure of
Worldliness" in 4:1-5:6. Todd C. Penner (The Epistle of James and Eschatology: Re-reading
an Ancient Christian Utter, JSNTS 121 [Sheffield, U.K.: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996],
1 4 9 - 5 1 ) argues for linking verse 12 with what has come before and beginning the episto
lary conclusion at 13.
13. See the mention of care for widows and orphans in 1:27, looking after the destitute in
2 : 1 5 - 1 6 , and repentance in 4 : 7 - 1 0 . James also alludes to the practices of prayer in 1:5-
6, possibly baptism in 1:18 and 2 1 , communal worship in 2 : 2 - 3 , and religious instruc
tion in 3:1.
14. The construction is a main clause or series of clauses with the verb in the third person
imperative following an introductory clause with Tis ev upiv as the subject. Martin
(James, 2 0 6 ) calls this a "quasi-conditional," or "a question-imperative pattern."
15. Note that in 1:5 James also instructs members of the community to pray. See also the
question and response at 3:13. In the introductory clause of 3:13, however, the inter
rogative Tis appears.
16. The only missing phrase in the second couplet is E V upTv (cf. 1:5; 9; 2:2; 3:13; 4:1; 11),
which is unnecessary to repeat. Note that the text of the NA27 does not interpret the
18 •JAMES RILEY S T R A N G E *
opening clauses of these couplets as questions. The NA27's punctuation yields, "Some
one among you is suffering...," "Someone among you is happy...," and so on. The simi
larity of these opening sentences to conditionals (see esp. the third class conditional of
verses 19 and 20), however, suggests that James here discusses these situations as possi
bilities. For this reason I understand the opening clauses KaKOTraSeT T I S E V U U T V , EU0UUET
than the L X X (rravTas 5E TOUS ur) 4>iXovEiKouvTas KOXUTTTEI <J>iAia, "but love covers all
who shun strife" [cf. 1 Pet 4:8]). Compare these allusions with the references in 2:8; 11;
23; 4:6. I do not take 4:5 to be a scripture citation.
23. TTpooEuxEoSco, rrpooEu£aa0coaav, EUXH, EUXEOGE, rrpooEuxri rrpooEu^aTo, TTpooEu£aTO (cf.
5Er]ois, 16b); OCOOEI, OCOOEI; auapTias, auapxcoXov, auapTicov; EmoTpEvpn, ETTioTpEv|;as;
rrXavnOfj, rrXavns.
24. See the repetition of np- in 13 and 14; K- in 15; 6- in 16; rr- in 17 and 18.
25. - E T and -co repeat in 13 and 14a.
26. Note the sky and earth depicted as beings in 18; the sinner as lost sheep in 19 and 20.
27. See especially the discourse on speech in 3 : 1 - 1 2 .
28. 5:13 and 14; cf. 3:13; 4:14.
29. 5:13, 14, 19. Cf. 3:13.
30. 5:18. Cf. 1:6; 1:10-11; 2:26; 3 : 5 - 6 ; 3:11; 3:12, 4:14; 5:2, 3.
31. In making this distinction I follow the example of Meeks, Chrisitan Morality, 3 - 5 . Cf. the
discussion in Ian H. McDonald, The Crucible of Christian Morality (London and New
York: Routledge, 1998), 5 - 6 .
THE E P I S T L E O F J A M E S AS C O M M U N I T Y I N S T R U C T I O N • 19
32. See G. Van der Leeuw, Religion in Essence and Manifestation, trans. J. E. Turner (London:
Allen & Unwin, Ltd: 1938; repr. New York and Evanston, In.: Harper & Row, 1963),
3 8 4 - 8 7 , 3 9 3 - 4 0 2 ; Mircea Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, trans. Rosemary Sheed
(New York: New American Library, 1958), 1-4.
33. In this book, "ritual" does not require a definition more precise than an act that occurs
at fixed points of the calendar and times of day, and according to a prescribed order,
with requisite instruments, etc.
34. Kierkegaard famously tackles this problem in Fear and Trembling, published originally in
1843 under the pseudonym, Johannes de Silentio, and presently available in many trans
lations and editions.
35. Meeks himself makes this implication in Christian Morality, 7 - 8 .
36. Sulochana R. Asirvatham, Corinne Ondine Pache, and John Watrous, eds., Between
Magic and Religion: Interdisciplinary Studies in Ancient Mediterranean Religion and Society,
Greek Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield,
2001), xiii; Hans-Josef Klauk, The Religious Context of Early Christianity, trans. Brian
McNeil, ed. John Barclay, Joel Marcus, and John Riches, Studies of the New Testament
and Its World (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 2000), 2 1 7 .
37. See Jacob Neusner and Tamara Sonn, Comparing Religions Through Law: Judaism and Islam
(London: Routledge, 1999), 2, 7.
38. M. Terumot.
39. Acts 6 : 1 - 6 .
40. Cf. the Glossary of Terms in Simon Pulleyn, Prayer in Greek Religion (Oxford, U.K.: Clar
endon Press, 1997), xiv.
41. Ibid., 8 - 1 5 .
42. See the discussion of x ^ P ' S in ibid., 2 - 3 8 .
43. See the description of the typical parts of Roman prayer (invocation, pars epica, preces) in
Michael J. Brown, The Lord's Prayer Through North African Eyes: A Window into Early Chris
tianity (New York and London: T & T Clark International, 2004), 6 2 - 6 5 . The "basic
pattern for a Greek prayer," according to Pulleyn, is an invocation followed by a request:
Pulleyn, Prayer, 7.
44. None of the texts examined here has a specific vocabulary to distinguish between peti
tion and intercession. In Greek, for example, apaoucu ("pray that") implies asking some
thing of a god, but of itself does not specify who the recipient should be: oneself or
someone else. Quite often in the literature, we find terms that on their own do not nec
essarily connote religious acts, but can express a wish or asking for something: E U X O U C U
and its derivatives EUXETaouai, rrpooEuxouai, rrpooEuxr); bby (Hithp.: intercede on behalf
of, pray), n'psn (supplication), ;:n (show favor; Hithp.: implore favor), r»:nr\/y.:un (supplica
tion), nni? (Qal and Hithp.: pray, supplicate), etc. Often, particularly in prayer texts
themselves, we find simply verbs of asking or begging, or pleas that the god "hear,"
"grant," or "answer": C C I T E C O , O K O U C O , E I O C X K O U C O , E T T I P A E T T C O , 5 ( 5 C O U I , etc.; bxv, i;;, 0159, r;:p,
etc.
45. F. T. van Stratten, "Gifts for the Gods," in Faith, Hope, and Worship: Aspects of Religious
Mentality in the Ancient World, ed. H. S. Versnel, Studies in Greek and Roman Religion
(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1981), 103; Cf. Jason Moralee, For Salvations Sake: Provincial Loyalty,
20 •JAMES RILEY STRANGE
Personal Religion, and Epigraphic Production in the Roman and Late Antique Near East, Studies
in Classics (New York and London: Routledge, 2004).
46. See the discussion in Chapter 4.
47. In the method that follows I rely heavily on the work of Jacob Neusner and Tamara
Sonn, Judaism and Islam. Neusner and Sonn lay out a method for the systemic compari
son of religions (specifically the comparison of Judaism and Islam through their legal sys
tems) that is useful for this project, especially since their medium for comparison is texts,
as it is here.
48. Jonathan Z. Smith, Drudgery Divine: On the Comparison of Early Christianities and the Relig
ions of Late Antiquity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990), 37.
49. Smith, Drudgery Divine, 36.
50. Ibid., 3 6 - 3 7 .
51. Luke Timothy Johnson, Religious Experience in Earliest Christianity: A Missing Dimension in
New Testament Studies (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998), 3 1 .
52. Neusner and Sonn, Comparing Religions, 12.
53. Ibid.
54. In this book, "distinct" and "distinctive" connote the usage of "unique" laid out on pp.
18-19.
55. Note Malherbe's critique of J. N. Sevenster's comparison of Paul and Seneca. Malherbe
wishes for a broader comparison between Paul and Stoicism, but the point is well taken
when Sevenster concludes that superficial similarities between the two authors reveal
their underlying differences. Malherbe, "Hellenistic Moralists," 2 7 7 - 7 8 .
56. For the purposes of this study, "Greco-Roman" refers to those texts, written between
around the fourth century B C E and the fourth C E in Greek (no Latin texts appear in
this study), whose authors base their religious discourse on the Greek and Roman pan
theons. In this study, "Judaic" refers to those texts of the Greco-Roman world between
about the second century B C E and the third C E , written in Greek and Hebrew (no
Aramaic texts appear in this study), whose authors understand Torah to be God's revela
tion to Moses at Sinai, and that call the people who keep Torah in the way that God
wishes Torah to be kept "Israel." The discussion of magical spells from Egypt is set in
the context of Greco-Roman texts.
57. Neusner and Sonn, Comparing Religions, 1 4 - 1 7 .
• C H A P T E R T W O *
R eligious practices have a social function. W e are familiar with the part
that s o m e rituals play in admitting c a t e c h u m e n s into a religious group,
and how o t h e r rituals demonstrate o r bring about cohesiveness.
particular, many authors have trained students o f the New T e s t a m e n t to t h i n k
1
In
J a m e s addresses threats to the group in just this way. H e reserves some o f his
harshest accusations for people whose bitter envy a n d selfish a m b i t i o n place
c o m m u n i t y m e m b e r s at odds with o n e a n o t h e r and threaten c o m m u n i t y soli
darity. J a m e s describes this state as warfare, and he accuses such members o f
murder. H e arrives at such a c o n d e m n a t i o n through his n o t i o n o f sin.
For James, sin is an offense that o n e c o m m u n i t y m e m b e r c o m m i t s against
a n o t h e r . T h o s e w h o d i s h o n o r the p o o r in their assemblies, and those w h o re
fuse to c l o t h e and feed the c o m m u n i t y ' s destitute m e m b e r s c o m m i t sin ( 2 : 9 ,
a u a p m ' a v epya^EoSE; cf. 2 : 1 5 - 1 6 ) . J a m e s warns against undisciplined and de
structive speech in the c o m m u n i t y ( 3 : 1 - 1 2 ) . He also blames strife a m o n g
c o m m u n i t y m e m b e r s o n their failure (or refusal) to c o n t r o l their desire ( 4 : 1 -
2). Indeed, unfettered desire is the primary source o f destructive behavior in
the c o m m u n i t y , according to J a m e s .
T h e terms "sin" and "sinner" apply to c o m m u n i t y m e m b e r s , as is evident
in the passages just covered, with further support in chapters 4 and 5 . As
James's typical modes o f address indicate, he directs nearly all o f his discourse
to insiders, to "beloved brothers" o r those "among you [pl.J." Even the harsh
accusation, "Adulteresses!," o f 4 : 4 are directed toward c o m m u n i t y members.
In 4 : 7 - 1 0 , J a m e s calls o n these people to submit to their " G o d " and "Lord,"
indicating their insider status. By contrast, the rhetoric at 5 : 1 - 6 is apocalyptic:
the wealthy landowners are c o n d e m n e d to suffer their "coming miseries," and
24 •JAMES RILEY S T R A N G E *
raging fire that b u r n s down an entire forest ( 3 : 5 b ) and "a restless evil, full o f
deadly poison" ( 3 : 8 ) .
T h i s "death" is m o s t naturally u n d e r s t o o d in three ways, n o n e o f w h i c h
excludes the others. [1] A person wishes death o n a fellow. [ 2 ] B o a s t i n g a n d
cursing alienates the doer from the rest o f the c o m m u n i t y because this person
a b a n d o n s the c o m m u n i t y ' s way o f life and takes up the ethos o f "the world."
[ 3 ] S u c h bad b e h a v i o r quickly grows o u t o f c o n t r o l and threatens the very sur
vival o f the c o m m u n i t y , o r succeeds in destroying it.
All three possibilities are present when J a m e s accuses people o f murder in
4 : 2 . T h i s accusation is part o f James's portrayal o f inter-community conflict as
warfare ( 4 : 1 ) , a n d as is the case in 1 : 1 4 - 1 5 , these acts o f killing result from de
sire. T h e N R S V ' s translation here is misleading, for it includes n o t h i n g to
show that "you" renders a second-person plural. T h e N R S V at 4 : 1 a is fine:
" T h o s e conflicts and disputes among you, where d o they c o m e from" conveys
the sense o f EV U J J I V ; b u t 4 : l b misses the point: " D o they n o t c o m e from your
15
cravings that are at war within you!" T h i s rendering gives the impression o f
an individual suffering psychological stress, o f a person at war with his or h e r
inner cravings. B u t the N R S V ' s prepositional phrase "within you" translates
EV xoTs U E A E O I V uucov: " a m o n g your m e m b e r s . " T h i s is a problem a m o n g the
constituents o f a group, n o t within a person's psyche. Furthermore, James's
imagery o f violent death in 4 : 1 - 2 suggests that translators ought to avoid sof
tening the m e t a p h o r s o f warfare here, as the N R S V does. A c c o r d i n g to J a m e s ,
persons within t h e c o m m u n i t i e s are engaging in "battles and skirmishes"
(TTOAEUOI Kai...uaxaO, and their cravings (r)5ovai) are "at war" (oTpa-
TEUOUEVCU) a m o n g their m e m b e r s . T h e result is that m e m b e r s "murder" (<J>o-
VEUCO, an issue that J a m e s has b r o u g h t up earlier in his discussion o f keeping
the whole law; 2 : 1 1 ) and l a u n c h m o r e "skirmishes and battles" ([laxtOTfe Ken
TTOAEUETTE) at o n e a n o t h e r .
In this instance, J a m e s is warning against the demise o f the c o m m u n i t y .
As J a m e s presents matters, surely n o group can survive the virulence o f this
conflict: m e m b e r s blithely attack o n e a n o t h e r because o f their cravings, their
covetousness, and their evil prayers, in w h i c h they ask only for those things
that they can spend o n their own pleasures. Apparently, people c h o o s e sides
in disputes between individuals, b r o a d e n i n g the conflict to create warring fac
tions. A s with t h e sin o f b a d speech in the c o m m u n i t y , here the s i n n e r seeks
b o t h personal gain and to damage o t h e r m e m b e r s o f the assembly.
As J a m e s c o n t i n u e s , he also speaks o f m e m b e r s ' alienation from the c o m
munity. In 4 : 4 J a m e s lashes o u t at those w h o are at war because o f their de
sires: "Adulteresses! D o you n o t k n o w that friendship with t h e world is
e n m i t y with G o d ? T h e r e f o r e , whoever wishes to b e a friend o f the world be-
JAMES'S C O M M U N I T Y VISION • 27
T h e C o m m u n i t y at P r a y e r
23
as a petition for patience or e n d u r a n c e , a reading that returns to the t h e m e
o f enduring temptations and the rewards o f doing so in 1 : 2 - 4 and 12. I simi
larly pass over the a d m o n i t i o n to the cheerful person to sing praises in 5 : 1 3 ,
only pointing out that the singular T I S EV u|itv o f verses 13 and 14 suggest that
James envisions prayer and song offered by individuals, possibly in the c o m
24
pany o f fellow believers. As he does with the prayer for e n d u r a n c e , J a m e s
says n o t h i n g further o n the matter.
T h e case o f the sick person, o n the o t h e r hand, requires s o m e exposition
by J a m e s and serves as a premise from which J a m e s draws a c o n c l u s i o n . T h i s
is the first example in J a m e s o f a prayer performed by a group o n an individ
ual's behalf. W h e r e a s the c o n d i t i o n s o f suffering and cheerfulness require the
response o f the individual, a sick person is a d m o n i s h e d to s u m m o n the elders
o f the c h u r c h , w h o are to a n o i n t the afflicted o n e in olive oil "in the n a m e o f
25
the Lord," then to pray (Trpoaeu£aa0coocxv) over h i m or h e r .
J a m e s claims that the "prayer o f faith" (r) Euxr) Trjs TTIOTECOS) is effective in
bringing a b o u t healing, a claim that leads o n e to ask again what "faith" m e a n s .
T h e association o f prayer and faith brings to m i n d the familiar a d m o n i t i o n to
26
"ask" for wisdom "in f a i t h . " In that earlier passage, those w h o make their
request to G o d "in faith" are those w h o remain unshaken in their fidelity to a
generous G o d . T h e people undergoing perfection through endurance—the
27
faithful—are those whose petitions G o d will answer. T h e divided, or faith
less, do n o t receive what they request, n o t because they d o n o t believe, b u t be
cause their very nature stands in direct contrast to G o d ' s undivided, aTrXcos
nature. Later it will b e c o m e clear that what divides a person is loyalty to his o r
her own selfish desires, which leads to asking only for the things that fulfill
those desires.
In J a m e s 1, James's exhortation makes equal use o f censure a n d encour
agement: yes, G o d responds to h u m a n faithfulness, b u t h u m a n s also can find
strength to e n d u r e because o f G o d ' s ongoing fidelity. A l t h o u g h t h e text in w .
6 - 8 implies a chain o f cause and effect, in this section there is also the sugges
tion that h u m a n s are to m o d e l their actions o n G o d ' s own faithfulness. In
deed, they are already familiar with this aspect o f G o d . J a m e s reminds those
w h o are carrying o n in the face o f trials o f what they "know" (yiveooKco), a n d
v. 12 m e n t i o n s G o d ' s promised reward.
T h i s understanding o f faithful prayer in 5 : 1 5 is strengthened by the asser
28
tion that "a righteous person's prayer [Senois SIKCUOU] is quite powerful."
Just as the elders' prayers o f faith assure the sick person's recovery, so m e m b e r s
o f the assembly may b e assured that their prayers for o n e another's healing will
be answered. T o this claim the a u t h o r adduces the example o f Elijah, w h o
prayed for b o t h drought and rain (TTpooEUxfi Trpoonu^aTO, TTQXIV npo-
JAMES'S C O M M U N I T Y VISION • 29
by KGCI suggests that it should? I f the latter is the case, the language suggests
that, like salvation/healing and rising/resurrection, forgiveness o f the sick per
son's sins should b e understood as a result o f the elders' faithful action. T h i s
interpretation o f James's language—making healing, rising, and forgiveness
c o n t i n g e n t upon the faith o f the elders rather t h a n upon the faith o f the sick
56
person—again finds its m a t c h in the gospel t r a d i t i o n . Linking illness to sin is
also in line with J a m e s ' s earlier statement that sin gives b i r t h to death (1:15),
as well as his display o f how this destructive progression plays itself o u t in the
c o m m u n i t y (4:1-3).
A n o t h e r question c o n c e r n s how the a n o i n t i n g with oil functions in the
passage. Scholars have called attention to apparently parallel passages docu
m e n t i n g the medicinal application o f various types o f oil in the a n c i e n t
57
world. Nevertheless, the citation o f parallels does n o t explain how J a m e s en
visions the use o f oil here: is it a medicinal application o r is some o t h e r use
indicated?
T h e r e are several reasons to c o n c l u d e that J a m e s does n o t see the oil pri
58
marily as a healing s u b s t a n c e , the m o s t convincing o f w h i c h c o m e s directly
from context: J a m e s is clear that it is the prayer o f faith that "saves" the sick
o n e . By contrast, he has n o t h i n g to say about the function o f the oil itself. A
similar case in M a r k 6:13 reports that the Twelve "anointed with olive oil
many w h o were sick and cured t h e m " (emphasis added)—language that also
implies that the oil has n o particular curative effect. T h e r e is, in fact, a single
clear example o f the medicinal use o f oil in e a c h T e s t a m e n t (Isa 1:6 a n d Luke
59
10:34), b o t h o f which indicate that the application (neither uses any verb
m e a n i n g "anoint") is for treating skin abrasions rather than for curing dis
eases: in the first, oil is used to "soften" ("p")) sores; in the second, the Samari
tan "pours" (BTTIXECO) a salve o f oil and wine o n t o the beaten m a n ' s open
60
wounds before bandaging t h e m . J a m e s gives n o indication that oil is to b e
used as a salve for an injury; as noted, his language refers to illness.
61
J a m e s uses aAEl(|>co, a verb meaning "to a n o i n t " or "smear." T h e vast
majority o f the instances o f u n c t i o n in the Bible fulfill the purpose o f sanctifi-
62
cation. In m o s t cases, a n o i n t i n g with oil is used to consecrate either objects
o r people, setting t h e m aside for special service to G o d ; noteworthy is the ex
ample from Isa 61:1 (cited by Jesus in Luke 4:18), in which ncfa/e'xpioEV bears
63
a figurative m e a n i n g . In the Psalms especially we find anointing interpreted
as a symbol o f G o d ' s special favor expressed through providential care. Ps
23:5 c o n t a i n s the m o s t m e m o r a b l e example, b u t later in the Psalter (45:8 =
L X X 45:7), in language that invites comparison with J a m e s , the psalmist says
t o a bridegroom, " Y o u love righteousness [pis] and hate wickedness [tfEh];
therefore the Lord your G o d has a n o i n t e d you hjnttp] with the oil o f gladness
• JAMES'S C O M M U N I T Y VISION • 35
64
jifefc] m o r e than your c o m p a n i o n s . In addition, oil is associated with
a t o n e m e n t via a sin offering for o n e afflicted with scale-disease in Lev 1 4 : 1 8 ,
29. Scripture, therefore, provides J a m e s with a cluster o f religious significa
tions from which to draw when prescribing anointing with oil for the sick.
N o t e also that J a m e s instructs the elders to a n o i n t "in the n a m e o f the
Lord" (EV TCO o v o u c m T O U Kup(ou). In light o f 5 : 1 0 , where the phrase EV TCO
65
OVOUCXTI Kupi'ou is used o f the prophets w h o spoke u n d e r G o d ' s authority,
the language o f 5 : 1 4 implies that through u n c t i o n the elders o f the c h u r c h al
so act u n d e r the authority and o n b e h a l f o f the risen Jesus. W i t h i n the broad
er c o n t e x t o f N e w T e s t a m e n t writings, the phrase also resonates with o t h e r
religious acts d o n e "in the n a m e o f Jesus"—primarily baptisms a n d healings,
b u t also proclamation and gathering together—in the b o o k o f A c t s and the
66
Pauline literature.
G i v e n this information, although we c a n n o t rule o u t that it is intended as
a healing salve as well, the use o f oil in J a m e s is best understood as an e l e m e n t
o f a religious practice, read within the c o n t e x t o f the many such uses o f oil in
scripture (even i f its precise significance c a n n o t b e determined), invoking the
power o f the risen Lord, and fitting "comfortably within [the language] used in
67
the earliest Christian m o v e m e n t . "
A final question arises c o n c e r n i n g the use o f Elijah as an exemplum in
verses 17 and 1 8 . James's recollection o f Elijah jars, for J a m e s has b e e n talking
about prayers for salvation/healing, b o t h the elders' prayer for the sick person
and all m e m b e r s ' prayers for o n e a n o t h e r . Elijah's prayer, by contrast, is nei
68
ther intercessory n o r for h e a l i n g . However, Elijah is also r e m e m b e r e d for
just this kind o f prayer, namely the resuscitation o f the widow's son in 1 Kings
6 9
17:17-24. M o r e impressive, however, is the affinity between J a m e s ' s descrip
tion o f healing and the language with which the author o f The Lives of the
Prophets recalls Elijah's deed o f wonder: " W h e n he prayed [E\J£C(|JEVOU], G o d
raised [rjyEipEv] from the dead [the widow's] son w h o had died." Nevertheless,
James does n o t make this c o n n e c t i o n , a n d any attempt to answer why can only
be speculative. Perhaps J a m e s r e m e m b e r s Elijah through t h e lens o f the gospel
tradition (preserved in Luke 4 : 2 5 - 2 6 ) , which records Jesus m e n t i o n i n g the wi
dow o f Zeraphah, b u t only in c o n j u n c t i o n with the drought, making n o men
70
tion o f the miraculous resuscitation o f her s o n .
W h a t diagnostic categories arise from the previous analysis? First, like
prayer, healing is a c o m m u n i t a r i a n act. A t every level the pathology o f sick
ness and the prescription for healing are understood within the workings o f
the c o m m u n i t y . T h e sins that result (somehow) in illness are crimes against
fellow c o m m u n i t y members; healing is performed by c o m m u n i t y m e m b e r s
through intercessory prayer; the sick person is restored to health and to the
36 •JAMES RILEY STRANGE*
Confessing Sins to O n e A n o t h e r
Returning a W a n d e r i n g M e m b e r
Notes
18. T o denote prayer earlier in the letter (1:5, 6; 4:2, 3 ) James has used the verbs "ask" and
"receive" (ociTeco, AapPaveo); f. Matt 7:7-11 (Luke 11:9-13); 21:22; Mark 11:24; John
c
paKpoSupias] of the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord" (5:11).
23. Hartin, James, 2 6 5 . Cf. Muftner, Jakobusbrief, 217; Martin, James, 205; Johnson, Letter of
James, 3 2 9 ; Popkes, Brief des Jakobus, 3 9 9 .
24. Despite the shift from the singular address of verse 13 to the plurals of verses 14 and 16,
Hartin interprets the admonitions of verse 13 as universal instructions, and thus trans
lates them in the plural. Hartin, James, 2 6 5 .
25. I translate the participle aXsiv|;avTEs temporally ("a/ter anointing him"), but because of
the absence of such concerns elsewhere in James it is not likely that this verse implies an
imposition of a strict liturgical order.
26. In 1:6 the phrase E V T T I O T E I stands in contrast to the verb Siaxpivco, a word that carries
various meanings associated with making judgments (s.v. "SiaKpi'vco," L & S , 3 9 9 ; see also
the discussion of the term in Mayor, Epistle of James, 4 0 - 4 1 [ 3 5 0 - 5 1 ] ) , such as "to re
move" (something from something else), "to distinguish" (one thing from another), and
"to decide" (between options). These meanings lead to both philosophical ("to decom
pose into elemental parts" [Anaxagorus 12]) and religious ("to consecrate" [Pindar, Odes
10{11}.46]) usages. The range of meanings in the passive voice is equally disparate:
"part" (i.e., the hair), "divorce," "be judged." W h a t all of these terms hold in common is
the idea of making distinctions between two or more entities or options. Both the active
and middle-passive of SiOCKpivco can express the idea of division or separation. In the
context of James, the impression is of someone who is torn between divided loyalties.
Cf. Acts 10:20; 11:12; Rom 4:20, where Paul uses Staicpivco in contrast to T T I C T I S with
language similar to James's. Cf. also Matt 21:21; Mark 11:23. For more explicit uses of
Staicpivco to express evaluating or making distinctions, see James 2:4; Matt 16:3; Acts
15:9; 1 C o r 4:7; 6:5; 11:29, 3 1 ; 14:29. The word can also convey the idea of disputation
or taking issue with someone or something, as in Acts 11:2 and Jude 9.
James likens the person who does not ask to a wave being tossed about wherever the
wind blows (1:6), an image expanded by the adjectives 5(v|/uxos ("double-minded" or
44 JAMES RILEY S T R A N G E *
29. Drawing on the language of Ps. 4, Mitchell Dahood has proposed that "the heavens" of
verse 18 be read as a circumlocution for God. Mitchell Dahood, "Note on tob 'Rain,'"
Bib 5 4 ( 1 9 7 3 ) : 7 3 - 8 9 .
30. Elijah's prayer in 1 Kings 1 8 : 3 6 - 3 7 ends with the plea, "that this people may know that
you have turned back [MT n-nn»...nzcri; L X X EOTpEv|/as...6Trioco] their hearts." Among
biblical writings, Mai 3:24 (MT) picks up the language of 1 Kings, stating that "before the
coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD," Elijah "will renirn [rcrn] the heart of
the fathers to their sons and the heart of the sons to their fathers." The LXX (Mai 3:23)
has "He will bring back [aTTOKaTaoTrpEi] the heart of a father to a son and the heart of a
man to his neighbor." Addressing the prophet himself, Sirach 4 8 : 1 0 says that at the ap
pointed time "you are destined...to turn [£TTicTpEv|;ai] the heart of a father to a son, and
to restore [KaTacnrjam] the tribe of Jacob." Regarding Elijah's eschatological mission,
Matt 1 7 : 1 0 - 1 1 follows the L X X of Malachi: "Elijah is coming and will restore
[QTroKaTC(OTr)OEi] all things"; Mark 9 : 1 1 - 1 2 follows the L X X of Malachi less closely, tak
ing on some of the nuance of Sirach: "Elijah is coming; he is restoring [aTTOKaOicrravEi]
all things"; Luke 1:17 is also apparently influenced by the text of Sirach: John the Baptist
• JAMES'S C O M M U N I T Y VISION • 45
will go forth "in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn back [emoTpev^ai] the hearts of the
fathers to their children and the disobedient in the insight of the righteous."
31. Cf. Bauckham, James, 101.
32. Implicit examples can be found at James 1:27; 2 : 2 - 3 ; 3:1; 13.
33. But cf. Matt 17:16 (Mark 9:18; Luke 9:40); Acts 5:12.
34. See Louise Wells, The Greek Language of Healing from Homer to the New Testament Times,
BZNW 83 (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1998).
35. Matt 10:8; 25:36, 39; Mark 6:56; Luke 4:40; John 4:46; 5:3, 7; 6:2; 1 1 : 1 - 6 ; Acts 9:37;
19:12; cf. Phil 2:26-27; 1 Tim 4:20.
36. Matt 8:8, 13; 15:28; Mark 5:29; Luke 5:17; 6 : 1 8 - 1 9 ; 7:7; 8:47; 9:2, 11, 42; 14:4; 17:15;
22:51; John 4:47; 5:13; Acts 9:34; 10:38; 28:8; Heb 12:13.
37. Moralee, For Salvations Sake, 1.
38. Matt 9 : 2 1 - 2 2 (Mark 5:28, 34; Luke 8:48); 14:36 (Mark 6:56); Mark 3:4 (Luke 6:9); 5:23;
10:52 (Luke 18:42); Luke 8:36; 8:50; 17:19; Acts 4:9; 14:9. Cf. Luke 7:50; Acts 16:31;
Rom 10:9.
39. In a notable story from the triple tradition Jesus heals a paralyzed man by declaring his
sins forgiven: Matt 9 : 2 - 8 (Mark 2 : 1 - 1 2 ; Luke 5 : 1 7 - 2 6 ) ; cf. Luke 7 : 4 7 - 4 8 ; 1 Cor 1 1 : 2 9 -
30.
40. Many accounts are also found in the triple tradition: Matt 8:15 (Mark 1:31; Luke 4:39);
9 : 6 - 7 (Mark 2 : 1 1 - 1 2 ; Luke 5 : 2 4 - 2 5 ) ; 9:25 (Mark 5 : 4 1 - 4 2 ; Luke 8 : 5 4 - 5 5 ) . Cf. Matt
9:27; Luke 7:14; John 5:8. See also Acts 3:7; Mark 3:3; 10:49.
41. In these sources, according to Johnson (Letter of James, 332), we typically find praying "on
behalf of" (urrep) someone, or "concerning" (rrepi) someone.
42. Discussed in Chapter 4.
43. Johnson, Letter of James, 3 3 2 .
44. Rom 4:19; 8:3; 14:1-2; 1 Cor 8 : 1 1 - 1 2 ; 2 Cor 11:21, 29; 12:10; 1 3 : 3 - 4 , 9. Cf. Acts
20:35.
45. Wis 15:9.
46. 4 Mac 3:8; 4 Mac 7:13 ("weakened"); Wis 4:16 ("dead").
47. Heb 12:3; cf. Job 10:1; 17:2; Philo, Post 31; Josephus, A. J. 2.290.
48. Matt 13:15 (John 12:40; Acts 28:27; - Isa 4:10); Heb 12:13; 1 Pet 2:24 (= Isa 5 3 : 4 - 5 ) .
49. In the gospels and Acts alone see Matt 1:21; 1 0 : 2 2 / 2 4 : 1 3 (Mark 13:13); 16:25 (Mark
8:35; Luke 9:24); 19:25 (Mark 10:26; Luke 18:26 [cf. 13:23]); 24:22 (Mark 13:20); Mark
16:16 ("long ending"); Luke 1:47, 6 9 , 7 1 , 77; 2:11; 8:12; 9:56 (Western tradition); 19:9,
10 (cf. Matt 18:11); John 3:17; 4:22, 42; 5:34; 10:9; 12:47; Acts 2:1 (= Joel 3:5), 40; 4:12;
5:31; 11:14; 13:23, 26, 47 (= Isa 49:6); 15:1, 11; 16:17, 3 0 - 3 1 .
50. Rom 4 : 2 4 - 2 5 ; 10:9; 1 C o r 6:14; 2 C o r 4:14.
51. Mayor, Epistle of James, 1 7 0 - 7 3 ( 4 8 1 - 8 3 ) ; Ropes (St. James, 3 0 8 ) simply asserts, "syeipeT
cannot refer here either to the awakening of the dead to life or to the resurrection"; Di
belius interprets the healing as an exorcism: Dibelius, James, 252; MufSner, Jakobusbrief,
2 1 8 - 2 2 1 ; Martin, James, 204; Popkes, Brief des Jakobus, 3 4 0 - 4 1 . See also John Wilkin
son, The Bible and Healing: A Medical and Theological Commentary (Edinburgh: The Hansel
Press; Grand Rapids: Eerdman's, 1998), 2 4 4 - 2 4 5 ; John Christopher Thomas, The Devil,
46 JAMES RILEY STRANGE •
Disease, and Deliverance: Origins of Illness in New Testament Thought (Sheffield, U.K.: Shef
field Academic Press, 1998), 1 5 - 3 7 ; Martin C. Albl, "'Are Any among You Sick?' The
Health Care System in the Letter of James," JBL 1 2 1 / 1 (2002): 125; Daniel R. Hayden,
"Calling the Elders to Pray," Bibliotheca Sacra 138 (1981): 2 5 8 - 2 6 6 ; Frederick J. Wright,
"Healing: An interpretation of James 5 : 1 3 - 2 0 , " Journal of the Christian Medical Fellowship
37 no. 1 (1991): 2 0 - 2 1 ; J . Keir Howard, Disease and Healing in the New Testament: An
Analysis and Interpretation (Lanham, Md., New York, and Oxford, U.K.: University Press
of America, 2001), 2 5 8 - 2 6 6 .
52. Laws, Epistle of James, 227; Johnson, Letter of James, 3 3 2 - 3 5 ; Hartin, James, 2 6 8 - 7 0 ; Bro-
sund, James & Jude, 1 5 3 - 5 7 , 1 6 0 - 6 2 .
53. For a few examples, see Deut 2 8 : 5 8 - 6 3 ; Job 8 : 1 - 2 2 ; 11:6b; 2 2 : 1 - 3 0 ; Prov 3 : 2 7 - 3 5 ;
11:19; 1 3 : 2 1 - 2 3 ; 19:15-17; 2 3 : 1 9 - 2 1 ; Ezek 1 8 : 1 - 2 9 ; Sir 1:12-13; 3 : 2 6 - 2 7 ; 1 1 : 1 4 - 2 0 .
Cf. John 9:2; 1 C o r 11:30.
54. Luke 7:50; cf. Acts 16:31.
55. According to Mayor we should understand James to mean, "'if he has committed sins
which have given rise to this sickness...'"; Mayor, Epistle of James, 174 (484).
56. Matt 9:2 (Mark 2:5; Luke 5:20); cf. Matt 21:28 (Mark 7:29: "for saying that...the demon
has left your daughter"). See the discussion in Chapter 5.
57. Among texts predating and roughly contemporary to James, the most commonly cited
are the use of oil to treat a festering leg wound in Menander, Georg. 60; Pliny's treatment
of various oils in Nat. 2 3 . 3 9 - 5 0 ; Hippocrates, Vict. (=Regimen) II, 65 (DC); Philo's praise
of the benefits of simple olive oil over costlier unguents in Somn. 2.58; Josephus's ac
count of the desperate and apparently extreme prescription that Herod Antipas immerse
himself in an oil bath in A.J. 1 7 . 1 7 2 / B J . 1.657; Celsus's prescription of anointing after
inducing vomiting in De Med. 4 . 2 6 . 4 - 5 ; Galen's praise of oil's ability to cure paralysis in
Med. Temp. 2.10 (DC); the use of salted oil to treat illness in T. Sol. 18.34; the quest for
"the oil of life" to treat the dying Adam in L.A.E. 36.2 (=ApMos 9.3) and 4 0 . 1 - 4 1 . 2
(=ApMos 1 3 . 1 - 2 ) ; and the priestly anointing of the sick with a consecrated mixture of oil
and "the waters" in T. Adam 1.7. See Mayor, Epistle of James 170 (480); Ropes, St. James,
305; MufSner, Jakobusbrief, 220; Johnson, Letter of James, 3 3 1 ; Karris, "James 5 : 1 3 - 2 0 , "
2 1 1 - 1 5 ; idem, Prayer, 1 8 2 - 8 4 .
58. Dibelius, James, 2 5 2 .
59. Cf. Rev. 3:18.
60. This use of oil parallels that prescribed by Menander in Georg. 6 0 .
61. In Greek, the idea of anointing is carried by the verbs aAef<|>co (as here in James) and
Xp»co. In the L X X these verbs typically translate the MT nee. Wilkinson's claim that
aAEi(|>co "is never used in the gospels of anointing for a religious purpose" does not take
into consideration the religious purposes of anointing a body for burial (Mark 16:1), and
it pays attention only to Jesus' chastisement of Simon the Pharisee without explaining
the purpose behind the woman anointing Jesus' feet in Luke 7:38, 4 6 (Wilkinson mis
takenly lists Luke 8:46, and he claims that nine uses of C(AEI<|>CO occur in the NT; there
are eight: Matt 6:17; Mark 6:13; 16:1; Luke 7:38, 4 6 ; John 11:2; 12:3; James 5:14). Wil
kinson, The Bible and Healing, 252; cf. Howard, Disease and Healing, 2 6 3 .
62. Examples of cosmetic anointing appear in Deut 28:40; Ruth 3:3; 2 Sam 12:20; 14:2; 2
Chron 28:15; Ezek 16:9; Dan 10:3; Micah 6:15; Matt 6:17; cf. Psalm 104:15. Exod
JAMES'S C O M M U N I T Y VISION • 47
30:32 may allude to a similar use, and Josephus may be speaking of the application of oil
as a cosmetic when he mentions the Essenes' aversion in B.J. 2.123. Johnson makes note
of gymnastic applications of oil in the ancient world as well, none of which seems re
flected in the biblical literature: Johnson, Letter of James, 3 3 1 .
63. For a general survey of examples, see Gen 28:18; Exod 28:41; 29:7, 36; 3 0 : 2 2 - 3 3 (cf. Lev
8 : 1 0 - 1 2 ) ; 4 0 : 9 - 1 5 ; Lev 2 : 1 - 4 , 1 4 - 1 6 ; 16:32; Judg 9 : 8 - 1 5 ; 1 Sam 9:16; 10:1; 15:1; 16:3,
1 2 - 1 3 ; 2 Sam 2:4; 1 Kings 1:34, 39; 2 Kings 9:6; 2 En. 2 2 . 8 - 9 .
64. Heb 1:9 cites the LXX of this Psalm (44:8), both using XP«co. See also Ps. 92:10; 133:2.
Cf. Luke 7:46.
65. Cf. Deut. 18:19, 22; 1 Kings 22:16; 2 Kings 2:24; 2 Chron 18:15; 33:18; Jer 11:21; 26:9,
16, 20; 44:16; Ezek 5:1; Zech 13:3.
66. Acts 2:38 (baptism "in the name of Jesus Christ"); 3:6 (healing "in the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth"; cf. 3:16); 10:48 (baptism "in the name of Jesus Christ"); 16:17 (ex
orcism 'in the name of Jesus Christ"); 19:5 (baptism "in the name of the Lord Jesus").
Incidences of speaking and preaching boldly "in the name of Jesus Christ" (thus mirror
ing the prophetic discourse of James 5:10) occur in Acts 4:18; 5:40; 9:27. In 1 C o r 1:13
Paul asks, "Were you baptized in the name of Paul?"; he answers his own rhetorical ques
tion in 6:11 by asserting, "But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ"; and in 5:4 he speaks of the congregation "gath
ered in the name of our Lord Jesus" (contra NRSV). Cf. Mat 28:19; Col 3:17.
67. Johnson, Letter of James, 3 3 1 .
68. It can be argued that the prayer for the rains to return is an intercessory prayer, although
it is not presented as such in 1 Kings 1 8 : 3 6 - 3 7 .
69. Sirach 48:5 says of Elijah, "You who raised [6 eyEi'pas] a corpse from the dead and from
Hades by the word of the Most High."
70. One problem with this conjecture is not only the close verbal agreement between James's
recollection of the drought and that found in The Lives of the Prophets, but also the fact
that both record two prayers—one to stop the rain and one to start it again. No other
ancient source does so.
71. C f . 4 Q 4 1 6 2.3ff.
72. Cf. Job 4:8; Prov 22:8; also 2 Chron 9:6; Hos 10:12; 1 C o r 15:33. Compare this image
with that of the implanted word of 1:21.
73. James's particular word choice for the confession of sins (6£o|JoAoy67o0E...aMapTias) is
uncommon in both the L X X and New Testament; see Johnson, Letter of James, 3 3 4 . In
the LXX, the confession of sins is most often conveyed by E^ayopEUco (cf. Lev 5:5; 16:21;
26:40; Num 5:7; 3 Kgdms [1 Kgs] 8:31; 2 Esd l l [ N e h 1]:6; Ps 31[32]:5). In the L X X and
New Testament, opoAoyeco most commonly expresses making a vow or profession of
faith in God (cf. Jer 51[44]:25; Job 40:14; 1 Esd 4:59-60; Matt 7:23; 10:32 [Luke 12:8];
14:7; John 1:20; 9:22; 12:42; Acts 7:17; Rom 10:9, 10; 1 Tim 6:12; Titus 1:16; Heb
13:15; 1 John 2:23; 4 : 2 - 3 , 15; 2 John 7; Rev 3:5); it expresses confession of sins only in
Sir 4:26, Pss. Sol 9:6, and 1 John 1:9 (Cf. Add Esth 12:3). The cognate e^oAnoAoyeco
bears a similar usage in the Greek Bible, expressing thanksgiving or public profession of
faith most often (cf. Gen 29:35; 2 Sam 22:50; 3 Kgdms [1 Kgsl 8:33, 35; 1 Chron 16:4;
Ps 17:50[18:49] 2 Mace 7:37; Matt 11:25 [Luke 10:211; Rom 14:11 [= Ps 17:50]; Phil
;
48 •JAMES RILEY STRANGE •
2:11), and articulating confession of sins only in Matt 3:6, Mark 1:5, Acts 19:18 (sins are
not explicitly mentioned), and here in James 5:16.
74. By inserting eairrcov after Tots ccpapTi'as, a few miniscule manuscripts attempt to clarify
that a person confesses his or her own sins.
75. Though less clearly, it is also linked to the juxtaposition of the implanted word of 1:21
that has the power to save (give life) and desire that leads to sin and thence to death.
76. Many manuscripts place CXUTOU after SavaTOU; in many more it is missing altogether.
77. Often used in conjunction with peTavoeco: Matt 13:15/Mk 4:12 (= Isa 6:10 LXX); Luke
1:16-17; 17:4; 22:32; Acts 3:19; 9:35; 11:21; 14:15; 15:19; 26:18, 20; 28:27 (= Isa 6:10
LXX); 2 C o r 3:16; 1 Thes 1:9; 1 Pet 2:25.
78. The first, ETTiOTpevpn, is an aorist active subjunctive, and forms, along with rrXavnSfj, the
protasis of a third class conditional; the second, o 6rnaTpe\|/as, is an aorist active partici
ple. The apapTcoXos, therefore, does not "turn"; rather, a fellow believer "uirns" the
sinner.
79. An apparent citation of the Hebrew of Prov 10:12.
80. For example, James's transitive use of eTTlOTp£<()CO matches eschatological claims about
Elijah in Sir 4 8 : 1 0 and Luke 1:17, both of which draw on the language of 1 Kings 18:37.
81. Cf. Wesley H. Wachob, "The Languages of 'Household' and 'Kingdom' in the Letter of
James: A Socio-rhetorical Study," in Reading James with New Eyes: Methodobgical Reassess
ments of the Letter of James, ed. Robert L. Webb and John S. Koppenborg (London and
New York: T & T Clark, 2007), 151-168. Wachob argues that the author seeks to per
suade community members to model their thoughts and actions after Jesus'.
82. Albl, "Are Any among You Sick?"
83. Signs of city life appear now and then in James. The community convenes in a public
structure, the synagogue. Its members are abused in the law courts. James anticipates
that some may travel to other cities to make money. In this context, the reference to
community members who labor in the fields suggests city dwellers who travel outside the
walls to work at their day jobs.
• C H A P T E R T H R E E *
T h e first task o f each section o f this chapter is to explain the logic b e h i n d the
selection o f particular works for analysis and c o m p a r i s o n with James. W e ask,
why these texts a n d n o t s o m e others? It is important to address this question
because a n o t h e r set o f texts might highlight quite different aspects o f James's
construal o f religious practices and moral deeds. T h e primary criterion for the
selection o f a text is w h e t h e r it contains counterpart categories to J a m e s ' s con
strual o f religious practices. I f a particular text talks a b o u t prayer, b u t gives n o
indication o f whether individuals do it o r a group performs it, sets it forth us
ing neither religious n o r m o r a l discourse, says n o t h i n g a b o u t the relationship
between h u m a n s and the Divine that forms the basis o f the practice, a n d m o s t
importantly gives n o indication o f what effect prayer has o n the social entity, a
c o m p a r i s o n with J a m e s can yield only superficial similarities and differences,
b u t will reveal little a b o u t what the texts share at the level o f system, or how
those systems differ.
3
C o n s i d e r M e n a n d e r o f Laodicea's first treatise o n epideictic r h e t o r i c . In
itially two characteristics suggest that what M e n a n d e r R h e t o r has to say a b o u t
prayers and hymns will help illuminate J a m e s by comparison, and likewise
M e n a n d e r in c o m p a r i s o n with James: [1] M e n a n d e r talks a b o u t the right and
GRECO-ROMAN VISIONS OF CORPORATE LIFE* 51
wrong ways to c o m p o s e hymns (see especially his section o n precatory and de
precatory hymns in 3 4 2 . 2 1 - 3 4 3 . 1 6 ) , and 1 2 ] he deploys t h e language o f virtue
and vice to talk a b o u t good and bad hymn writing. A closer reading shows
that what is at stake for M e n a n d e r R h e t o r is the issue o f form—mixed and
pure types o f hymns and how well a hymn c o n f o r m s to the n o r m s o f its ge
nre—and that c o n c e r n generates his categories a n d the logic o f his discourse.
M e n a n d e r does n o t work the discussion a r o u n d to what role form plays in a
hymn's efficacy (characteristics o f religious discourse), a n d the issues o f virtu
ous o r evil hymn writing (characteristics o f m o r a l discourse) do n o t make an
impact o n his treatise.
S o , for example, when M e n a n d e r uses a c o m m o n term for "virtue" h e is
talking a b o u t matters o f style (apETT) epMnveias; 3 4 0 . 2 4 ; cf. 3 3 9 . 2 9 ) . W h a t is
"excellent" is what is fluent and polished (oTcopuAeos KCU yXac|)upcos; 3 4 1 . 2 2 -
2 3 ) , balanced, simple, and b r i e f (SI'KOCIOS, airAoos, fipaxus; 3 4 2 . 2 1 - 3 4 3 . 1 6 ) ;
what is n o t excellent causes disgust (TrpooKopr)s; 3 4 0 . 2 5 ) , is tiresome ( K O T Q —
KOprjS; 3 4 3 . 4 ) , and puerile (peipaKicoSris; 3 4 0 . 1 0 ) . It is evident that there is
little in this discussion to make a c o m p a r i s o n o f J a m e s a n d M e n a n d e r R h e t o r
worthwhile, for M e n a n d e r is talking a b o u t aesthetics rather than either moral
or religious obligations. T h e discourses o f J a m e s and M e n a n d e r intersect only
at the level o f shared vocabulary b u t diverge at the level o f system: they are
simply talking to different people a b o u t different things.
As we shall see directly, in contrast to the work o f M e n a n d e r R h e t o r , a
reading o f the Laws reveals a set o f diagnostic categories (answering the ques
tions, w h o prays in the Laws, for w h o m , and to what end?) that provides a
suitable matrix for comparison with J a m e s because many o f the categories in
o n e text find counterparts in the other. J a m e s talks a b o u t m e m b e r s o f the as
sembly praying for o n e another, and Plato also has something to say about the
individual and corporate c o n c e r n s o f prayer; J a m e s presents the practice o f
prayer as a moral deed, and Plato t o o has ways o f setting forth piety as a virtue;
and so o n . T h e r e will be s o m e categories that prove to b e disproportionate, o r
that are present in o n e text b u t n o t the other, b u t the d o m i n a n c e o f counter
part categories between the two texts provides the basis for c o m p a r i s o n a n d
contrast. T h i s is the case for all texts read in this and the following chapters.
S o m u c h for Laws' general suitability for comparison with J a m e s . Moving
to the particular, a comparison between J a m e s and Laws provides the oppor
tunity to view J a m e s alongside a political work whose logic and goals are built
upon the philosophical assumptions o f the Platonic s c h o o l (presumably, those
4
o f Plato himself). Laws shows how a philosophical and political system gener
ates the categories o f c o m m u n i t y , religion, and morality with its own logic and
assumptions about what is good. W e begin, then, by d e t e r m i n i n g how the
52 •JAMES RILEY S T R A N G E *
c o n c e r n s o f Plato's vision for the ideal state engender a discussion o f the value
o f the religious life, and what Plato says about acts o f piety, how they should
be c o n d u c t e d and why, what understanding o f the divine-human relationship
they reveal, and h o w they construct c o m m u n i t y .
The discourse o n piety in Plato's Laws functions as part o f a political vi
sion, b u t the vision is n o t entirely Utopian. R a t h e r , Laws looks like an at
tempt, near the e n d o f Plato's life, to derive a plan for a working society from
the philosophical system that he has developed over the course o f his career;
5
in the work, Plato a b a n d o n s proper dialogic form and organization, and he
begins with the problems e n d e m i c to the governance o f h u m a n beings rather
than with questions generated by an epsitomology. In C h a p t e r 4 o f Laws, the
characters in the work begin to discuss an actual case, and they base their talk
o n a question—asked at the outset o f C h a p t e r 1—whose answer has immediate
implications for their c h o s e n task: H o w should the state fashion laws to ensure
6
the happiness o f its citizens?
7
In Laws 4 . 7 1 6 B - 7 1 8 C , three pilgrims o n their way to the grotto o f D i c t e
8
o n C r e t e consider the formation and preservation o f the ideal city. After the
discussion takes a practical turn toward the founding o f a new c o l o n y o n
9
Crete's M a g n e s i a , the travelers take up, for a b r i e f m o m e n t , the issue o f reli
gious piety (Leg. 4 . 7 1 6 B - 7 1 7 A ) .
S o m e things stand o u t immediately. First, the A t h e n i a n equates self-
c o n t r o l with striving to b e God-like, and, by extension, makes the claim that
the intemperate person is at enmity (5ia<J>opos) with G o d . B o t h claims strike
a familiar note, calling to m i n d b o t h James's construal o f morality as behavior
that aligns a person with G o d ' s activity and his invective against G o d ' s e n e m y
(Ix8pa) in J a m e s 4 : 4 . T h e r e is also a clear disparity between the temperate
person a n d the wicked person (also impious, a v o o ( o s ) in this passage o f Laws,
a n o t h e r p o i n t o f similarity with J a m e s . In J a m e s , those w h o pray in faith can
look forward to having their prayers answered, while those w h o pray evilly
(KCCKCOS) should expect n o t h i n g from G o d ; according to the A t h e n i a n , the
gods accept n o gift from t h e wicked person (KCXKOS), while freely receiving t h e
service o f those w h o are pious (boios).
O n the o t h e r hand, in this passage we e n c o u n t e r a n o t i o n that we have
n o t seen before: acts o f piety as gifts to the Divine. T h e idea is carried by the
G r e e k language o f piety itself, some o f w h i c h the A t h e n i a n uses: TrpooopiAEco,
"to have c o m m u n i o n with" o r "hold intercourse with"; ccva0r)[ja, "offering";
6EpaTT6ia, "service." Also, the gods for their part "receive" the "gifts" that are
offered (5copa SexsoBai). By implication, the gods benefit s o m e h o w when
10
h u m a n s perform cultic a c t s . However, the focus o f the passage is n o t o n
what the gods gain from h u m a n s ; rather, the A t h e n i a n emphasizes what hu-
• G R E C O R O M A N VISIONS OF C O R P O R A T E LIFE • 53
assured. W h e n the latter breaks down, the law either extracts virtue through
35
force, o r teaches it by s a n c t i o n .
O n the issue o f exclusion, o r isolation o f the c o m m u n i t y from surround-
ing influence, Plato and J a m e s c o n c u r : the c o m m u n i t y should avoid pressure
from outside mores. In Laws, the entire c o l o n y o f Magnesia remains cut o f f
from o t h e r cities by its u n i q u e way o f life, o n o n e hand, a n d by an isolationist
policy that excludes untrained outsiders from its citizenry and self-contained
systems o f food production and trade, o n the o t h e r . Despite the city's class
system, we find a partial leveling o f social strata in the availability o f political
office to all citizens, including w o m e n , and an e c o n o m i c structure that aims at
a comfortable level o f living for all as well. In Laws, at least s o m e citizens are
capable o f s o m e knowledge, and h e n c e o f attaining some virtue, including the
virtues o f wisdom and justice, and those w h o d o so may attain to political of
fice. Despite this attenuation o f the idea o f social rank, the strata in society,
although n o t entirely fixed, are clear and fairly rigid.
F o r his part, although J a m e s prescribes n o organizational paradigm for
churches, we find in his tightly defined c o m m u n i t i e s a measure o f egalitarian-
ism that contrasts m o r e strikingly with what we k n o w o f G r e e k a n d R o m a n
society. C h u r c h e s have s o m e offices (we k n o w o f only teachers a n d elders),
b u t n o clear hierarchy o f authority. R a t h e r than lauding those with e c o n o m i c
and political power, J a m e s c o n d e m n s them, and there is a tendency in the
epistle to upset expected lines o f authority: the rich will be "brought low"
while the p o o r are "exalted," teachers are to beware the stricter j u d g m e n t un
der which they fall, and it is the sick person w h o s u m m o n s the elders rather
than the o t h e r way around. M o s t notably, wisdom is available to all for the
asking; it is the exclusive possession o f n e i t h e r the elderly n o r the trained phi
losopher. Perhaps as a result, aside from the elders' healing service, J a m e s sets
forth n o division o f religious labor: all confess sins, all pray for o n e another's
healing, a n d any may correct an erring b r o t h e r o r sister.
T h e r e are clear points o f disagreement and disproportion as well. James's
category o f the c o m m u n i t a r i a n religious act—performed by m e m b e r s o f a
c o m m u n i t y o n b e h a l f o f its o t h e r m e m b e r s , and aimed at the preservation o f
the c o m m u n i t y ' s structure and boundaries—is n o t m a t c h e d by t h e cursory
m e n t i o n o f civic religious rites in Laws, a n d it finds little in c o m m o n with Pla
36
to's proposal for the constitution o f the good c i t y . W e find n o indication
that Plato sees the worshiping body as a cohesive group dedicated to t h e physi
cal and spiritual welfare o f its m e m b e r s and morally segregating itself within
the city. A c c o r d i n g to Plato's plan, what binds together citizens o f the colony
o n Magnesia is their mutual willingness to adhere to its constitution, and to
participate in domestic and political activities that benefit the whole o f the
GRECO-ROMAN VISIONS OF CORPORATE LIFE* 57
is "the o n e lawgiver and judge who can save and destroy" ( 4 : 1 2 ) . In James, the
primary m o d e o f correcting behavior in the here and n o w is through intra-
c o m m u n i t y a d m o n i t i o n that brings a b o u t repentance. However, J a m e s does
use s o m e forensic imagery to encourage right understanding and behavior
when h e speaks o f peering i n t o the perfect law o f liberty ( 1 : 2 5 ) a n d fulfilling
the royal law ( 2 : 1 2 ) .
C o m p a r i s o n o f the Epistle o f J a m e s and Plato's Laws o n the basis o f diag
nostic categories yields, n o t merely details o f c o n c u r r e n c e and divergence, b u t
access to the systems o f thought that animate the discourse o f b o t h authors.
In simple terms, and focusing o n the issue o f how morality and religious acts
form the c o m m u n i t y , we have learned that in Plato's Laws piety is an individ
ual and political act, whereas in J a m e s 5 it is c o m m u n i t a r i a n a n d counter-
societal. In Laws, m e m b e r s o f the state, rightly carrying o u t their civic duty o f
h o n o r i n g the gods through prayer and sacrifice, function within a system that
b o t h forms the polis and preserves it for posterity. In James, pious acts are
performed: a) within the boundaries o f associations tightly defined over
against the prevailing ethos (as James construes it); b ) for the benefit o f their
members; c) so that these groups take up G o d ' s own ongoing and community-
sustaining acts.
W e turn now to a selection from the G r e e k historian and essayist Plutarch (c.
4 4 - c . 1 2 5 C . E . ) , popularizer o f Platonism, and long-time priest o f A p o l l o at
39 0
Delphi. T h e treatise attributed to him, On Superstition,* treats t h e topic o f
right worship o f the gods, using certain practices o f divination, sorcery, a n d
various types o f a n o i n t i n g a n d baptism as foils for his understanding o f proper
G r e e k religion. In an essay supposedly written by a k n o w n religious celebrant,
it is surprising to find n o references to cases with w h i c h Plutarch is familiar,
either by his own experience o r by hearsay. H e draws from historical figures
and works o f literature, b u t often generalizes, a n d as a result, frequently relies
o n caricature and hyperbole to make his point, which, briefly stated, is: [1] be
cause it stems solely from fear o f the gods, [2] based as it is o n t h e blasphe
mous n o t i o n that the gods regularly h a r m h u m a n s , [3] superstition is a m o s t
pernicious caricature o f true piety, so m u c h so that it is better n o t to believe in
the gods at all i f o n e is inclined to be superstitious.
As Plato's Laws posed a political solution to the problem o f h u m a n hap
piness, On Superstition draws from the Platonic tradition to offer a solution as
well. As Patrick G r a y notes, however, "Plutarch pays very little attention to
41
the political d i m e n s i o n o f superstitio in his construal o f 5 E t O l 5 a t | J O V i a . " In
• GRECO-ROMAN VISIONS OF C O R P O R A T E LIFE • 59
fact, the Platonic worldview and political vision(s) remain in the background
in Plutarch's discourse. W h e n Plutarch talks about the social order, he in
vokes the n o t i o n o f a h o m o g e n e o u s G r e e k culture, a n d to spell o u t what is
right and good for G r e e k s he draws o n the ideas o f the indigenous, solemn,
and "traditional" in contrast to what is foreign, grotesque, and new, and there
42
fore polluting.
In distinction to the political aim in Laws, we can characterize On Supersti
tion as a moral treatise, w h i c h places Plutarch's work in a class m u c h closer to
James's protreptic discourse. T h r o u g h the understanding o f prayer that the
work sets forth—who should pray, h o w they should pray, and for what—On Su
perstition provides an opportunity to c o m p a r e J a m e s with a moral essay situated
in the b r o a d stream o f Platonic ethics. It eschews dialogic argumentation, and
instead asserts the superiority o f G r e e k virtues, making generalizations a b o u t
superstitious practices and the immoderate a n d i m m o d e s t mindsets o f super
stitious peoples. Like J a m e s , Plutarch begins with the problem o f h u m a n liv
ing, given the existence o f the gods a n d their interactions with humanity, a n d
also like James, at times he simply c o n d e m n s what in his view is wrong. Un
like J a m e s , w h o scrolls through several topics in his work, Plutarch devotes his
entire treatise to the single issue o f superstition.
O u r analysis o f prayer in On Superstition begins with a b r i e f summary o f
the argument. Plutarch discusses disbelief in the gods (or atheism [a0EOTr)s])
on o n e hand, and the wrong kind o f belief (superstition [SEioiSaipovia]) o n
the other. A t h e i s m he finds ridiculous b u t relatively harmless, whereas super
stition is a pervasive and dangerous problem in G r e e k society. W h y does he
t h i n k so? In order to answer that question, we turn first to O n Superstition 2
4 3
(Moralia 1 6 5 B - C ) ; two initial observations are possible from a reading o f this
passage. First, it is clear that superstition specifically infects the reasoning
power (Xoyos) o f the individual, a n d that in particular superstition is "an
e m o t i o n a l n o t i o n " (5o£av E[JTra0fj) made acute by fear (c|)6(3os) that debilitates
44 5
reason. T h i s idea is repeated many times in O n Superstition* yet fear o f the
gods is n o t to b e avoided completely, for Plutarch claims that n o t to fear t h e m
at all is impious. By playing o n the etymology o f SEioiSaipovia, Plutarch dis
tinguishes between two types o f fear o f the gods, suggesting that o n e entails
reverence for, o r awe of, divine beings, whereas superstition itself is a debilitat
46
ing terror (SEISCO) o f t h e m . A c c o r d i n g to Plutarch, the gods only help hu
man beings, b u t whereas the atheist is merely blind to this fact (and by
implication draws n o benefit from it), fear causes the superstitious person to
accept the opposite proposition: that the gods are the source o f h u m a n mis
47 48
ery. B o t h positions are associated with a falsification o f r e a s o n .
60 JAMES RILEY S T R A N G E *
passage, the exact usage o f the topos is unclear, but the association o f "right-
ness" with tradition and the juxtaposition with bizarre acts a n d "barbarous
phrases" (prmaoi P a p P a p i K o f s ) implies that correct speech is c o n d u c t e d in the
59
G r e e k language, and it c o n f o r m s to customary good m a n n e r s . M o r e impor
tantly, to pray in G r e e k is in continuity with the ways o f the ancestors, to
w h o m the gods gave the traditional rites. In this way, Plutarch's language in
vokes the n o t i o n o f traditional (vopivov) ways, sacred knowledge passed down
60
unchanged from generation to g e n e r a t i o n . Based o n this idea, it follows that
prayer d o n e wrongly is prayer d o n e for the wrong purpose (to escape t o r m e n t ) ,
61
is based on mistaken assumptions (that the gods cause trouble for h u m a n s ) ,
and is c o n d u c t e d in t h e wrong way (substituting obsession over t h e precision
o f t h e r i t e for t h e T i g h t n e s s o f t h e o n e w h o p r a y s , b u t a l s o r e p l a c i n g t r a d i t i o n a l
62
religious practices with those imported from barbarian p e o p l e s ) .
S o m u c h for praying wrongly. D o e s Plutarch talk a b o u t how the pious
should pray? W e find an answer in On Superstition 4 (Mor. 1 6 6 E ) . Here Plu
tarch explicitly discusses prayer as petition (signified by a i T O U | J E 0 a ) , and again
he reiterates his point that because the gods supply only good things, fear o f
t h e m is c o n t e m p t i b l e . M o r e importantly, he gives s o m e indication o f what
people ought to ask for when they pray: b o t h material goods a n d their enjoy
63
ment (riches and an easy living), and certain virtues (peace, c o n c o r d , and
64
success in word and d e e d ) . By implication, the gods have under their do
main the welfare o f the individual, and they are prepared to help the person
w h o asks rightly.
Two further observations are pertinent. O f the five terms m e n t i o n e d
above (riches, easy life, peace, c o n c o r d , and success in word a n d deed), four
carry c o n n o t a t i o n s o f prosperity in general, and three o f material wealth in
65
particular. TTXOUTOS denotes riches, typically in the form o f the accumula
tion o f m o n e y and land. EuTropi'a can b e a virtual synonym for TTXOUTOS, but
its primary usage implies ease or facility in accomplishing a thing, often indi
66
cating ease in making a living. In G r e e k literature, Eiprjvr] primarily has a
negative sense, describing a state o f non-war or a season marking the time be
67
tween wars; by extension, it c o m e s to c o n n o t e the prosperity o f peace t i m e s .
Finally, the term that B a b b i t translates as "success" is 6p0coais, whose r o o t
68
meaning, "making straight," takes o n the derived m e a n i n g o f "prosperity."
T h e language "success in word and deed," therefore, suggests skill in conduct
ing o n e ' s business, whether it be e c o n o m i c o r political, that increases o n e ' s so
cial status. O n e focus o f prayer in this discourse is the good life, measured by
material well-being.
Additionally, we may classify these goods in two categories: the first two
objects o f prayer (riches and an easy living) aid the individual, whereas the
62 •JAMES RILEY STRANGE*
three that follow (peace, c o n c o r d , and success in word and deed) e x t e n d bene-
69
fits to society as a w h o l e . In G r e c o - R o m a n literature, Eiprjvr] rarely applies to
70
the absence o f conflict between individuals. R a t h e r , as noted, m o s t often it
refers to periods w h e n hostilities between warring armies o r nations cease, a n d
a resulting state o f political stability in w h i c h farmers can return to their crops
and officers to the administration o f their city businesses and country estates,
71
while trade may n o w resume o n roads that recently transported t r o o p s . By
contrast, concord—the idea o f h a r m o n y o f t h o u g h t and action between hu
mans—is c o m m o n l y d e n o t e d by b p o v o i c c v , the s e c o n d virtue Plutarch men
72
tions. T h i s is b o t h a popular topos discussed at length by G r e c o - R o m a n
73
moralists (concordia in the Latin a u t h o r s ) and a virtue m e n t i o n e d in many
74
o t h e r types o f t e x t s . B o t h c o n c o r d a n d excellence o f word and deed (also a
15
c o m m o n topos ) imply corporate h u m a n interaction. B e h i n d Plutarch's writ
ing lies the view o f a society that flourishes while at peace with its neighbors,
7 6
and m a d e up o f m e n o f like m i n d w h o prosper in their dealings with o n e
77
another.
D o e s Plutarch's understanding o f prayer resemble James's? Certainly it
does, o n many levels. J a m e s and Plutarch share the ideas that petitionary
prayer constitutes o n e part o f the h u m a n side o f a relationship with the divine
realm, that the primary source o f disorder a n d h a r m is to b e found in h u m a n s
themselves, that G o d or the gods l o o k after h u m a n welfare, and that divine
help can c o m e in the form o f virtuous attributes: J a m e s n a m e s wisdom; Plu
78 79
tarch, peace, c o n c o r d , a n d success in word a n d d e e d . Even here, J a m e s
concurs with Plutarch a b o u t the value o f proper speech a n d acts, a n d the con
fluence o f the two. Clearly, b o t h present the religious act o f prayer in moral
terms, and b o t h are c o n c e r n e d about the corrupting influence o f outsiders:
James talks about being stained by the values o f "the world"; Plutarch, a b o u t
the polluting influence o f foreigners.
T h e s e similarities also bring to light i m p o r t a n t dissimilarities at the level
o f category. Regarding the identity o f the c o m m u n i t y a n d danger posed by
outsiders, James's rejection o f "the world" suggests that h e is writing from a
minority a n d relatively powerless position in society, whereas Plutarch's cate
gory o f the "barbarian" indicates his majority stance. Plutarch holds firm opi
n i o n s a b o u t what is a n c i e n t and proper in G r e e k culture, drawing sharp
distinctions between that c o m p e n d i u m o f ideas a n d what he considers to b e
new and rude. F u r t h e r m o r e , whereas in the epistle o f J a m e s , praying morally
means interceding o n b e h a l f o f the Christian c o m m u n i t y that is a b o u t to un
dergo judgment, in On Superstition, n e i t h e r the category o f intercession n o r
that o f the tightly defined c o m m u n i t y registers. R a t h e r , in On Superstition, o n e
prays for virtuous dealings with others, and o n e maintains G r e e k customs by
• G R E C O - R O M A N VISIONS OF C O R P O R A T E LIFE • 63
zens (by which they almost uniformly m e a n adult males o f the upper classes).
In contrast to the legal system, which enforces sanctions against those who vio
late the formal legal code, within the informal institutions o f friendship and
philosophy, rebukes reinforce b o t h m o r a l n o r m s , which are derived from phi
losophical systems, and social mores, which at times form the milieu in w h i c h
philosophies operate, and at others supply foils for the philosophers' teach
ings.
T h e current section provides an e x a m i n a t i o n o f what Plutarch has to say
about the practice o f correction between friends, then it will take up Epictetus'
advice about the societal role o f C y n i c philosophers.
95 96
ture together before various b o d i e s ; they loan o n e a n o t h e r m o n e y ; they are
97
familiar with o n e a n o t h e r ' s h o m e s ; and they engage in many o t h e r c o m m o n
98
pursuits. T h e s e activities form the arena for friendship, b u t they also m a r k
out s o m e o f its social duties: i f a friend invites you to j o i n h i m in o n e o f these
activities, there is s o m e obligation to accept, for two o f friendship's aims are
99
mutual pleasure and utility.
T o say that friendship occurs between people o f a social class, o n the o t h e r
hand, does n o t m e a n that friendship crosses n o social boundaries, for in Plu
tarch's essays we can detect the subtle calculus that distributes people i n t o a
100
social layer's various s u b d i v i s i o n s . F o r example, the very existence o f those
who engage in flattery (r) KoAaKEia)—a counterfeit friendship—suggests that a
status inequity exists in the upper classes, a n d that o n e way to acquire power
for o n e s e l f is to manipulate m o r e powerful people t h r o u g h o b s e q u i o u s atten
101
tions. Occasionally, Plutarch will speak o f a ruler's friends a n d pseudo-
friends, yet in these cases the inequities in t h e relationship are clear, even
102
though b o t h parties are a r i s t o c r a t s . T h e flatterer (6 KoAa£) negotiates an
e c o n o m i c system in w h i c h status is a limited resource: although flatterers can
n o t erase the line that separates t h e m from persons o f greater influence, they
can reduce the gap through association. Perhaps because the social system
makes such a state o f affairs possible, Plutarch argues that a friendship o u g h t
to develop over a long t i m e , and o n e should e n t e r i n t o it with d i s c e r n m e n t
and following s o m e testing rather t h a n after t h e sharing o f a single drink. Af
103
ter all, it is difficult to extricate o n e s e l f from a b a d friendship.
Concerning friendship's aim, " T r u e friendship," according to Plutarch,
"seeks after three things above all else: virtue [TTJV apeTrjv] as a good thing
[KCXAOV], intimacy [Tr|v ouvr)9Eiav] as a pleasant thing [r)5u], and usefulness [TT)V
104
Xpeiav] as a necessary thing [ a v a y K o i o v ] . " In making this claim, o n w h i c h
he elaborates little, Plutarch apparently collapses Aristotle's three categories o f
friendship i n t o a single o n e . A l l friendships exist to bring pleasure to the par
105 106
ties i n v o l v e d , and people may take advantage o f t h e m for m u t u a l b e n e f i t .
Plutarch expresses n o c o n c e r n that such an understanding rules o u t the possi
bility that a friendship o f pure virtue (Aristotle's "character" friendship) could
exist, since it erases the prospect o f true altruism taking place within the rela
107
tionship. Plutarch is addressing a n o t h e r issue, namely that the necessary as
pects o f all friendships preclude having several true friendships, since having
many friends dilutes the qualities o f virtue, enjoyment, and usefulness rather
1 0 8
than strengthening t h e m .
T h e s e qualities also play a role in the use o f frank speech between friends.
A c c o r d i n g to Plutarch, a critical e l e m e n t in any friendship is t h e ability, in
deed the necessity, for a friend (<J>(Aos) to a d m o n i s h a n o t h e r w h e n he errs,
66 •JAMES RILEY STRANGE •
o f life" to the faithful ( 1 : 1 2 ) , and the apocalyptic warnings that h e aims at the
corrupt rich ( 5 : 1 - 5 ) .
T h u s , o n c e again, agreement reveals differences o f substance that distin
guish, in e a c h text, the systems o f thought animating those details. W e are
again c o n f r o n t e d by the absence o f b o t h eschatological and communitarian
c o n c e r n s in Plutarch, a n d can quickly pass over these characteristics: Plutarch
cares about the effect that correction has o n individuals in the here and now,
whereas J a m e s talks a b o u t the present preservation o f the c o m m u n i t y a n d its
salvation at "the c o m i n g o f the Lord." A n o t h e r systemic difference lies in Plu
tarch's focus o n customs governing the interactions between friends, or man
ners. S u c h rules o f civility and obligatory reciprocity between friends—even
1 2 9
informal rules such as we find in Plutarch—find n o counterpart in J a m e s ,
w h o for his part talks a b o u t sin, sin's c o n s e q u e n c e s , a n d its two opposites: ex
piation or forgiveness, w h i c h results in the r e i n f o r c e m e n t o f c o m m u n i t y cohe-
siveness, and acts o f social justice, such as giving aid to the destitute.
T h e most striking c o n f l u e n c e between the two texts lies in their use o f
similar imagery for the process o f c o r r e c t i o n . In Plutarch we find the se
quence o f error-admonishment-repentance analogous to the process o f sick
ness-treatment-cure. This simile finds particular resonance with the
correlation in J a m e s between s i n - c o n f e s s i o n - t u r n i n g and the sequence o f
sickness-prayer-healing. Plurarch, for his part, compares the problem o f so
cial error to falling ill, a n d the correction o f error to the process o f physical
recovery. T h e analogy is appropriate at m a n y points, according to Plutarch,
for just as the o n e w h o c o m m i t s social missteps corresponds to the patient, so
the o n e w h o corrects epitomizes the physician, since b o t h the physician's pre
scriptions a n d frank speech cause further discomfort before bringing a b o u t
restoration—one o f physical health, the o t h e r o f virtuous behavior. W e may
extend the simile by implication to include the fine distinctions a m o n g indi
viduals o f a particular class, for the informal institution o f friendship gives an
ordinary person rights a n d responsibilities similar to what a physician has
gained t h r o u g h training and experience: b o t h are obligated to "treat" those o f
higher station.
In James, by contrast, the two processes o f correction and healing corre
late, n o t as a simile o r analogy, b u t because they b o t h lead to the forgiveness o f
sins a n d h e n c e to salvation. N o t h i n g m o r e plainly indicates the role o f correc
tion in J a m e s as a religious practice expressed in typically m o r a l discourse.
C o r r e c t i o n , o r "turning" in James, deals with the problem o f sin, w h i c h J a m e s
interprets as a pursuit o f o n e ' s own desire to the d e t r i m e n t o f fellow c o m m u
nity m e m b e r s , a n d in violation o f G o d ' s will. T h i s divine will, in turn, finds
expression in G o d ' s governance o f justice t h r o u g h G o d ' s law. I f it is success-
• GRECO-ROMAN VISIONS OF CORPORATE LIFE 71
ful, correction results in the resubmission o f the s i n n e r to G o d ' s will, and re
newed efforts at carrying o u t altruistic acts directed toward the good o f the as
sembly and the care o f the needy.
Finally, m o r e than in the previous two writings, J a m e s ' s c o m m u n i t a r i a n
vision stands in stark contrast to Plutarch's corporate c o n c e r n . Plutarch's so
cial vision is even m o r e vaguely spelled o u t here than in O n Superstition, and
rather than the categories o f G r e e k "tradition" and "culture" he apparently
envisions the R o m a n empire, signified by an acceptance o f rigid class hierar
chy, political and social institutions present in every R o m a n city, and an ex
ploitation o f the pax Romana, which enables people to take long journeys in
relative safety. In Plutarch, friends are at the top o f this social world and freely
navigate its advantages. T h i s same empire is implicit in James's Diaspora, law
courts, and "world"; J a m e s ' s beloved brothers and sisters occupy the lower
rungs o f the empire's social ladder, living as exiles, suffering in the courts, and
avoiding the corrupting world.
T h e writings o f o n e o f Plutarch's contemporaries reveals a contrasting un
derstanding o f correction, and yet a n o t h e r opportunity for c o m p a r i s o n with
James's.
Notes
1. In many ways it would be most natural to investigate patterns of corporate life found in
Epicureanism and Pythagoreansim, with their strong emphases on relatively small groups
and moral behavior aimed at fellow participants. I do not consider them in this study
for the simple reason that our information about these philosophical schools comes pri
marily (although not exclusively, in the case of Epicurus) from secondary (albeit ancient)
sources. See Iamblichus, Life of Pythagoras; Diogenes Laertius, Life of Pythagoras; Epicurus,
Sovereign Maxims 14, 28; Fragments 23, 3 4 , 3 9 , 4 2 . For a recent study that gives some at
tention to comparing Epicurean and Pythagorean ways of being religious with early
Christian piety, see Luke Timothy Johnson, Among the Gentiles: Greco-Roman Religion and
Christianity (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009).
2. For examples of texts that mention prayer (or piety) and prayer texts themselves, see Apu-
lius, Met. 11.2; [Aristotle], Virt. vit. 1 2 5 0 B - 1 2 5 1 A ; Cato, Agr. 139, 141; Catullus 34,
6 3 . 9 2 - 9 3 , 64.104; Chariton, Chaer. (some 23 prayers; cf. 3 . 8 . 7 . 2 - 3 . 8 . 9 . 6 ) ; Cicero, Div.
1.129 ; C I L 12.4333; Corpus hiermeticum; Demosthenes 18.141; Heraclitus, Frg. 5; He
rodotus 1.31; Hesiod, Op. 3 2 0 - 3 4 0 , 4 6 5 - 4 7 9 ; Theog. 5 3 5 - 5 5 7 ; Horace, Odes 3.6; Isaeus
8 . 1 5 - 1 6 ; Isocrates, Aerop. 7 . 2 9 - 3 0 ; Or. 15.246; Livy, Ab urb. 5.18.22, 2 9 . 2 7 . 2 - 4 ; Maxi-
mus of Tyre, Dissertatio 5; Menander Rhetor, Treatise I; Orphei Hymni 1-86; Pausanias
5 . 1 5 . 3 - 1 2 ; the many magical incantations and hymns in PGM; Pindar, Isthmian, Nemean,
Olympian, and Pythian Odes; Plato, Leg. 1 0 . 8 8 7 D - E ; Pliny the Elder, Nat. 2 8 . 3 - 1 3 ; Plu
tarch, Quaest. gr. 36; P. Oxy. 1070; Pseudo-Isocrates, Demon. 11; Sappho, Frg. 1; Seneca,
Epist. 10.5, 4 1 . 1 ; Stobaeus, Ed. 3.9.23; Theophrastus, Caus. plant. 7.3.3, 9.8.8; Frg. 8.1;
Xenophanes, Frg. 1, 2 3 - 2 6 ; Xenophon, Mem. 1.2.1-4; Lac. 8; Oec. 5 . 1 9 - 2 0 , 11.8; Xeno-
phon of Ephesus, Eph. 4 . 3 . 3 - 4 , 5.4.6, 5.4.10. For many of the Greco-Roman prayer
texts researched for this chapter I found four books in particular to be valuable sources:
Michael Joseph Brown, The Lord's Prayer Through North African Eyes: A Window into Early
Christianity (New York and London: T & T Clark International, 2004); Mark Kiley et al.,
eds., Prayer from Alexander to Constantine: A Critical Anthology (London and New York:
Routledge, 1997); Simon Pulleyn, Prayer in Greek Religion (Oxford, U. K.: Clarendon
Press, 1997); and H. S. Versnel, Faith Hope and Worship: Aspects of Religious Mentality in
the Ancient World (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1981). For this chapter I have consulted some pray
ers spoken by characters in plays, novels, and epics, but for the most part have avoided
them. Pulleyn, Prayer includes very many prayers from Greek literanire.
3. Menander of Laodicea, Menander Rhetor, ed. with trans, and commentary by D. A. Rus
sell and N. G. Wilson (Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1981), 3 3 1 . 4 - 3 4 4 . 1 4 .
4. The attitude of scholarship toward the Laws shares some characteristics with Protestant
scholarship toward James as well: the Laws has remained outside the mainstream of scho
larship for several reasons, which include skepticism about its authenticity based on its
perceived lack of cohesion and internal inconsistencies, and statements that apparently
contradict Plato's other large political work, Republic. See, for example, Debra Nails and
Holger Thesleff, "Early academic editing: Plato's Laws" in Plato's Laws; Proceedings of the
VI Symposium Platonicum, Selected Papers, ed. Samuel Scolnicov and Luc Brisson, Interna
tional Plato Studies (Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag, 2003), 1 4 - 2 9 .
78 • JAMES RILEY STRANGE •
5. Nails and Thesleff, "Academic Editing," 14. Cf. Christopher Gill, "The Laws—Is it a real
dialogue?" in Plato's Laws; Proceedings of the VI Symposium Platonicum, Selected Papers, ed.
Samuel Scolnicov and Luc Brisson, International Plato Studies (Sankt Augustin: Acade-
miaVerlag, 2003), 4 2 - 4 7 .
6. The political and ethical discussion in the Republic, by contrast, centers around the ques
tion of whether it is best in all circumstances to be just rather than unjust. Plato, Rep.
347E-367E.
7. I rely on the translation, Plato, Laws, trans. R. G. Bury, L C L (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1967), slightly modified. Plato discusses prayers and hymns themselves
in a few brief passages: see Leg. 7.801 A, D.
8. The pilgrims are a stranger from Athens (generally accepted as Plato's spokesperson),
Clinias (a Cretan), and a taciturn Spartan, Megillus, who is silent over this stretch of the
road, as he is in much of the work.
9. The grotto on Crete's Mt. Ida houses a temple to Zeus. See Burry's note 1 at 1.625B.
10. In some discussions of Greek religion, the gift given the gods through the observance of
their religious rites is honor/-nur). Versnel, Faith Hope and Worship, 246; cf. Brown,
Lord's Prayer, 42; Pulleyn, Prayer, 13.
11. Leg. 4.717A.
12. See the brief discussion in Brown, Lord's Prayer, 3 7 - 3 8 ; see also the extended treatment
in Pulleyn, Prayer, 12ff; also Larry J. Alderink and Luther H. Martin, "Prayer in Greco-
Roman Religions," in Kiley et al, Prayer, 1 2 3 - 2 7 .
13. Pulleyn, Prayer, 7; cf. F. T. van Stratten, "Gifts for the Gods," in Versnel, Faith Hope and
Worship, 6 5 .
14. Pulleyn, Prayer, 1 2 - 1 3 .
15. Ibid., 196ff. Pulleyn goes on to categorize Greek prayers according to just how a particu
lar prayer requests something from the god in return for x ^ P ' S offered. See the catego
ries of prayer in the Glossary of Terms in Pulleyn, Prayer, xv and the use of those terms in
1 6 - 3 8 ; cf. a similar list in J. M. Bremer, "Greek Hymns," in Versnel, Faith Hope and Wor
ship, 196.
16. Leg. 10.885D, 8 8 8 C ; the main argument is set forth in 9 0 5 D - 9 0 7 B . Euthyphr. 1 4 C E
contains a similar criticism. Socrates makes a similar claim about the ineffectiveness of
great sacrifices made by wicked men in Xenophon, Mem. 1.3.2. Cf. Theophrastus,
6.1.15; Maximus of Tyre, Diss. 5.3.
17. Brown argues that, according to the philosophical critique of religion, "God's concern
for humanity is like the sun's way of doing good, which benefits the myriad forms of life
on earth but receives no benefits from the good it produces (omnibenevolence)." Fur
thermore, says Brown, in this critique, the system of reciprocity, "as it was commonly
understood, was no longer an operative principle. The gods could not be propitiated
through prayer and sacrifice. The intention behind the cultic act and its conformability
to tradition became the primary criterion by which to judge its acceptability" (Brown,
Lord's Prayer, 5 1 ) . The passage of Leg. under examination supports some aspects of such a
view, for although the Athenian makes no mention of tradition here (it is impossible to
tell if the rites to which he alludes in 1 0 . 8 8 7 D - E are considered ancient), he does explic
itly state that a god will not receive a gift from a wicked person (see also his critique in
Book 10, mentioned above). Still, he deploys the language of communion with the gods
and gift giving, suggesting that the gods do indeed respond in some way to religious rites
performed by righteous individuals.
• G R E C O R O M A N VISIONS OF C O R P O R A T E L I F E * 79
18. L & S , s.v. "EuScuuovsco" and "euSaiMOouvn, n" ( 7 0 8 - 9 ) . Cf. Leg. 4.713B; Resp. 4 0 6 C .
19. Brown, Lord's Prayer, 3 8 .
20. Leg. 3 . 6 7 9 Q cf. 744D.
21. Leg.,4.713C.
22. According to Xenophon, Mem. 1.3.1-4, Socrates would not pray for such things, wish
ing, instead, to ask only for "good gifts" and to let the gods decide what concrete form
the answer would take. W h a t delighted the gods was the piety of the giver rather than
the size of the gift. If one prayed for wealth or power, getting what one asked for could
have disastrous consequences. Brown, Lords Prayer, 4 4 .
23. Leg.,4.713D-E.
24. This is "peace" in the sense of cessation of war with one's neighbors. See the discussion
of eiprivn in the section on Plutarch.
25. See Brown, Lord's Prayer, 4 4 , in which Brown suggests that Plato's prayer to Pan at the
end of Phaedrus is for his material wealth to mirror his inner wealth, which should "be
interpreted as referring to the beauty of moderation."
26. Slaves and foreigners, both present and necessary in Magnesia, are not.
27. Cf. Leg. 1.631B-D.
28. Leg. 5 . 7 3 9 C - E .
29. See especially Book 1.
30. Cf. Leg. 3 . 6 9 6 D - E ; 4 . 7 0 9 E - 7 1 0 B .
31. Leg.4.717E.
32. Cf. [Aristotle], Virt. vit. 1250B, 1251 A.
33. Cf. Leg. 7 . 8 0 I D .
34. Note Bury's unflattering appraisal of the language in this last of Plato's works: "Not only
does it lack the charm and vigor of the earlier dialogues, but it is marked also by much
uncouthness of style, and by a tendency to pedantry, tautology and discursive garrulity
which seems to point to the failing powers of the author"; Bury, Plato's Laws (Loeb, vol.
1), vii.
35. The Athenian works out the laws dealing with impiety in 10.907Dff. Bobonich argues
that in dialogues of his middle period, namely Phaedo and Republic, Plato claims that only
philosophers can act virtuously, and so attain to happiness; non-philosophers must be
forced to right actions by the threat of the law and can never be happy. Bobonich goes
on to say that in Laws, Plato has moderated his position: non-philosophers are capable of
a measure of understanding, and hence of virtue and happiness. Christopher Bobonich,
Plato's Utopia Recast: His Later Ethics and Politics (Oxford, U. K.: Clarendon Press, 2 0 0 2 ) ,
92ff. Cf. Pseudo Isocrates, Demon. 11.
36. Leg. 1 0 . 9 0 9 . E - 9 1 0 D . The category of intercessory prayer certainly exists in Greco-
Roman society. Greek and Latin inscriptions provide examples of some, as well as of
wishes for harm to another. See the examples in Versnel, Faith Hope and Worship, 8 - 9 .
In these cases a person intercedes on behalf of a family member or for the emperor.
37. Cf. Frederick Brenk, "Finding One's Place: Eschatology in Plato's Laws and First-Century
Platonism," in Scolnikov and Brisson, From Theory into Practice, 3 1 2 - 1 9 .
38. Leg. 9 0 3 B - 9 0 5 A .
39. Plutarch, Mor. 792F. An ancient catalog credits him with 227 works; Frank Cole Bab
bitt, "Introduction," in Plutarch's Moralia, vol. 1, L C L (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Uni
versity Press, 1927), xvii. Despite Morton Smith's cautions about a general inconsistency
of style and the many perceived contradictions between ideas expressed in On Supersition
80 • JAMES RILEY STRANGE •
and Plutarch's other writings, I call the author "Plutarch" throughout this section, brack
eting questions about the authenticity of the essay, since the problem has no bearing on
my analysis: I make no claims about Plutarch's overall thought. Morton Smith, "De Su-
perstitione," in Plutarch's Theological Writings and Early Christian Literature, ed. Hans Di
eter Betz, S C H N T 3 (Leiden: E. J . Brill, 1975), 1-7. See the response to Smith's
argument and a case for the presumption of authenticity in Patrick Gray, Godly Fear: The
Epistle to Hebrews and Greco-Roman Critiques of Superstition, SBL Academia Biblica 16 (Lei
den and Boston: Brill, 2 0 0 4 ) , 9 7 - 1 0 3 .
40. Found in the collection of Plutarch's works called Moralia, 1 6 4 E - 1 7 IF.
41. Gray, Godly Fear, 106.
42. These differences in Plutarch's understanding of the "common" good may be due in part
to the decline of the Greek polis in the fourth century B.C.E. and the rise of the empire,
together with the ethos of spreading Greek culture (and later, Roman peace) to the ends
of the known world. For a similar view of the religious rites associated with a "foreign
goddess" (dea peregrina-, also a "Syrian goddess" [dea Syria]), see Apuleius, Met. 8 . 2 7 - 2 8 .
Interestingly, at the end of the story, the protagonist becomes a fervent devotee of Isis,
another goddess originally foreign to Greece and Rome.
43. I rely on a translation slightly modified from Babbit's in the Loeb series: Plutarch's Mor
alia, trans. Frank Cole Babbitt, vol. 2, L C L (Cambrige, Mass.: Harvard University Press,
1927).
44. Although in places Plutarch appears to make light of some Stoic teachings (Superst.
164F), he does allow that emotions can lead to distortions of the soul (Superst. 165B),
and gives special attention to <t>6(3os, one of the four chief passions of Stoicism, accord
ing to Diogenes Laertius (the other three are fear's opposite, ernSuui'a "desire," and two
other opposites: Xurrn "distress" and rj5ovr) "pleasure"); cf. Diogenes Laertius, Vit. 7 . 1 1 0 -
13.
45. In his notes on Superst. 1 6 9 F - 1 7 0 A , Babbit says Plutarch is "trying to be a physician of
the soul to cure superstition" (Plutarch, Mor., L C L 2.477, n. b), a claim that he may base
in part on language from Plutarch's opening paragraph: "and just as dislocations of the
joints accompanied by lacerations are hardest to deal with, so also is it with derange
ments of the soul accompanied by emotion"; Plutarch, Superst. 164F.
46. Superst. 165D.
47. For a thorough discussion of the role of excessive and inappropriate fear in Plutarch's
constnial of superstition, set forth in the context of Platonic, Aristotelian, Stoic, and
Epicurean understandings of fear, see Gray, Godly Fear, 3 3 - 1 0 8 .
48. It is difficult to figure out the precise meaning of Plutarch's language at the end of this
passage: oSev r| uev aSeoTns Xoyos SOTI Sievpeuouevos, r| 5e 56ioi5aiuov(a rrdtSos Xoyou
vpeuoous eyyeyevnuevov ("Whence it follows that atheism is falsified reason, and supersti
tion is an emotion engendered from false reason," Plutarch, Superst. 1 6 5 C [Babbit,
LCL]). See Gray, Godly Fear, 8 9 - 9 0 . For a similar assessment of popular religious no
tions, see Epicurus, Rat. sent. 1; Lucretius, De re. nat. 6 . 6 8 - 7 8 . In contrast to Platonic
and Stoic philosophers, Epicurus taught that the gods maintained tranquil detachment
from all things of this world.
49. Cf. Plutarch, Aem. 29.
50. Cf. Plutarch, Def. orac. 4 2 3 D ; Is. Os. 3 5 1 Q Suav. viv. 1 1 0 2 E - F ; Plato, Resp. 2 . 3 7 9 A -
3 0 8 C , in which Plato argues that God is the cause of good things, but not of all things.
In other essays, Plutarch will argue that lesser divine beings do cause human beings grief,
• G R E C O R O M A N VISIONS OF C O R P O R A T E L I F E * 81
and it is to these that the poets refer: Def orac. 4 1 7 E ; Fac. 9 4 4 D ; Is. Os. 3 6 0 E - 3 6 1 C .
Gray, Godly Fear, 117.
51. Superst. 1 6 5 E - F . Cf. Plato, Leg. 1 0 . 9 0 9 E - 9 1 0 A .
52. Cf. Superst. 17 IB; Tibullus 1.11-12; Ovid, Ars 2 . 3 2 5 - 3 3 0 . Charlatanism was one of the
common charges leveled against practitioners of "magic" in the Greco-Roman world, as
was foreignness (see below). Scott Shauf, Theology as History, History as Theology: Paul in
Ephesus in Acts 19, BZNW 133 (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2005), 1 8 6 - 8 7 .
53. Cf. Superst. 17 IF.
54. Op8co [sic] T O O oToucm KCU 5iKa(cp. The T L G reproduction of Babbit's text has 6p0cp.
Plutarch, Moralia, vol 2, trans. Frank Cole Babbit, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1971) [Greek text online] accessed 14 April 2005; avail
able from http://tlg.uci.edu; internet.
55. Plutarch may also be referring to the nonsense words and phrases contained in some
magical incantations. See Chapter 4.
56. The language aioxpas TrpoicaSioeis is difficult, but probably refers to some sort of crude
public display. L&S, s.v. "rrpoKaSiois." Perhaps Plutarch is referring to sitting in front
of a shrine while covered with mud and dressed in sackcloth. Babbit takes the phrase to
mean disgraceful besieging (i.e. of the gods; cf. Superst. 170E; 17 IB), in which case the
phrase may refer to the prayers or incantations themselves. In magical incantations one
frequently commands divine beings to do one's bidding (cf. PGM III.538), even to the
point of threatening them with harm should they ignore you (cf. PGM, 11.51-54). L & S ,
s.v. "TTpoKa0(£co."
57. Cf. Jesus' statements about pharisaic and gentile prayers in Matt 6 : 5 - 8 .
58. Cf. also Superst. 166E, discussed below. See L. T. Johnson, "Taciturnity and True Relig
ion (James 1:26-27)," in Greeks, Romans, and Christians: Essays in Honor of Abraham J.
Malherbe, ed. D. Balch et al. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990), 3 2 9 - 3 3 9 ; repr., Brother
of Jesus, Friend of God, 1 5 5 - 6 7 .
59. Cf. Homer, Od. 3.52, 9.175; Herodotus, Hist. 2.177.
60. Isocrates makes an explicit claim about unsullied tradition in Aerop. 7 . 2 9 - 3 0 .
61. Cf. Superst. 17 IF.
62. In a later section, Plutarch also condemns the superstitious for their willingness to use
whatever means of persuasion they think will work: "For the superstitious both fear the
gods and flee to the gods for help; both flatter [ K O A O K E U O U O I ] them and abuse [Xoi-
6opouoiv] them, pray to [ E U X O V T C X I ] them and blame [KaTauEU<t>ovTcu] them"; Mor. 167F,
Babbit, slightly altered. Cf. Superst. 170A; Jas 3 : 9 - 1 2 .
63. Earlier (Superst. 164F), Plutarch has condemned the assumption that wealth is the great
est good ( a y a 8 o v U E ' Y I O T O V ) ; cf. Aristotle, Eth. nic. 1.4 (1095A. 1 7 - 2 6 ) .
64. "Op0coais ("success") picks up Plutarch's word play in 1 6 6 A - B (cited above), contrasting
the moral correctness of Greek prayers with the obsession of magicians with correct
placement of sacrificial victims on the altar.
65. Cf. Stobaeus, Eel 3.9.23.
66. In these instances authors typically use the word with the genitive of the thing; L&S, s.v.
"surropEco."
67. W . Foerster, Vipnvn," TDNT 2:401. According to Foerster, for example, the goddess
Eipr)vn is sometimes described as oApoSoTEipa ("dispensing riches"; Euripides, Bacch.
4 1 9 ) , T T O X U O X P O S ("rich in blessings"; Orphic Hymns 32.16; 43.2), TE0aAu?av ("abundant";
Hesiod, Theog. 9 0 2 ) , and Ti6nvf)TEipa ("nursing"; Hesiod, Op. 212; cf. Paulus, Descriptio
82 • JAMES RILEY STRANGE •
Sanctae Sophiae 139) in poetry. Eipf|vn may be depicted in artwork carrying the boy
TTXOUTOS (see the descriptions of such statues in Athens in Pausanias, Descr. 1.8.3;
9.16.1) or with a horn of plenty, or both. See descriptions and view photos of art objects
in "Athens, N M 175, Statue of Ploutos," in "Perseus Sculpture Catalogue," The Perseus
Digital Library [database online] accessed 18 April 2005; available from
http://www.perseus.tufts.ed u/cgibin/ptext'?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A'
1 9 9 9 . 0 4 . 0 0 4 l%3Ahead%3D%231433; Internet.
68. Cf. Democr. 252: TTOXIS eu ayouevn ueyicnr) opScoois eoxi, "A well-led city is a very great
success."
69. Cf. Donald J. Verseput, "Plutarch of Chaeronea and the Epistle of James on Communal
Behaviour," NTS 47 (2001): 5 0 2 - 1 8 .
70. W . Foerster, "eiprp/n," TDNT 2:401. Foerster also notes that while eipr)VT| can refer to a
peaceful disposition, this is primarily a negative connotation as well, denoting the ab
sence of hostile feelings toward others. The association of eiprjvn with an individual ap
parently begins first with the LXX's ubiquitous translation of ("welfare" or "health"),
and thence makes its way into the New Testament (cf. Jas 2:16; 3:18) and early Christian
literature. TDNT, 2 : 4 0 2 - 0 8 .
71. In this way Foerster connects "peace" with "the ancient longing for redemption" that
finds fulfillment in the in the Augustinian Pax Romana. TDNT, 2:402.
72. TDNT, 2:401. For a discussion of these two ideas in 1 Clement see Odd Magne Bakke,
"Concord and Peace: A Rhetorical Analysis of the Letter of First Clement with an Emphasis on
the language of unity and sedition (Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2001). In Greek literature,
rpuxi'cx conveys the notion of an individual being "at rest." Whereas eiprivn can connote
the Stoic ideal state of mind, that idea is more commonly put across by yaXfjvn. Foer
ster, "eiprivn," 4 0 1 .
73. Seneca, Epist. 94.46; Cicero, Fam. 12.15.3; Clu. 55.152; Phil 13.1.2; Livy, Ab urb.
4.43.11; Democritus 2 5 0 ; Thucydides, Hist. 8.94.1.1; Andocides, De nryst. 73.2; Lysias
18.17; Zeno, Stoic. 1 . 6 1 , 3 . 1 6 0 .
74. For praise of a wife's virtue (exemplum) that, although unnamed, sounds like concordia, see
Pliny the Younger, Epist. 8 . 5 . 1 - 2 . The virtue of concord appears frequently in the Pau
line writings, although it is never expressed as buovoia; cf. Rom 12:16; 15:5; 1 C o r 1:10;
Eph 4:3, 13; Phil 2:2; Col 3:14. Margaret Mitchell interprets Paul's first epistle to the
Corinthians as a call to buovoia; Margaret M. Mitchell, Paul and the Rhetoric of Reconcilia
tion: An Exegetical Investigation of the Language and Composition of I Corinthians, H U T 28
(Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1991).
75. Often expressed as putting one's words or learning into practice. See Plutarch's own
Stoic, abs. 1 (Mor. 1033B); Virt. prof. 14 (Mor. 84B); cf. also Seneca, Epist. 2 0 . 1 ; Diogenes
Laertius, Vit. 1.53; 9.37; Epictetus, Diatr. 2.1.31; 2.9.21; 3.22.9. Johnson, Letter of James,
28.
76. Speaking as Plutarch.
77. Aristotle is the philosopher who bases political science in ethics, arguing that a stable
society is composed of people living the good life, by which he means people engaging in
contemplation and living out lives of virtue; Aristotle, Eth nic. 1.2; 10.7, 9; Polit. 1.1; 3.4;
3.6. Although Plutarch's concern for the stability of society is apparent, if only by allu
sion, he is not producing a treatise on either ethics or politics. This may explain why the
virtues under discussion arise only once and are passed over quickly.
78. Cf. Jas 3 : 1 3 - 1 6 .
• G R E C O R O M A N VISIONS OF CORPORATE LIFE* 83
79. Cf.Jas4:15.
80. Moralia 4 8 E - 7 4 E .
81. John T. Fitzgerald, "Friendship in the Greek World Prior to Aristotle," in Greco-Roman
Perspectives on Friendship, ed. David E. Aune, SBLRBS no. 3 4 (Atlanta: Scholars Press,
1997), 13.
82. The main sections on friendship are found in Eth. nic. 8 - 9 and Eth. eud. 7, and treat
ments of the topic appear in Polit, Rhet., and Mag. mor. Frederic M. Schroeder, "Friend
ship in Aristotle and Some Peripatetic Philosophers," in Aune, Greco-Roman Perspectives,
35.
83. Eth. nic. 8.3(1156A.6fO.
84. "Friendship also seems to hold cities together, and lawgivers seem to be more zealous for
it than justice." Aristotle, Eth. nic. 8.1 ( 1 1 5 5 A . . 2 2 - 2 4 ) .
85. Schroeder, "Friendship in Aristotle," 3 6 - 3 7 .
86. Mor. 9 3 A - 9 7 B .
87. Cf. Donald J. Verseput, "Plutarch of Chaeronea and the Epistle of James on Communal
Behaviour," NTS 47 (2001): 5 0 2 - 1 8 .
88. Contrast this with Eth. nic. 8.7ff (1158B.1 lfO and 9.Iff (1163B.32fO, in which Aristotle
considers friendships between unequal partners. Plutarch does, on the other hand,
mention a case of female flatterers (false friends) in Syria (Adul. amic. 5 0 D - E ) , from
which we may infer that true friendship (in Plutarch's terms) existed among upper class
women as well. This is, so far as I can determine, the only instance in which Plutarch
mentions female relationships within the two essays considered here.
89. Plutarch, Adul. amic. 5 2 B - D ; 5 8 E - F .
90. Amic. mult. 9 5 C .
91. Adul. amic. 62A.
92. AduL amic. 5 8 C .
93. Adul. amic. 5 4 F .
94. Amic. mult. 9 5 C .
95. Adul. amic. 5 5 C ; 5 8 C - D ; 68A.
96. Adul. amic. 6 2 B .
97. Adul. amic. 5 0 E .
98. Cf. Amic. mult. 9 5 C - D ; Adul. amic. 5 1 B - C , E - F .
99. Plutarch calls social obligations "rendering service" (XeiTupysco). T o fail to render service
is to risk giving offense, for one is obligated to accept a friend's invitation if he or she is
able. O n e of the drawbacks of having many friends is that one risks offending a friend
by neglecting one invitation in order to accept another. See Amic. mult. 9 5 C - D .
100. Cf. Adul. amic. 5 4 C .
101. Cf. Aristotle, Eth. nic. 8.14 ( 1 1 6 3 A . 3 4 - 3 5 ) .
102. Cf. Adul. amic. 4 9 C - D ; 56F; 58A; 6 0 B - D ; 7 0 B - D .
103. Amic. mult. 94Aff; cf. Adul. amic. 4 9 E ; 5 5 E - F . Cf. Sir 6 : 7 - 1 3 ; 9:10.
104. Amic. mult. 9 4 B .
105. Cf. Adul. amic. 50A; 5 I B .
106. Cf. Adul. amic. 6 2 E - F .
107. Cf. Adul. amic, in which Plutarch talks about "pure" and "chaste" friendship.
108. Amic. mult. 9 3 F .
109. Although Aristotle, for example, admitted that friends could violate both formal and
informal contracts, in his writings the only recourse to which the wronged party has ac-
84 •JAMES RILEY S T R A N G E *
cess is making "complaints and reproaches" (TO eyi<Ar]|jaTa Kai ai ueuv^Eis). Eth. nic. 8.13
(1162B.5).
110. I rely on Babbitt's LCL translation, vol. 1, pp. 2 6 4 - 3 9 5 .
111. Cf. 5 6 A 6 8 F 7 0 E 7 4 C .
; ; ;
112. It may, on the other hand, play a legitimate role when dealing with one's enemies. Cf.
67D.
113. Adul. amic, 67D. Dionysius is speaking specifically of the actions and intentions of one's
enemies, but Plato applies his comments to a situation involving one of Dionysius'
friends.
114. Babbitt translates the word as "shortcomings." See the discussion of the frequency of
this word in Greek literature in Chapter 5, beginning on p. 2 0 6 .
115. Cf. Superst. 168D, treated below. TTAvl/uueAeia and cognates are used synonymously with
auapTia and its cognates in the LXX as well. Cf. Lev 5:18; 7:37; Jer 2:5.
116. 2 Sam 1 2 : 1 - 1 5 .
117. Plutarch, Adul. amic. 6 7 E (Babbitt, LCL).
118. Plutarch, Adul. amic. 6 7 F (Babbitt, LCL).
119. Plutarch, Adul. amic. 6 8 A - B (Babbitt, LCL).
120. Plutarch, Adul. amic. 6 8 B (Babbitt, LCL).
121. Cf. Adul. amic, 7 0 A - B .
122. Plutarch, Adul. amic. 6 8 F (Babbitt, LCL).
123. Plutarch, Adul. amic. 5 6 A (Babbitt, LCL).
124. Plutarch, Adul. amic. 5 9 F (Babbitt, LCL).
125. Plutarch, Adul. amic. 5 5 D (Babbitt, LCL).
126. See, for example, 61D; 67F; 69A; 70F; 7 IF; 72B; 7 3 A - B , D; 7 4 D - E .
127. Plutarch, Adul. amic. 7 4 C - D (Babbitt, LCL).
128. Plutarch, Adul. amic. 7 4 B (Babbitt, LCL).
129. Cf. Johnson, Letter of James, 8 1 .
130. Diatribai 3.22. The work comes from a collection of AiaTpi(3a( or "Discourses," which
Flavius Arrian, one of Epictetus' students, recorded from Epictetus's classroom discus
sions and other conversations. See Diatr. 1.1-8 (Arrian's "Preface" to the collection,
coming before 1.1.1-32, the first discourse).
131. Epictetus, The Discourses as Reported by Arrian Books M I , trans. W . A. Oldfather, L C L vol.
1 (Cambridge, Mass. and London, U.K.: Harvard University Press, 1925), p. xii.
132. Cf. Diatr. 3 . 2 2 . 1 9 - 2 0 ; 9 3 .
133. The question is whether Epictetus is trying to persuade or dissuade readers from turning
to the Cynic life. As a third option, through this discourse that warns of the rigors of
the Cynic life, he seeks to direct readers towards the Cynic attitudes that Stoicism recon
figures.
134. Cynic philosophers are known for their detachment from typical constraints that might
cloud their devotion to virtue. That detachment usually finds three expressions:
rrappnoia (freedom of speech, familiar from Plutarch as "frankness"), eAsuSspia (liberty),
and auTotpKeia (self-governance).
135. I rely on the L C L translation of Oldfather: Epictetus, The Discourses Books 7/1-J V, Enchei-
ridion, trans. W . A. Oldfather, L C L vol. 2 (Cambridge, Mass. and London, U.K.: Har
vard University Press, 1928).
• GRECO-ROMAN VISIONS OF C O R P O R A T E LIFE 85
136. In Diatr. 3 . 2 2 . 6 8 Epictetiis suggests that some women take up the Cynic lifestyle, and
there are records of women Cynics. The best-known is Hipparchia of Maronea (fl. early
fourth century B.C.E.), mentioned in Diogenes Laertius, Lives 6 . 9 6 - 9 8 .
137. Diatr. 3 . 2 2 . 2 6 - 3 0 .
138. For a more explicit reference to a matter-spirit dualism in Epictetus, cf. Diatr. 3 . 1 0 . 1 5
("How Ought W e to Bear Our Illnesses?").
139. Diatr. 3 . 2 2 . 3 8 .
140. Cf. Plato, Leg. 5 . 7 2 6 A - B .
141. Diatr. 3.22.45ff.
142. Diatr. 3 . 2 2 . 8 3 - 8 5 .
143. Diogenes Laertius, Lives 6.58.
144. Epictetus, Diatr. 3 . 2 2 . 1 8 (Oldfather, LCL); cf. emoKorreco in 3.22.97.
145. Epictetus, Diatr. 3.22.77 (Oldfather, LCL).
146. Epictetus, Diatr. 3.22.94 (Oldfather, LCL).
147. Diatr. 3 . 2 2 . 9 6 .
148. Ibid.
149. Diatr. 3 . 2 2 . 1 0 0 .
150. Diatr. 3 . 2 2 . 1 0 3 , 105.
151. Cf. Diatr. 3 . 2 2 . 9 5 .
152. For examples of prophetic discourse in epistolary form directed to Diaspora Israel, see Jer
2 9 : 1 - 3 2 and the apocryphal Letter of Jeremiah.
153. Consider the name Obadiah. See also 1 Kings 18:36; Isa 20:3; 44:26; Jer 7:25; 25:4;
Amos 3:7; Dan 6:20; Zech 1:6.
154. Jas l : 9 - l l / I s a 4 0 : 6 - 7 ; Jas 5:4/Isa 5:9; Jas 5:5/Jer 12:3. Cf. Jas 1:23/Ezek 33:32; Jas
4:4/Hos l:2ff/Isa 57:3; Jas 4:9/Joel 1:5, 8, 11, 13/Mic 1:8; Jas 4 : 1 4 / H o s 13:3; Jas
5:2/Isa 51:8; Jas 5:5/Hos 1:6 (LXX); Jas 5:7/Jer 5:24 ( L X X ) / H o s 6:3 (LXX); Jas 5:11/Joel
2:13/Jonah 4:2 (Exod 34:6).
155. Jas 5:10, 1 7 - 1 8 .
156. Jas 2 : 1 - 1 2 ; 5 : 1 - 6 ; cf. Isa 10:1-4; 58; Am 2:6-7a; 4:1; 5 : 1 1 - 1 2 ; Mic 2:2, 8; 3 : 1 - 3 ; 7:3;
Zech 7:10; Mai 3:5.
157. Jas 4 : 1 - 6 , 1 3 - 1 7 ; cf. Isa 5 : 1 1 - 1 2 , 22; Ezek 2 3 : 4 0 - 4 5 ; Dan 5:22; Am 2 : 7 b - 8 .
158. Jas 4 : 8 - 1 0 ; cf. Ezek 14:6; 18:30; Joel 2 : 1 2 - 1 4 ; Hos 12:6; 14:1-3; Zech 1:3-6.
159. Jas. 5 : 7 - 1 1 ; cf. Isa 8:17; 40:31; 51:5; Jer 14:22; U r n 3:26; Mic 7:7; Zeph 3:8.
160. Cf. Ezek 3 3 : 3 0 - 3 3 ; Zeph 3:13; Zech 8 : 1 6 - 1 7 .
• C H A P T E R F O U R *
PGM VII. 2 6 0 - 7 1
For ascent of the uterus: "I conjure you, O Womb—[by the] one established over the
9
Abyss, before heaven, earth, sea, light, or darkness came to be; [he?] who created the
angels, being foremost, AMICHAMCHOU and CHOUCHA0 CHEROEl OUEIACH0 ODOU
90 • JAMES RILEY STRANGE*
PROSEIOGGES, and who sits over the cherubim, who bears his (?) 10
own throne—that
you return again to your seat, and that you do not turn [to one side] into the right
part of the ribs, or into the left part of the ribs, and that you do not gnaw into the
heart like a dog, but remain indeed in your own intended and proper place, not
chewing, so long as I conjure you [by] the one who, in the beginning, made the hea
ven and earth and all that is therein. Hallelujah! Amen!"
11
Write this on a tin tablet and "clothe" it in 7 colors.
The spell shares several features with m a n y others in the magical papyri.
The first is the instruction to write the spell o n s o m e sort o f m e d i u m (papyrus,
shells, a n d leaves are c o m m o n ) , and to hang it a r o u n d the n e c k as an amulet
12
(irspiavpov) or phylactery (4>uXaKTT]piov). S e c o n d , the c h a r m calls a divine
being by many voces magicae, "which are usually untranslatable and often mea
13
ningless to the r e a d e r , " indicated by small capital letters, as above. Some
times, however, these n a m e s are recognizable as Egyptian, G r e e k , o r Jewish
1 4
(sometimes C h r i s t i a n ) deities, o r as epithets associated with t h e m . This
p o i n t brings up a third aspect o f the spell: its syncretistic character, mixing
gods in this case—but elsewhere also scripture—from the well-known religious
traditions that flourished in Hellenistic, R o m a n , and Late A n t i q u e Egypt.
M o s t c o m m o n are e l e m e n t s o f Egyptian, G r e e k , a n d Jewish religions, b u t Ba
bylonian a n d C h r i s t i a n e l e m e n t s appear as well. T h e voces magicae o f the cur
rent spell are n o t recognizable as n a m e s , b u t are references to the pre-creation
abyss, angels, e n t h r o n e m e n t over t h e c h e r u b i m (xepoupiv), n o t to m e n t i o n
o t h e r transliterated H e b r e w o r A r a m a i c words (aAArjAouia and apr)v)> indicate
that lines from Jewish scripture a n d / o r liturgy have b e e n adopted by the prac
15
titioners o f these spells, possibly imported from Jewish m a g i c . F o u r t h , the
spell c o n t a i n s instructions a b o u t how to affix t h e amulet to o n e ' s person (pre
sumably use a string o f seven colors), b u t there is s o m e ambiguity as well: t h e
colors are n o t specified, for example, and t h e language itself is vague.
In addition to these c o m m o n elements, n o t e also that the spell does n o t
appear to address the deity directly (the G r e e k is unclear o n this p o i n t ) b u t in
vokes the deity as witness to a n d guarantor o f t h e spell. T h i s interpretation is
consistent with the use o f E^opKi^co, which, besides "conjure," also bears the
m e a n i n g "to b i n d by o a t h . " F u r t h e r m o r e , the spell uses images o f t h e god that
m i m i c what the bodily organ is to d o . C o n s e q u e n t l y , these images b e c o m e in
structions for the organ: the god "made the heaven and earth a n d all that is
t h e r e i n " (implying that everything in creation occupies a divinely ordained
place), and the uterus must "remain indeed in [its] own i n t e n d e d a n d proper
place"; the god "sits over the c h e r u b i m , " bearing "[his] own t h r o n e [0p6vov],"
and the uterus m u s t "return again to [its] seat [e5pa]." Also, the uterus is to
* T H E EVERYDAY PRACTICE OF GRECO-ROMAN RELIGION • 91
remain in place "so long as [EOTE] I c o n j u r e . " T h e spell, therefore, has tempo
rary effects.
PGM LXXXIII. 1 - 2 0
For [fever with shivering fits]: "GOBA . . . S . . . MO . . . NOUSEA . . . EIEGE . . . OSARK . . .
16
AUSE fever with shivering fits, I conjure you, MICHAEL, archangel o f the earth; [wheth
er] it is daily or nightly or quartan fever; I conjure you, the Almighty SABAOTH, that it
no longer touch the soul of the one who carries [this], nor [touch] his whole body; al
so the dead, deliver, . . . the distress I D O T . . . Y G R S B O N O E . . . "
"He who dwells in the help of the Most High shall abide in the shadow of the God of
heaven. He will say of God, 'thou art my refuge and my help; I will put my trust in
him.'" [cf. LXX Ps 9 0 : 1 - 2 ]
17
"Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed by thy will; our daily bread." [cf. Matt 6 : 9 -
10a, 11]
"Holy, holy is the Lord SABAOTH, heaven is full of justice, holy is the one of glory." [cf.
LXX Isa 6:3]
"aniaada . . . ia, migael of lords, Abraham Isaac Jacob eloei eloe Solomon(?) / sabaoth
, 8
del... "
PGM CXXIV. 6 - 4 3
29
Charm to inflict illness: [Take] the blood of a weasel and write on a triangular pot
30
sherd and bury it in the house: [seven or eight magical characters] THRAX TRAX BRAX.
Take unsmoked beeswax and make a manikin. Write the characters on a tiny piece of
• T H E EVERYDAY PRACTICE OF GRECO-ROMAN RELIGION* 93
papyrus and place it inside the beeswax. Also write the three "O's" and the letters that
31 32
follow, on the head of the manikin, and the bones of the victim (?). . . . Prick the
left one into the left eye of the manikin and the right one into the right. Hold the
figure upside-down on its head and put it into a new pot. Leave the pot in the dark
and fill it with water, up to the [shoulder] of the [manikin] only. Crush rhododen
33
dron plants with some vinegar and sprinkle the entrances to the t o m b . Take a gar
land made from the plant, and while pronouncing the formula, attach it to the tomb:
"Principal angel of those below the earth, BAROUCH, and you, angel of many forms,
OLAiMPTER; in this hour do not disobey me, but send to me . . . without fear, without
34
harm, doing my every...."
t h 3 5
T h i s late ( 5 c . ) c h a r m demonstrates that powers can be deployed to in
flict suffering just as they can to relieve it, although causing h a r m is n o t as
c o m m o n as curing. N o t e that the rite for harming differs from the previous
spells. T h e spell is n o t an amulet, for example. Rather, it requires the burying
o f an object inscribed with magical signs, the creation o f a h u m a n figurine and
the application o f possibly m i m e t i c acts to it, and a rite comprising the sprin
kling o f a potion and the speaking o f an incantation at the e n t r a n c e to a t o m b .
T h e spell does include two actions seen in the o t h e r two spells: the technology
o f writing and the invocation o f voces magicae, including a n a m e from Jewish
scripture (Baruch), although this single, isolated reference suggests that it is
borrowed from o t h e r spells and does n o t necessarily c o m e from any familiarity
with Jewish liturgy.
T h i s c h a r m can be divided into three distinct sections, each requiring a
specific artifact a c c o m p a n i e d by a discreet set o f actions. E a c h rite also in
cludes the writing o f magical symbols or incantations. T h e first section in
structs the purchaser to write a set o f magical signs in weasel's b l o o d o n a
36
potsherd and to bury the sherd inside o n e ' s h o u s e . T h e second section re
quires the fashioning o f a small h u m a n figurine in beeswax. W r i t i n g is then
affixed to the figurine in two media: the person writes characters (the same
signs that were written o n the sherd?) o n a small piece o f papyrus, which is
then pressed into the torso o f the figurine. A l s o , the person writes a series o f
three sets o f three letters (co, i, and a ) directly o n the waxen head o f the figu
rine, w h i c h he o r she then subjects to symbolic harm: pricking its eyes and
"drowning" it upside-down in a new c o o k i n g pot. T h e entire apparatus is left
in the dark. T h e final section involves "the t o m b , " perhaps specified in a lost
section o f the papyrus. T h e rite is to sprinkle a potion made o f crushed rho
d o d e n d r o n at the t o m b ' s entrances a n d to attach a garland o f the same plant
to the t o m b while reciting an incantation.
Like the two previously cited, this incantation employs language that di
rects two divine beings, in this case "angels," B a r o u c h a n d O l a m p t e r . The
charm ends with c o m m a n d s that the beings immediately carry o u t every com-
94 JAMES RILEY STRANGE
37
m a n d o f the person invoking the spell. T h e papyrus is damaged b e y o n d re-
covery at this point, b u t presumably contains t h e specific malady that the per-
son wishes to inflict. Based o n the h a r m d o n e to the figurine's eyes and the
instruction to keep it in the dark, the c h a r m may b e intended to cause blind
38
ness, or, metaphorically, to induce lack o f u n d e r s t a n d i n g .
T h e use o f three distinct rites associated with three separate artifacts, to-
gether with the invocation o f two divine beings, again suggests that the spell
ensures its effectiveness through the accumulation o f power. T h e threefold
rite also highlights the spell's reliance o n utterances: inarticulate words, letters,
and symbols, as well as the syntactically intelligible prose o f the spoken for-
mula. T h e implication is that while the actions o f the rites invoke powers and
b e n d t h e m to o n e ' s use, the full a c c o m p l i s h m e n t o f the c h a r m requires that
specific instructions b e given. T h e spell invokes beings that have abilities
greater than those o f h u m a n s , and so in s o m e ways are like domesticated ani
mals, for they have wills that must b e tamed. D o m e s t i c a t i o n may b e what the
actions o f the rite, the use o f symbols, and the otherwise unintelligible voces
magicae accomplish.
S o m e details invite immediate c o m p a r i s o n and contrast with J a m e s , whe
reas at the level o f system, these spells and J a m e s hardly intersect at all. T h e
spells' focus o n improving the lot o f individuals contrasts with J a m e s ' s critique
o f praying evilly, in order to fulfill personal desires, and the blatant syncretism
in the spells clearly differs from James's claim that G o d is o n e a n d with his
prophetic insistence that c o m m u n i t y m e m b e r s maintain undiluted faithful
ness to G o d . Similarly, anointing and prayer share similarities with magical
practices, but James's calls to endure hardships "to the e n d " clash with the
idea that divine powers are at h a n d to assist immediately in whatever way they
are needed.
O b v i o u s contradictions may be passed over quickly in order to get at the
m o r e substantive points o f distinction between healing practices in the papyri
and J a m e s . In his "Introduction to the G r e e k Magical Papyri," Betz sees the
spells o f the papyri as evidence o f a particular religion, which he characterizes
in this way:
Whether the gods are old or new, whether they come from Egyptian, Greek, Jewish,
or Christian traditions, religion is regarded as nothing but the awareness of and reac
tion against our dependency on the unfathomable scramble of energies coming out of
the universe. In this energy jungle, human life can only be experienced as a jungle,
too....Individuals seem to be nothing but marionettes at the end of power lines,
39
pulled here and there without their knowledge by invisible forces.
O f the many temples to Asklepios that arose first in the Hellenic world, and
then in the Hellenistic a n d R o m a n empires, the o n e outside Epidauros is
41
known for two r e a s o n s . In the Hellenistic era it b e c a m e "the c h i e f c e n t e r o f
42
devotion to A s k l e p i o s . " By the mid-second century C . E . , when the facilities
3
received a generous gift from a R o m a n senator n a m e d Antoninus* the askle-
44
pion had b e e n e x p a n d e d . T h e Epidauros asklepion is best known today, how
ever, because o f the n u m b e r o f dedicatory inscriptions that were found there
dating from s e c o n d half o f the fourth century B . C . E . to the late s e c o n d cen
tury C . E .
As with magical spells, the n u m b e r o f shrines to Asklepios that appeared
in G r e e c e a n d Asia M i n o r in the Hellenistic a n d R o m a n periods also attest to
the n e e d for widespread access to healing and therapy for c h r o n i c c o n d i t i o n s .
Even with so many places dedicated to healing, however, most people still had
to trek s o m e distance to get to o n e o f them. T o make a visit to an asklepion
96 • JAMES RILEY S T R A N G E *
T h e inscription subtly shifts address from those w h o are sick to those w h o are
healthy, h e n c e e n h a n c i n g its propagandistic function for the cult o f Asklepios.
2 5 5
I G 4 .1.121-22; no. 2 1 : In c o m p a r i s o n to the others, the report o f Arata
with dropsy emphasizes Asklepios* two primary characteristics: his i m m e n s e
skill as a healer and his compassion. T h e act o f beheading the body, draining
fluid from the neck, a n d reattaching the head mimics surgery only in the re
56
motest s e n s e . S o exaggerated is the imagery that it resembles m o r e the bleed
ing o f a slaughtered a n i m a l than even the m o s t drastic o f surgeries. This
seems to be the point: evidently a n c i e n t readers are n o t to mistake what hap
pens to the sick w o m a n as remotely possible in the m u n d a n e practice o f medi
cine, even for the m o s t advanced m e m b e r s o f the guild. T h e god alone has
57
the skill to heal in this way. Moreover, the a c c o u n t implies that Asklepios is
so adept that he can heal from a great distance, for it is the m o t h e r o f the pa
tient w h o spends the night in the abaton while Arata, w h o suffers from dropsy,
58
remains in L a c e d a e m o n . T h e r e f o r e , in addition to displaying his healing
skills, by healing the w o m a n w h o presumably is t o o ill to travel, t h e god dem
59
onstrates great m e r c y .
T h e Epidauros inscriptions and the magical papyri considered here inter
sect at few points. In b o t h cases divine powers are available to cure h u m a n
sickness, and the interaction happens only during the crisis o f h u m a n n e e d .
T h e m o s t obvious difference between the groups o f texts lies in their function:
the papyri are performative, whereas the inscriptions are descriptive. Other
differences are as follows: the papyri are clear that the d a i m o n s can b e invoked
to h a r m as readily as to heal, whereas the inscriptions emphasize the god's be
60
nevolence. Moreover, the tendency in the papyri to accrue power by calling
u p o n many d a i m o n s through various rites, voces magicae, and incantations
finds n o m a t c h in the intense (if temporary) devotion to Asklepios and the
simple practice o f incubation. Likewise, t h e magical charms work through
technical precision (rites carried o u t in a particular fashion cause the proper
build-up o f power that ensure the c h a r m ' s effectiveness) with n o apparent re
q u i r e m e n t that the o n e using the c h a r m possess a properly pious attitude. F o r
61
its part, healing at the asklepion is "devoid o f thaumaturgic t e c h n i q u e . " Ra
ther, the inscriptions tie healing to b e l i e f in the god, whether the suppliant
expresses confidence b e f o r e h a n d o r is won over by the cure. W h e r e a s to pur
chase an amulet implies a level o f b e l i e f in its success, the spells d o n o t require
belief in order to b e effective, n o r d o the d a i m o n s d e m a n d votive offerings as
a d e m o n s t r a t i o n o f either belief o r gratitude.
By contrast, the Epidauros inscriptions and J a m e s share m a n y details in
common. B o t h emphasize divine goodwill, just as b o t h are clear that medici
nal-like acts—visions o f surgeries and applications o f medicine (at Epidauros)
• THE EVERYDAY PRACTICE OF GRECO-ROMAN RELIGION • 99
and smearing with olive oil (in James)—do n o t o f themselves achieve healing,
for b o t h assert that it is the deity w h o cures. B o t h also present t h e act o f heal
ing as a leveler o f social strata: t h e inscriptions by demonstrating that Askle
pios welcomes and heals all w h o c o m e to h i m at Epidauros, gladly receiving
b o t h the silver pig o f the wealthy w o m a n a n d the boy's gaming dice; J a m e s , by
encouraging all m e m b e r s o f the congregation, who are n o less righteous t h a n
Elijah, to pray for o n e a n o t h e r ' s healing.
T h e s e points o f agreement, however, prove to b e superficial. A t the level
o f shared categories we see healing at Epidauros and in the Epistle o f J a m e s as
elements o f distinctive systems. T h e role o f belief, in particular, provides a
significant p o i n t o f intersection between the two, yet turns o u t to reveal sys
temic discrepancies. J a m e s uses the word "faith" ( T T ( O T I S ) a n d its opposite
(SiaKpi'vopai), while the inscriptions talk a b o u t lack o f c o n v i c t i o n a b o u t the
62
god (expressed as being "incredulous" [aTnoTEiico], "laughing at" [ 5 i a -
/ETTiyEAaco] the testimonies, t h i n k i n g that healing through i n c u b a t i o n is "im
probable and impossible" [am'Sava K a i a S u v a T a ] , and calling b e l i e f "silliness"
[E\jn0ia]). B o t h J a m e s a n d the inscriptions tie faith to healing, a n d b o t h rec
ognize the value o f vicarious faith: J a m e s sees the faith o f the elders as a neces
sary e l e m e n t in their healing ministry, and the god heals A r a t a when her
m o t h e r sleeps in the abaton.
The texts, however, d e m o n s t r a t e quite different understandings o f faith.
J a m e s insists that prayer be made "in faith" (EV TTIOTEI, 1:6), a n d asserts that
the prayer " o f faith" (TTJS TTIOTECOS, 5 : 1 5 ) is effective for healing the sick per
son. W e have seen that w h e n J a m e s uses this term, he is talking a b o u t n e i t h e r
assent to theological claims n o r credulity that G o d will grant t h e request, b u t
about c o n t i n u e d devotion to G o d in the face o f hardships. It is just this sort
o f protracted devotion that is absent in the Epidauros inscriptions, w h i c h
speak o f n o relationship with the god b e y o n d the visit to the sanctuary. In
these testimonies, moreover, the god often heals despite a person's disbelief,
and the cure itself can produce faith. In t h e inscriptions, therefore, what is
valued is c o n f i d e n c e that Asklepios is able t o heal a n d that he will in fact d o
so.
The contrasts between J a m e s and Epidauros b e c o m e sharper as we con
sider categories that either are treated disproportionately by the two sources o r
that appear in o n e but n o t at all in the o t h e r . A t Epidauros, as we have n o t e d ,
healing is the practice o f individuals, and James's c o n c e r n for healing as a
moral act within the congregation does n o t register there. W e find n o indica
tion that the divine healings benefit any particular congregation. Similarly,
the inscriptions express the c o n c e r n s o f religious discourse w h e n they r e c o u n t
the incubations and successful healings: healing obligates the suppliant to per-
100 JAMES RILEY STRANGE •
form acts o f devotion in the form o f votive offerings, and presumably in the
attitude o f thanksgiving that such acts demonstrate. M o s t notably, the spe
cialization o f the Asklepios cult finds n o m a t c h in J a m e s . In the epistle, as we
have seen, healing constitutes o n e o f a constellation o f religious practices car
ried o u t by h u m a n s o n o n e another's behalf. It is tied to m u t u a l confession
and forgiveness o f sins, a n d is associated with the restoration o f m e m b e r s w h o
have apostatized, o r w h o are in danger o f doing so. A t Epidauros, h u m a n s re
ceive healing—virtually to the exclusion o f all else—directly from the h a n d o f
the god, and all rites are dedicated to the invocation o f that particular miracle.
In a final example, the place-specific healing at Epidauros contrasts sharply
with "nowhere" healing in J a m e s . It is reasonable to explain this difference
with reference to the tradition in G r e e k a n d R o m a n religion o f associating a
deity with a particular natural p h e n o m e n o n , such as a grove o r cave, o r as
sometimes in the case o f Asklepios, h o t springs. Nevertheless, it is the cus
tomary nature o f this practice in the G r e c o - R o m a n world that causes its ab
sence in J a m e s to stand o u t all the m o r e . W e have already n o t e d that in J a m e s
it is the sick person w h o s u m m o n s the elders to his or her own b e d . T h e con
trast with the p h e n o m e n o n o f the asklepion suggests that in J a m e s , the act o f
healing transforms the m u n d a n e space o f the h o m e into the sacred. T h e Lord
63
is active at the sickbed as Asklepios is at the s h r i n e .
ginning and at the e n d o f a forty-day period. T h e affair o f the fever and divine
revelations marks an extended chapter o f Aristides's long association with the
asklepion at Pergamon.
In light o f that fact, Aristides' characterization o f the episode as a "mira
cle" (TO Baupa) and "miraculous" (s0au|jaa0r)) is intriguing. Aristides evi
dently is talking about the incredible character o f the events, b u t it is n o t at all
clear that a miraculous healing has occurred. Aristides's amazement focuses
instead o n the god's bizarre instructions in freezing weather and o n his own
faithful response to t h e m . T h e a c c o u n t reveals the nature o f Aristides's devo
tion to the god: Asklepios instructs by night and Aristides obeys by day, fully
conscious o f the potential harm these actions can cause, b u t carrying through
nevertheless.
O n a certain occasion reported earlier in Discourses, Aristides reports that
he and a temple warden n a m e d Philadelphos had strikingly similar dreams,
69
b o t h a b o u t Aristides. Again, the report resembles the rite o f incubation, al
though it differs in several ways from those at late-fourth century B . C . E . Epi
dauros. F o r example, Aristides does n o t n a m e his specific c o m p l a i n t . This
omission is typical o f the Discourses, w h i c h report in detail the god's prescrip
tions—many resembling those o f the medical profession (as here), others ap
70
pearing to have n o particular medical benefit —but w h i c h rarely r e c o u n t his
ailments in similar detail. A s a result, the nature o f the cure itself is obscure.
71
Aristides reports only that he had b e e n confined to b e d for s o m e m o n t h s ,
and that his relief from the ( u n n a m e d ) symptoms is so great that he c a n n o t
describe it. I n d e e d he does not. T h e god prescribes a w o r m w o o d and vinegar
c o n c o c t i o n in order that Aristides "should n o longer feel disgust" ( c o s W 5uo—
Xepavaipi), a n d u p o n taking it Aristides reports that the potion brings " r e l i e f
( p a o T c o v n ) and "causes benefit" (OVIVTUJI), language that leaves unclear wheth
er Aristides was cured o r merely experienced temporary remission o f his symp
toms, whatever they were. T h e god also does n o t administer the d r i n k in the
dream, and Aristides does n o t awake cured. A s with his earlier smearings and
baths, Aristides h i m s e l f must mix the potion and d r i n k it. Finally, Aristides
and Philadelphos have the same dream, with a few variations. T h e healing o f
Arata provides the sole example o f this p h e n o m e n o n in the Epidauros inscrip
tions. In that case, however, the patient a n d suppliant were daughter and
mother. In the present case, Philadelphos does n o t undergo incubation o n
Aristides's behalf.
T h e visions focus, n o t o n Aristides' illness and relief from it, b u t o n the
role o f the god as director o f Aristides's life. T h e accounts o f b o t h dreams
agree that the topic o f the speech and hymn is Asklepios as "Giver o f Desti
nies" (poipovopov). In the a c c o u n t o f Philadelphos' dream in particular, the
• T H E EVERYDAY PRACTICE OF GRECO-ROMAN RELIGION* 103
For there was a seeming, as it were, to touch him and to perceive that he himself had
come, and to be between sleep and waking, and to wish to look up and to be in an
guish that he might depart too soon, and to strain the ears to hear some things as in a
dream, some as in a waking state. Hair stood on end, there were tears of joy, and the
weight of this knowledge was no burden. W h o could describe these things in words?
72
Anyone who has been initiated knows and understands.
indications o f his favor with the god, which he has secured through his con
tinued devotion. Aristides does n o t spell out a m o r e p e r m a n e n t aspect o f sal
vation.
Howard C l a r k Kee uses the Discourses o f Aristides as his primary source for
arguing that by the second century C . E . , the cult o f Asklepios had undergone
a fundamental shift from venerating a cult healer (as we see in the Epidauros
inscriptions) to devotion to the god as a benefactor, personal guide, and ulti
77
mately savior. S u c h d i a c h r o n i c observations are b e y o n d the scope o f this
work, b u t the present investigation has also found key differences between the
passages from Aristides's Discourses a n d the Epidauros inscriptions in three ar
eas: the focus o f the god's activity, the duration o f the god's attention, and the
demands placed o n the suppliant.
First o f all, the god o f the late-fourth century Epidauros inscriptions is
clearly a healer: the suppliant arrives with a physical malady o f s o m e sort a n d
leaves the next day cured. T h e s e practices throw the gods' activities in the Dis
courses into sharp relief, for in Aristides' Tales we e n c o u n t e r n o miraculous
cures, only temporary relief o f c h r o n i c symptoms that s o m e t i m e s take effect
over the course o f m o n t h s , and through repeated and often taxing physical ac
tivity. A b o v e all, what Aristides brings out is the god's role as shaper o f hu
man destinies a n d bringer o f salvation.
S e c o n d , the healings o f the Epidauros inscriptions focus only o n the heal
ing o f a particular ailment and are instantaneous, whereas Aristides empha
sizes a lifetime o f devotion to the god a n d a salvation that endures.
Finally, at Epidauros, in return for his healing acts the god expected only
belief in his ability and willingness to cure, a n d occasionally a votive offering
as a sign o f gratitude and faith. By contrast, the Asklepios o f Aristides' experi
ence invites initiation into his cult, encourages long-term devotion marked by
ecstatic visions, a n d graciously offers to c o n t r o l the details o f o n e ' s life, which
Aristides interprets as a change o f personal destiny.
In this way, Aristides' devotion t o the god shares a characteristic with the
magical papyri that we read. T h o s e t o o gave an indication that people sought
divine aid, n o t for healing alone, b u t for help with the minutiae o f their wor
kaday lives, and they also m a t c h e d particular prescriptions to various needs
and wants. W e found in the spells, however, n o signs o f religious devotion,
whether prolonged o r brief, n o indication o f divine goodwill, n o official cult
with priests and initiates. A c h i e f difference between t h e two systems lies in
the matter o f will. In the G r e e k spells, the divine beings w h o are available to
help h u m a n s do n o t necessarily care to d o so, a n d the three spells that we read
made n o appeal to divine b e n e v o l e n c e . Instead, people sought temporarily to
b e n d the will o f the being to their own. S u c h an understanding o f divine
106 •JAMES RILEY STRANGE
T h e Confession Inscriptions
BWK3
Great is Men Axiottenos Tarsi, who rules. Because a scepter was set up in the event
that someone stole something from the bathhouse, when a garment was stolen the
god was displeased, and after some time he made the thief bring the garment to the
god, and he confessed. Therefore, through a messenger the god commanded that the
garment be sold and to record (the god's] powers on a stele. In the year 2 4 9
8 7
Petzl records the stele's date "In the year 2 4 9 " as c. 1 6 4 / 5 C . E . The
photograph in Petzl's v o l u m e shows a stele o f white marble with the inscrip
tion s u r m o u n t e d by a relief, the upper, larger panel o f w h i c h depicts " M e n , in
Phrygian h o o d , with an u p t u r n e d c r e s c e n t over his shoulders. In his upraised
right h a n d he holds the scepter, a n d to his right the g a r m e n t lies at an an
88
gle." T h i s scepter appears in several reliefs a n d receives m e n t i o n in o t h e r in
scriptions; the language o f the inscriptions suggests that the scepter symbolizes
the god's judicial authority, manifested in issuing c o m m a n d s (as here), requir
89
ing propitiation, and rendering j u d g m e n t . Petzl identifies the figure in the
smaller panel below and to the left, standing with b o t h arms upraised, as a
boy. Presumably this is t h e thief, a n d i f he indeed is a child, his parents may
be responsible b o t h for sponsoring the stele a n d for keeping his n a m e o u t o f
it.
C o n f e s s i o n o f sin does n o t appear to b e a primary focus o f t h e stele's proc
lamation. Regarding the raised h a n d s o f the smaller figure, m o r e often in
90
these m o n u m e n t s a figure stands with right h a n d r a i s e d , a gesture s o m e t i m e s
91
interpreted as adoration o f the g o d . I f this is the case, t h e n t h e relief o n
BWK 3 may b e intended to depict t h e very act o f confessing (E^coMoXoyr)oaTo)
the c r i m e . However, whereas the stele's sponsors must regard the m o n u m e n t
as a p e r m a n e n t testimony, and whereas it does record the c o m m i s s i o n a n d
confession o f a theft, the inscription itself states that the m o n u m e n t gives ex
plicit witness to the god's powers (TCCS SUVCXMEIS). M o r e subtle is the inscrip
tion's revelation that M e n is willing to act in the lives o f his suppliants
through causing the return o f the stolen garment, its sale, and the p l a c e m e n t
o f the stele itself as a warning to potential sinners. T h a t we can classify the
theft as a m o r a l and legal error in distinction to a religious violation will be
c o m e clear in the e x a m i n a t i o n o f o t h e r inscriptions.
BWK 6 8
Great is Mother Anaeitis, who rules, and Meis Tiamu, and [great are) their powers.
[Concerning] Hermogenes and Apollonios, the sons of Apollonios Midas from Zuros
of the Mandrenes: when three shoats belonging to Demainetos and Papios of Azita
wandered off from the pens of Sura and became mixed with the herd of Hermogenes
and Apollonios, their five-yearold slave boy fed them and returned them within [the
pen]; when therefore Demainetos and Papios came searching [for the shoats], through
some ingratitude they [Hermogenes and Apollonios] did not admit [that they had the
110 •JAMES RILEY STRANGE*
pigs]. Therefore the scepter was set up by the goddess and the Lord Tiamu, and when
they did not admit [what they had done] the goddess therefore displayed her own
powers, and after Hermogenes died, his wife and child, and his brother Apollonios
appeased her, and now we bear witness to her and praise her together with [our] chil
92
dren. In the year 1 9 9 .
93
A n emphasis o n the gods' powers (ai S u v a u t S auTcov), also present in
the previous inscription, stands o u t in the present example from 114/115
9 4
C.E. because o f their m e n t i o n at b o t h the beginning a n d e n d o f the narra
tive. T h e stele provides an explanation for the death o f H e r m o g e n e s , tracing it
to the de-facto theft o f two young pigs from a n o t h e r herd. Although neither
what h a p p e n e d to the animals n o r the crime t h a t earned the gods' response o f
power is clear (a confusion that accounts for the phrases in brackets above),
the language suggests that the brothers c o m m i t t e d a sin o f omission, failing to
disclose that the shoats had b e c o m e intermingled with their own herd. The
stele t h e n interprets H e r m o g e n e s ' death as divine p u n i s h m e n t for this omis
sion, with his family erecting the stele as a sign o f redress after the fact and as a
witness to the goddess M o t h e r Anaetis in particular.
T h e "ingratitude" (axapiOTi'av) that the inscription m e n t i o n s is a n o t h e r
obscurity. T h e term may allude to an earlier disagreement between the broth
ers and the pair D e m a i n e t o s and Papios. In this case, the verb opoAoysco
bears n o t only a religious b u t also a semi -orensic meaning. T h e brothers fail
to "admit" (OUK copoAoyrioav, pr| bpoAoynaavTcov) their crime, perhaps in two
separate instances: w h e n the pigs' owners c a m e looking for them, a n d after the
raising o f the scepter, w h i c h may indicate a legal inquiry c o n d u c t e d u n d e r the
auspices o f the divine cult. T h e stele, therefore, suggests that the sin is o f b o t h
a m o r a l a n d a legal nature, while also carrying religious c o n s e q u e n c e s , for it
offends the gods a n d invites their intervention, namely t h e raising o f the scep
ter, the death o f H e r m o g e n e s , the act o f propitiation offered by his family, a n d
the erection o f the stele as eternal witness to the gods' might.
B W K 112
... of Apollonios because he sinned: because I went up into the [sacred] place acciden
tally and twice went through the village while impure. I forgot and passed into the
village [again]. I announce that no one will despise the god[s?], because he will have
the stele as an example. W h a t lies before you, Eutycheis made of his own will, and he
95
confessed and made propitiation.
96
In this "confession" text—possibly dating to the third century C . E . —
there is a clear admission o f guilt in the claim, "because he s i n n e d " (Si TO
97
rjpapTTjKEVE ), the transgression is spelled out, a n d the transgression is con
fessed (E^OMoAoyrjaccTo). Again, however, the inscription's confessional nature
plays a secondary role to its veneration o f the god. In this case, Eutycheis "an-
THE EVERYDAY PRACTICE OF GRECO-ROMAN RELIGION* 111
BWK 43
Antonia, daughter of Antonius, to the god Apollon Bozenos, because I went up to the
[sacred] place wearing filthy clothes, and after I was punished I confessed and offered
100
up a blessing, because I became whole.
Notes
1. Aelius Aristides provides an exception. See the discussion below. See also "How ought
we to bear our illnesses?" (Diatr. 3.10), in which Epictetus says that people should endure
a fever in the appropriate way, just as they take up any other task. He advises following
the instructions of one's physician, but has nothing explicit to say about seeking healing
from the gods or some other divine being.
2. See e.g. Pindar, Third Pythian Ode, 3 8 - 5 3 , and see in particular the discussion in the next
chapter about healing in Sirach.
3. Cf. John Scarborough, Roman Medicine (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1969), 20, 143.
4. Scarborough, Roman Medicine, 144.
5. C. Thomas McCollough and Beth Glazier-McDonald, "Magic and Medicine in Byzantine
Galilee: A Bronze Amulet from Sepphoris," in Archaeology and the Galilee: Texts and Con
texts in the Graeco-Roman and Byzantine Periods, ed. Douglas R. Edwards and C. Thomas
McCollough, South Florida Studies in the History of Judaism (Atlanta: Scholars Press,
1997), 144; Arthur Darby Nock, "Paul and the Magus," in The Beginnings of Christianity,
pt. 1, vol. 5, ed. F. J. Foakes Jackson and K. Lake, 1 6 4 - 8 8 (London: Macmillan and Co.,
1 9 2 0 - 1 9 3 3 ) ; repr., Essays on Religion and the Ancient World, vol. 1, 3 0 9 - 3 0 (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972), 3 1 3 - 1 4 ; Hans-Josef Klauk, The Religious Context
of Early Christianity, translated by Brian McNeil, (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 2000), 2 1 5 -
19.
6. See Shauf, Theology as History, 1 7 7 - 9 0 .
7. PGM VII. 1 9 3 - 9 6 ; VII. 1 9 7 - 9 8 ; VII. 2 0 1 - 2 ; VII. 2 0 3 - 5 ; VII. 2 0 6 - 7 ; VII. 2 0 8 - 9 ; VII.
2 1 3 - 1 4 ; VII. 2 1 8 - 2 1 .
8. The English translations of the PGM are collected in Hans Dieter Betz, ed., Greek Magi
cal Papyri in Translation Including the Demotic Spells (Chicago and London: University of
Chicago Press, 1986). Prior to Betz's volume, most of the Greek texts, which are scat
tered in many museum and library collections in Europe and the United States, had
been compiled by Karl Preisendanz in the work that gave the collection the name by
which it is still called: Papyri graecae magicae: die grieschischen Zauberpapyri, Sammlung wis-
senschaftlicher Kommentare (Stuttgart: B. G. Teubner, 1 9 7 3 - 7 4 ) . Betz, however, ex
panded the number of Greek texts (as well as including spells in Demotic) to take into
account spells not included in Preisendanz's volume.
9. Scarborough has "[you?]."
10. Scarborough has "your (?)."
11. PGM VII - P. Lond. 121 at the British Museum in London. English translation slightly
modified from John Scarborough, in Betz, Greek Magical Papyri, 1 2 3 - 2 4 . Greek text:
Preisendanz, Papyri graecae magicae, 12.
12. See PGM VII. 2 1 8 - 2 1 , which uses both words. TTepiavpov, something "hung around"
(i.e., the neck), refers to the use of the object, whereas <(>uAaiaT)piov, something that
"guards against" a danger, derives from the object's function. Scarborough's note sug
gests that to "clothe" the tin tablet "in 7 colors" means to suspend it by a cord plaited
from threads of seven different colors. Betz, ed., Greek Magical Papyri, 124, n. 27.
118 •JAMES RILEY STRANGE •
13. Betz does not specify whether he refers to the ancient or modern reader, or both. Ibid.,
xxxii.
14. Betz's example in his table of textual signs includes IAO (Yahweh?), SABAOTH, and ADONAI.
Ibid., xxxii. See the following treatment of PGM LXXXIII. 1-20.
15. Use of magic by Jews evidently was widespread in Hellenistic through Byzantine times,
and it has generated some modern studies. See Betz's note 47 in ibid., lii-liii. See also
McCollough and Glazier-McDonald, "Magic and Medicine," 1 4 4 - 4 5 ; Peter Schaffer,
"Jewish Liturgy and Magic," in Geschichte-Tradition-Reflexion: Festschrift fiir Martin Hengel
zum 70. Geburtstag, vol. 1, Judentum, ed. Hubert Cancik, Hermann Lichtenberger, and
Peter Schaffer (Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1996), 5 4 1 - 5 6 .
16. The editor has reconstructed the text at this point, evidently based on "fever with shiver
ing fits" in line 3 of the papyrus (the second line of text above).
17. Note 3 for this spell says, "The papyrus may read, your father'"; Betz, ed., Greek Magical
Papyri, 3 0 0 .
18. PGM LXXXIII = P. Princ. II 107 at Princeton University AM 8 9 6 3 . English translation
by Roy Kotansky, in Betz, ed., Greek Magical Papyri, 3 0 0 . Greek text: E. H. Kase, Jr., "No.
107: Gnostic Fever Amulet," in Papyri in the Princeton University Collections, vol. 2 (Prince
ton: Princeton University Press, 1936), 1 0 2 - 1 0 3 .
19. See McCollough, "Magic and Medicine," 245; cf. PGM VII. 2 1 1 - 1 2 , 2 1 3 - 1 4 .
20. Kase, "Fever Amulet," 103; line 3 of the text has puyomipsTov.
21. Ibid.; line 5 of the text has TETapxiov.
22. See David Frankfurter, "Amuletic Invocations of Christ for Health and Fortune," in Re
ligions of Late Antiquity in Practice, ed. Richard Valantasis (Princeton, N. J. and Oxford, U.
K.: Princeton University Press, 2000), 3 4 0 - 4 3 .
23. Betz, ed., Greek Magical Papyri, 300, n. 2.
24. An important questions, not to be pursued here, is whether these magical papyri should
be incorporated into the witnesses collated for the preparation of an eclectic New Tes
t h t h
tament text. Kase dates this papyrus to the 4 to 5 centuries C.E. The "citation" of
Matthew may indicate the gospel's status as Christian scripture and its regular use in lit
urgy in whatever locale the papyrus was produced (Kase gives no provenance for the pa
pyrus, although the material suggests that it was produced somewhere in Egypt). The
reference to Michael as "archangel" apparently alludes either to Jude 9 or to Revelation
12:7, or stems from Christian beliefs based on those passages, and it may indicate that
these too were playing a role in Christian worship in the area of the papyrus' origin.
72 78 98 47 18
Jude appears in <p (III/IV), <P (III/IV); Apocalypse, in <p (II?), <p (III), <p (III/IV),
24
and $ ) (IV). Both books appear in three of the four major Geek biblical codices of the
t h t h
Alexandrian tradition from the 4 and 5 centuries (Sinaiticus/N, Alexandrinus/A, and
Ephraemi/C). See Aland, et al., eds., Novum Testamentum Graece, 6 8 4 - 8 9 .
25. According to Kotansky, we should read MICHAEL for MIGAEL in line 19 (in Kase, MIGAEL is
in line 18). Betz, ed., Greek Magical Papyri, 3 0 0 , n. 5.
26. C f . D a n 10:13, 2 1 .
27. This reading is based on the partial reconstruction "IaAa[|jav 1" in the penulti
mate line of the text.
28. For a discussion of the typical parts of a Roman prayer, see Michael J. Brown, The Lord's
Prayer Through North African Eyes: A Window into Early Christianity (New York and Lon-
• T H E EVERYDAY PRACTICE OF GRECO-ROMAN RELIGION* 119
don: T & T Clark International, 2 0 0 4 ) , 6 2 - 6 5 . There are many examples in the PGM of
actual hymns, or portions of them, that have been incorporated into magical rites, al
though often the meter has become corrupted. See, for example, PGM I. 2 6 2 - 3 4 7 ; II.
6 4 - 1 8 3 ; III. 1 8 7 - 2 6 2 ; III. 4 9 4 - 6 1 1 ; IV. 1 5 4 - 2 8 5 .
29. Kotansky reads KaxaKAmKov (something that causes a person to be bedridden) for K C X -
TCtKAnTiKOv (something that summons). Betz, Greek Magical Papyri, 3 2 1 , n. 1.
30. In both Betz's and Maltomini's editions, the text following the magical characters is split
into two columns that fall on either side of a (very poor) drawing of the manikin.
31. The language here refers to the drawing of the manikin, above which the letters "cococo,
m, ooo" are written.
32. Kotansky says that the text is corrupt at this point and cannot be explained fully. "Of
the victim" follows Maltomini's deciphering of the letters following "bones": eio<t>aTn-
OTaxpn; Betz, Greek Magical Papyri, 3 2 1 , n. 3; Franco Maltomini, "I Papiri greci," in Nuo-
vi papyri magici in copto, Greco e aramaico, S C O 29 (Pisa: University of Pisa, 1979), 107. If
this text, as reconstructed, means to include the word o<t>a<K>Tns, it perhaps refers to a
sacrificial victim (so Kotansky), or possibly to a the corpse of a woman who has died a
violent death. Cf. PGM I. 2 4 7 - 4 9 ; II. 145, 171.
33. This may be the tomb of someone who has died a violent death.
34. PGM C X X I V = P. Cazzaniga, no. 7 at the University of Pisa. English translation slightly
modified from Roy Kotansky, in Betz, ed., Greek Magical Papyri, 3 2 1 . Greek text: Mal
tomini, "I Papiri greci," in Nuovi papyri magici in Copto, Greco e Aramaico, S C O 2 9 (Pisa:
University of Pisa, 1979), 9 4 - 1 1 2 (Pap. 7).
t h t h
35. Betz, ed., Greek Magical Papyri, xxvii. Maltomini dates it to the late 5 or early 6 c. C.E.;
Maltomini, "I Papiri greci," 9 5 .
36. The spell assumes that the purchaser lives in a house with beaten earth floors, which
suggests that users of this type of magic occupy the lower classes.
37. Cf. spells for acquiring a daimon as an assistant: PGM I. 4 2 - 5 4 , 8 8 - 9 0 , 9 5 - 1 3 2 ; III. 50ff,
95-160ff.
38. Cf. Acts 13:11.
39. Betz, ed., Greek Magical Papyri, xlvii.
40. Betz goes on to characterize the entire enterprise of magician and client as one of decep
tion and gullibility. One wonders if Betz wishes to paint all religious practices with the
same brush.
41. Well-known temples to Asklepios were located at Trikka, Athens, Epidauros, Kos, Smyr
na, Pergamon, and Rome, but temples and shrines to the god were scattered across the
Mediterranean (including North Africa) in the Hellenistic and Roman eras. E. J . Edel-
stein and L. Edelstein, Asclepius: A Collection and Interpretation of the Testimonies, vol. 2
(Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1945). The town of Epidauros is lo
cated on the Saronic Gulf, about 3 0 km southwest of Corinth. The temple to Asklepios
at Epidauros lies about 9 km ( 1 6 km by road) southwest (inland) of the town. R. A.
Tomlinson, Epidaros (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1983), 9 - 1 1 (incl. "1 Map of Ep
idauros District").
42. Howard Clark Kee, Miracle in the Early Christian World: A Study in Sociohistorical Method
(New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1983, 83; cf. Louise Wells, The Greek
Language of Healing from Homer to the New Testament Times, BZNW 83 (Berlin and New
120 • JAMES RILEY STRANGE •
York: Walter de Gniyter, 1998), 18. Both Kee (Miracle, 83ff) and Wells (Language of
Healing, 18ff.), provide a helpful synopsis of the information about the temple complex
and its inscriptions collected in Edelstein and Edelstein, eds., Asclepius.
43. Presumably this is Antoninus Pius (emperor from 1 3 8 - 1 6 1 C.E.). Kee, Miracle, 84.
44. The second century geographer Pausanias gives an account of the myth, as well as a de
tailed account of the cult of Asklepios and the facilities at Epidauros in Descr. 2 . 2 6 . 1 -
2.27.6. According to Pausanias, Descr. 2 . 2 7 . 1 - 6 , the compound housed a main temple
to Asklepios, an adjacent structure for the incubation of patients (called the apccrov, but
not by Pausanias), a nearby circular building (tholos) containing stelae with inscriptions, a
theater, temples to various gods, a stadium, a "Portico of Cotys," and a maternity
ward/hospice for the dying. Pausanias describes six stelae remaining in the tholos that re
corded miraculous healings by the god "in the Doric dialect." Excavations have found
the structures that Pausanias describes and many others as well.
45. Some stelae bearing inscriptions of the second half of the fourth century B.C.E. were
excavated and published by P. Kawaidas in Fouilles Epidaure (Athens, 1891); cf. P. Kav-
vaidas, To lepov TOU 'AafcA/jmou ev 'EmSaupcS KCXI rj depaneia TCOU aodeucov (Athens,
1900); both quoted in Wells, Language of Healing, 2 1 . Inscriptions from two of these ste
2
lae have been published as IG 4 . 1 . 1 2 1 - 2 2 . Inscriptions nos. 1 - 2 0 are from stela 1; nos.
21-43 are from stela 2.
46. Greek text: Edelstein and Edelstein, eds., Asclepius, 1:222; translation: ibid., 1:230,
slightly modified in places.
47. Literally, she is "one-eyed": aTsporrnAAos is the Doric form of ET6p6(|>0aAuos; L&S, s.v.
"cmpoTmAAos."
2
48. Cf. IG 4 . 1 . 1 2 1 - 2 2 , nos. 3, 9 (treated below), 10, 3 6 .
49. See Wells' treatment of the frequent use of the word \)y\r\S and its occurrence in this
formula in Wells, Language of Healing, 3 1 - 3 3 .
2
50. Cf. IG 4 . 1 . 1 2 1 - 2 2 , nos. 5, 6, 7, 15, 2 5 .
51. Wells, Language of Healing, 2 3 - 2 5 .
2
52. Cf. IG 4 . 1 . 1 2 1 - 2 2 , nos. 12, 2 3 , 2 5 , 27, 3 0 .
53. Greek text: Edelstein and Edelstein, eds., Asclepius, 1:223; translation: ibid., 1:232-32,
slightly modified.
54. Like Ambrosia, the man is aTsporrnAAos.
55. Greek Text: Edelstein and Edelstein, eds., Asclepius, 1:225; translation: ibid., 1:233.
2
56. C f . / G 4 . l . 1 2 1 - 2 2 , no. 2 3 .
57. Cf. Aelian, Nat. an. 9 . 3 3 , in which physicians cannot cure a woman of a tapeworm. The
god must intervene when his attendants at Epidauros cut off the woman's head to re
move the worm but cannot reattach it.
58. I.e., Sparta, about 100 km southwest of Epidauros, on the Peloponese.
59. Wells, Language of Healing, 15f.
60. Two inscriptions (nos. 7 and 3 6 ) do recount incidents in which Asklepios punishes sup
pliants, but neither incident is severe (the first causes marks on the face, the second, in
jury), and the god later makes the second man well after he is suitably penitent and
remorseful. These stories seem calculated to promote truthfulness and authentic devo
tion rather than to convey any malevolence on the part of the god.
THE EVERYDAY PRACTICE OF GRECO-ROMAN RELIGION • 121
82. Aslak Rostad, "Confession or Reconciliation? The Narrative Structure of the Lydian and
Phrygian 'Confession Inscriptions,'" SO 77 (2002): 148. Before Steinleitner's published
dissertation of 1913, the inscriptions were available to the public "only in scattered trave
logues, museum annals, memoirs, and the like"; Hans-Josef Klauk, "Die kleinasiatischen
Beichtinschriften und das Neue Testament," in Geschichte-Tradition-Reflexion: Festschrift
fur Martin Hengel zum 70. Geburtstag, vol. 3, Friihes Christentum, ed. Hubert Cancik, Her
mann Lichtenberger, and Peter Schaffer (Tubingen: J . C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1996),
63. After Steinleitner's study the corpus of inscriptions has expanded, and both M. Ricl
and G. Petzl have published more complete collections. Marijana Ricl, La conscience du
peche dans les cultes anatoliens a lepoque romaine. La confession des fautes rituelles et ethiques
dans les cultes meoniens et phrygiens (Serbian, with a French summary; Belgrade, 1995);
Georg Petzl, ed., Die Beichtinschriften Westkleinasiens, Epigraphica Anatolica vol. 22
(Bonn: Dr. Rudolf Habelt GMBH, 1994). Ricl's publication contains 135 inscriptions;
Petzl's, 124. Both authors have subsequently published other inscriptions. This book re
lies on Petzl's text (hereafter B W K ) and numbering system.
83. H. S. Versnel, "Beyond Cursing: The Appeal to Justice in Judicial Prayers," in Magika
Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion, ed. Christopher A. Faraone and Dirk Obbink
(New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), 75. Photographs and transcrip
tions of many of these inscriptions may be found within larger collections of inscriptions
from Asia minor. For a list of these publications see Eckhard J . Schnabel, "Divine Tyr
anny and Public Humiliation: A Suggestion for the Interpretation of the Lydian and
Phrygian Confession Inscriptions," NovTXLV (2003): 160, note 1.
84. Cf. Schnabel, "Divine Tyranny," 161; Rostad, "Confession or Reconciliation?," 1 4 6 - 4 7 .
85. Rostad, "Confession or Reconciliation?" 146.
86. All translations are by the author. Greek text: Petzl, Beichtinschriften, 3.
87. Petzl, Beichtinschriften, 3.
88. Petzl, Beichtinschriften, 3. According to Schnabel, "Divine Tyranny," 161, the crescent
moon in this position frequently appears on the stelae as a symbol for Men; cf. BWK 4,
5, 6, 18, 57, 58, 5 9 , 6 1 , 6 2 , 6 3 . For further examples of the god holding the scepter, see
BWK 5 1 , 5 2 , 5 8 , 6 1 , 6 7 , 6 8 .
89. Schnabel, "Divine Tyranny," 1 6 1 - 6 2 , cites J . H. M. Strubbe, "Cursed be he that moves
my bones," in Faraone and Obbink, Majika Hiera, 4 4 .
90. Cf. BWK 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 20, 3 5 , 37, 3 8 , 62(?), 97.
91. Schnabel, "Divine Tyranny," 162.
92. Greek text: Petzl, Beichtinschriften, 8 6 . The stele is now lost. For bibliographical informa
tion on extant copies and photos of the monument, see ibid.
93. Read 5uva[j6s.
94. Petzl, Beichtinschriften, 86.
95. Greek text, Petzl, Beichtinschriften, 132. This stele was found in secondary or later use,
incorporated into the wall of a house.
96. Ibid.
97. Read perfect infinitive TlpapTnKevai. See Petzl, Beichtinschriften, 132. Cf. BWK 109.
98. Read STTEIOETUXE-
99. See BWK 1, 4, 1 0 , 4 3 , 7 6 , 116.
THE EVERYDAY PRACTICE OF GRECO-ROMAN RELIGION • 123
100. Ibid, 5 2 - 5 3 .
101. Read ptc KOAOCOSETOO: .
102. As Rostad has pointed out, verbs of confessing occur in only nine of the inscriptions
(Petzl reproduces 124 inscriptions), and only three of these specify the particular trans
gression committed; Rostad, "Confession or Reconciliation?" 151 (many others, how
ever, contain accounts of sins without using verbs of confession: cf. BWK 1, 4, 5, 10, 15,
19, 37, 4 3 , 6 0 , 6 5 , 76). Rostad concludes that the primary intent of the inscriptions is to
attest to reconciliation between the deity and the individual, and suggests that such "rec
onciliation was the object of the cult" in which the erection of steles played a role; ibid.,
160-61.
103. Bauckham, James, 102-104.
• C H A P T E R F I V E *
A
s in C h a p t e r s 3 and 4 , the discussion o f Judaic texts is limited to a few
writings. T h o s e writings talk a b o u t prayer, divine healing, confession
o f sins, and correction within structures whose categories o f t h o u g h t
provide counterparts to J a m e s ' s categories, and where disproportionate catego
ries, o r categories found in o n e text b u t n o t another, neither impede the task
1
o f c o m p a r i s o n n o r render it ineffective. Despite representing m a n y different
genres, all o f the Judaic texts treated in this chapter are overtly didactic in na
ture. T h e y address the issue o f how the heirs o f biblical Israel, differently con
ceived, are to live o u t a distinctive way o f life. All can generally b e classified as
instruction directed to a particular Israel in h o w to live according to T o r a h ,
however differently each text may conceive o f Israel and T o r a h . A l o n e o f all
the J u d a i c works compared to J a m e s , the Community Rule o f the D e a d S e a
Scrolls presents the practices o f prayer, confession, and correction within a
relatively c o m p a c t text. F o r that reason all o f C h a p t e r 6 is devoted to that
writing.
Prayer
In the matters discussed in the M i s h n a h ' s divisions and tractates, t h e way Sag
es reason a b o u t T o r a h is important. T h e logic that governs the process by
which sages arrive at rulings establishes precedent, and this precedent in turn
allows Israelites to work out, through analogy, how T o r a h applies in their
126 • JAMES RILEY STRANGE
will n o t even c o m e close to transgressing the rule stipulating that evening ends
at dawn. W h a t is at issue, therefore, is the protection o f Israelites from their
h u m a n proclivities, whether through evil intent o r accident. T h e issue be
comes clear with the language at J - L , for the ruling o f G a m a l i e l applies to all
mitzvoth that sages say may b e performed until midnight.
H e n c e , the o p e n i n g passage o f the M i s h n a h ' s tractate o n prayer (and o f
the M i s h n a h itself) establishes reasoning that may be applied b e y o n d the spe
cific case presented, since religious obligations to be performed in the evening
should b e c o m p l e t e d any time before midnight. Y e t the idea lying b e h i n d sag
es* ruling is even m o r e far reaching, for it reveals the intention b e h i n d the
judgment. T h e passage turns o u t to have little to d o with the particulars o f
Shema recitation, b u t with how to interpret obligations that o n e must meet at
particular hours o f the day, and the c h i e f consideration is to protect the Israel
ite male from sin.
A t 2:1 a new problem arises. W h e n the time for recitation o f the Shema
arrives, how does o n e make the transition from reading the Shema, the text o f
9
which is found in scripture, to reciting it in fulfillment o f religious obligation?
T h e d e t e r m i n i n g factor in fulfilling religious obligations is the h u m a n will, for
only what the person intends to do can distinguish between two otherwise
identical activities. Because until relatively recently people read aloud, reading
for study looked n o different from prayer recitation. Again the matter is set
tled early on, in this case at B and C : if, while reading the Shema from the T o -
rah, the time for recitation arrives, simply by making the decision to change
his reading into recitation ( " i f h e directed his heart," n $ ]13 Cfc) the Israel
ite male fulfills the obligation. If, o n the o t h e r h a n d , he c o n t i n u e s to
read with n o change in his intention, the obligation remains u n m e t until he
does so.
Again, the discussion c o n t i n u e s with the rulings o f n a m e d authorities. In
this case, the o p i n i o n s o f R.s M e i r a n d J u d a h serve two apparent purposes. In
the immediate context, their words clarify the issue o f "directing the heart."
Does this act o f the will preclude interruptions in recitation? R.s M e i r and Ju
10
dah b o t h allow interruptions in certain spots in the Shema, under particular
c o n d i t i o n s , and making distinctions between the o n e reciting, a fellow Israel
ite, a n d a non-Israelite. A person may disrupt his own recitation at a break be
tween paragraphs in order to greet a fellow Israelite a n d to respond to an
Israelite's greeting "out o f respect" ( l i M H "DSQ, D , E , K ) . Likewise, R.s M e i r
and J u d a h agree that a person may suspend his own recitation in the middle
o f a paragraph in order to initiate a greeting, only "out o f fear" (ntjn'H "390, F,
11
I). T h e two offer differing o p i n i o n s o n particular p o i n t s , b u t the same issue
governs the logic o f both: the intention to recite the Shema carries forward de-
128 • JAMES RILEY STRANGE •
spite certain types o f interruptions, a n d allowances are made for the effect that
mitigating c o n d i t i o n s have o n a person's intent. T h e s e c o n d i t i o n s (respect
and fear) are sufficiently vague to allow the rulings to form analogies for a myr
iad o f circumstances in the life o f an Israelite.
A s e c o n d purpose b e h i n d these o p i n i o n s does n o t b e c o m e clear until 5 : 1 .
Again, the ruling in this section emphasizes the role o f the h u m a n will in reli
gious practices: in the matter taken up in this passage, the i n t e n t i o n to per
form the act carries even greater weight than t h e i n t e n t i o n to recite the Shema.
Here, the prayer u n d e r discussion is the standing prayer, or Amidah (also the
"Eighteen B e n e d i c t i o n s " ) , w h i c h o n e must undertake "in a s o l e m n frame o f
12
m i n d " (Efrn 7 3 ' 3 "?jino). W i t h the ruling at D a n d E , the earlier o p i n i o n s o f
R.s M e i r and J u d a h in 2:1 are clarified: at stake is distinguishing between the
obligations o f the Shema a n d the Amidah. O n c e Israelites have "directed their
1
hearts toward the O m n i p r e s e n t " (DipQ ? 33*? n $ 1313' #) for the purpose o f recit
S
ing the Amidah, they must n o t interrupt it, either o u t o f respect (responding to
13
the king's greeting), or o u t o f fear (untwining the serpent from o n e ' s h e e l ) .
In this instance, praying "in a solemn frame o f m i n d " is o n a different order
than "directing the heart" towards recitation, presumably because the former
requires giving o n e ' s attention to G o d himself.
H u m a n i n t e n t i o n distinguishes a m u n d a n e activity from a sacred o n e , for
directing o n e ' s heart toward recitation o f t h e Shema accomplishes the deed,
and solemnity is required to meet the obligation to recite the Amidah. At
4:4A, R . Eliezer rules, " ' O n e w h o makes his prayers a fixed task—his prayers
are n o t [valid] supplications [of G o d ] . ' " O n e must intend to pray; simply
speaking the words at the predetermined time does n o t fulfill the obligation.
A t 4 : 5 Sages give a striking example o f the power o f h u m a n i n t e n t i o n , for
through it o n e meets even the obligation to perform a physical act. Sages say
that i f o n e riding a donkey is unable to d i s m o u n t so that he can stand while
praying, he may fulfill the obligation by turning his head toward the east. I f
for s o m e reason even this act is n o t possible (if, for example, he does n o t k n o w
in w h i c h direction east lies), "he should direct his heart toward the C h a m b e r
o f the Holy o f Holies."
H u m a n i n t e n t i o n also distinguishes between sacred activities o f lesser a n d
greater solemnity. N o o t h e r blessing addressed in m. Berakhot requires the sol
e m n attention necessary for reciting the Amidah. T h e tractate displays n o con
14
cern about interrupting the many o t h e r blessings for various o c c a s i o n s .
N o n e o f these events, s o m e that o c c u r in the course o f every day and others
that reflect unusual circumstances, requires the attention that o n e must devote
to the Amidah.
JUDAIC VISIONS OF CORPORATE LIFE* 129
my brothers" o f 5 : 1 2 does signal that the instruction is nearing its end; the
M i s h n a h simply takes up its discourse with n o introduction, and does n o t sig
nal its end, so that, although 6 3 tractates separate its opening and closing
lines, all s o u n d as i f they could be found anywhere in the text. W h e r e a s J a m e s
exhibits an informal, organic strucnire, the M i s h n a h is arranged into six divi
sions, with each division being comprised o f several tractates and e a c h tractate
tackling a distinct topic. I f J a m e s addresses c o m m u n i t i e s o f believers scattered
in the "Diaspora" o f the E m p i r e , the M i s h n a h presents G o d ' s people living as
if n o n e had ever left the L a n d and all still worshipped in a T e m p l e that is long
gone. I f J a m e s is c o n c e r n e d with the integrity and survival o f a c o m m u n i t y
constituted and organized in a way contrary to the surrounding society, the
M i s h n a h sets forth a U t o p i a , a way o f life and construal o f the social order for
2 3
an ideal Israel that existed nowhere in the s e c o n d century C . E . Finally, the
primary category o f prayer in the Mishnah—blessing G o d , as indicated by para
graph after paragraph c o n c e r n i n g its regulation—scarcely registers in J a m e s (the
e n c o u r a g e m e n t to sing praises in 5 : 1 3 is a single example), and the category o f
intercessory prayer, w h i c h generates further exhortation and p r o o f by exem-
plum in J a m e s , forms a m i n o r category in the M i s h n a h .
It is important, however, n o t to draw facile conclusions about whether the
M i s h n a h allows for certain types o f prayer, or whether Jews o f s e c o n d century
Palestine prayed for o n e another. Clearly, whereas m o s t o f the prayers o f m.
Berakhot take the form o f blessings o f the Divine, they nevertheless are in
tended as petitions and intercessions. In 1:4B, for example, the s e c o n d o f the
two blessings said after the evening recitation o f the Shema contains a petition
for peaceful sleep. Likewise, the b r i e f prayer that R . N e h u n i a b . H a q a n a h said
upon entering the beit midrash apparently was intended to ensure correct read
ing and accurate declaration o f T o r a h . T h e clearest indications that blessings
often function as petitions c o m e at m. Berakhot 4 : 4 and 5:2: in 4 : 4 , a person
24
walking in a dangerous place may ask G o d for safe passage; in 5 : 2 , a prayer
for rain (which is a prayer for crops, and h e n c e for survival o n o n e hand and
well-being o n the other) is included in the n i n t h blessing o f the Amidah. R.
H a n i n a h b . D o s a ' s prayer for the sick (also presumably during the Amidah) in
5:5 is c o u c h e d within a blessing as well. In addressing the petitionary force o f
prayer in m. Berakhot, Zvee Zahavy argues that through their regimented and
rigorous prayer life the rabbis o f the age o f Y a v n e h sought wellness and protec
25
tion. I f this is the case, then even graces said at meals can be understood as
petitions for G o d to c o n t i n u e to grant good crops and healthy flocks.
Given these data, we n o w have the problem o f how to distinguish petition
and intercession in m. Berakhot from what we find in J a m e s . T h e solution lies
in the construal o f the praying c o m m u n i t y in each text. In m. Berakhot there is
JUDAIC VISIONS OF C O R P O R A T E LIFE* 131
31
instigates a crisis, which H o n i must also abate through prayer. Oddly, the
c o n t e n t o f this second prayer is n o t given.
A second surprise in the narrative c o m e s from H o n i ' s status. Evidently
his ability to importune the O m n i p r e s e n t and to have his prayers answered is
well known, yet he bears n o honorific title in this episode. H e is n o t pre
sented as a sage w h o is skilled in knowledge o f T o r a h o r in reasoning through
analogy. He is exceptional, instead, for his special relationship with G o d ,
which is evident in his petulant drawing o f circles. H e may stand before the
O m n i p r e s e n t and make demands as child to a parent, and he may expect to
have those d e m a n d s met. T h i s u n i q u e status, furthermore, protects h i m from
the c o n s e q u e n c e s o f demands gone awry. W e r e it H o n i himself w h o flooded
Jerusalem, S i m e o n b . S h a t a h would e x c o m m u n i c a t e h i m , b u t it was G o d w h o
sent the rain at H o n f s behest, and what can anyone do a b o u t that?
T h e story o f H o n i invites c o m p a r i s o n with J a m e s in many details: at issue
is bringing and stopping the rain through prayer, the question o f what makes
prayer effective, the discussion o f prayer in c o n j u n c t i o n with o t h e r religious
practices (in the case o f m. Ta'anit, fasting), and interceding with G o d o n be
half o f a c o m m u n i t y .
T h i s final point deserves c o m m e n t because it so closely resembles o n e o f
James* primary categories. Evidence is simply t o o scant to draw firm conclu
sions a b o u t what Sages envision here. T h e practices regulated in Ta'anit—
times and duration o f fasts and the c o n d u c t o f the fasts themselves, and the
particular calendar by which they are scheduled—surely set Israelites apart from
all o t h e r peoples. T h e authors o f Ta'anit, however, do n o t talk about a com
munity distinguishing itself from others through its way o f life; they imagine
Israel shaping its own destiny, troubled only by the challenges o f following T o
rah as G o d wants it to be followed. A society that is at odds with Israel's way
o f life, o r rival c o m m u n i t i e s making claims to the title Israel or its inheritance
(as C h r i s t i a n c o m m u n i t i e s are certainly doing at the turn from the s e c o n d cen
32
tury to the third), simply make n o impression in this discussion. W e r e we to
take the tractate at face value, we should expect to find in s e c o n d century Pal
estine a single, h o m o g e n e o u s Israel, under the authority o f n o foreign gov
e r n m e n t , nowhere in exile, regulating its life through T o r a h observance and a
legislative system free from all constraints.
In contrast to James, who insists that Elijah has n o special status, H o n i is
the exceptional m a n in m. Ta'anit. Conversely, whereas J a m e s calls for his
readers to pray like Elijah, Ta'anit's authors show n o such expectation with
H o n i . James, in the m o d e o f moral exhortation, seeks to bring a b o u t certain
virtuous behaviors, in particular those that help to establish and maintain the
Christian c o m m u n i t y in an alien e n v i r o n m e n t . James is c o n c e r n e d with how
134 •JAMES RILEY STRANGE*
Healing
trated in the four verses that instruct in praying, securing absolution, a n d see
42 43
ing a physician ( 9 - 1 2 ) ; we also find a s s o n a n c e a n d alliteration, as well as
45
homoiotekuton** tricolon (v. 1 0 ) , repetition bordering o n epistrophe ( w . 1 - 8 ) ,
46 47
a n d possibly a shift in a u d i e n c e c o m b i n e d with a prayer against evil (v. 1 5 ) .
T h e vocabulary o f the passage draws readers' attention as well, for the
G r e e k text indicates that S i r a c h ' s grandson is s c h o o l e d in standard Hellenistic
G r e e k , b u t that he also has access to the Septuagint, which supplies the vo
cabulary for religious discourse to Jews o f the Hellenistic Diaspora, a n d in a
few instances he appears to have put together his own technical vocabulary to
render certain phrases o f his grandfather's Hebrew. O n o n e hand, the G r e e k
text o f S i r a c h translates the Hebrew words for prayer, sickness, and healing by
48
drawing from the typical repertoire o f G r e e k t e r m s . O n the o t h e r h a n d , the
grandson c o u c h e s the ideas o f sin and a t o n e m e n t in language that does n o t
reflect typical G r e e k usage. 'A(j>(oTr]|Ji occurs regularly in S i r a c h to c o n n o t e
removing transgression from o n e s e l f (i.e., repentance o r abstinence from
49 50
sin), yet this usage is attested only here a n d there in the S e p t u a g i n t . In an
o t h e r example, the G r e e k renders the rare Hebrew ("injustice") in v. 10
with TrAr||j|JEAsia, a word denoting a false n o t e , or, metaphorically, a fault or
51 52
error. T h e term a n d its cognates seldom appear in G r e e k literature, occur
ring far less frequently than derivatives o f a | j a p T — . In the Septuagint, o n the
o t h e r h a n d , verbal a n d n o m i n a l forms o f TrArmpEAsicc o c c u r about 7 0 times,
nearly h a l f o f the total instances in all o f G r e e k literature up to the fourteenth
5 3
century C . E .
T h e text o f Sirach—in the Hebrew, a n d m o r e so in the Greek—participates
in the same usage a n d shaping o f language that we find in the G r e e k moralists.
T h i s amalgamation o f style a n d vocabulary gives clues about the identity o f the
grandson's audience. T h e text reveals an assumption that readers will appreci
ate its rhetorical flourishes for what they are; h e n c e , the text identifies its read
ers as G r e e k s . T h i s identification is also clear from certain topoi present
elsewhere in the b o o k , such as friendship and g o o d table manners, as well as
aspects o f Hellenistic culture in which the text assumes its readers participate,
such as d i n n e r parties and the consultation o f physicians. A t the same time,
Sirach draws from imagery a n d modes o f expression that categorize a particu
lar population within the Hellenistic world: a Diaspora people that identifies
itself as heirs o f Israel's T o r a h , a n d a tradition o f learning a n d way o f life that
is distinctive to t h e m .
W e can n o w ask about the purpose o f S i r a c h ' s literary features. W e begin
by placing 3 8 : 1 - 1 5 in conversation with 3 0 : 1 4 - 2 0 . In the earlier passage, Si-
rach weighs the benefits o f "health and fitness" (uyieia KCXI eu£(a) against any
o t h e r goods, particularly material wealth. Likewise, in v. 17 any o t h e r evil,
• J U D A I C VISIONS OF CORPORATE LIFE 137
even death, is preferable to "a life o f misery" (£cor)V THKpav) and " c h r o n i c sick
ness" (appcooTnjjcc E'MIJOVOV). O n e w h o is constantly ill can n o m o r e enjoy
riches than a closed m o u t h , the dead, o r a statue can eat, a n d wealth will bring
54
as m u c h misery to the sick as sexual arousal causes a e u n u c h . T h e claim in v.
55
19b indicates why this is the case: illness is G o d ' s p u n i s h m e n t . S u c h an in
terpretation is in line with what S i r a c h says a b o u t the law o f retribution else
where in the b o o k . S i r a c h is clear that sin has c o n s e q u e n c e s in this life, for
the Lord brings swift retribution u p o n those w h o transgress the law and d o
56
not repent. In o t h e r passages, G o d is also the source o f "good a n d bad, life
57
and death, poverty and w e a l t h . " In light o f these claims, we may infer that
for S i r a c h , at times sin leads to sickness as a natural c o n s e q u e n c e , a n d at oth
ers G o d causes illness as a response to sin. W e should expect to find that for
Sirach, healing entails remission o f sins and justification before G o d , and
therefore seeking healing will carry with it strong religious c o n n o t a t i o n s as
well.
S u c h is the case. In 3 8 : 1 - 1 5 S i r a c h a d m o n i s h e s the wise person (ccvrjp
<J>p6vipos) w h o is sick b o t h to "pray to the L o r d " ( s u £ a i Kupi'co) a n d to seek
professional care from a physician. T h e e x h o r t a t i o n at verse 9 provides an ob
vious p o i n t o f focus for o u r discussion, for in it S i r a c h clearly prescribes heal
ing as a religious act. O n e w h o is sick o u g h t to seek healing through
petitionary prayer without delay, as t h e a d m o n i t i o n n o t to " l o o k aside" (pr|
58
TTapapXETre) suggests. S i r a c h rests his assurance that the Lord will heal
(iaoETCd) o n this simple a d m o n i t i o n . A t verses 1 and 1 2 , however, the crisis
o f illness requires a n o t h e r response that has religious significance as well. T h e
physician's "place" (TOTTOV) in divine healing also ought to be acknowledged,
because physicians' skills and the m e d i c i n e s they use also have their source in
5 9
God.
The passage's grammatical structure supports this n o t i o n . In verses 1 0
and 1 1 , S i r a c h explicitly links sickness to sin, a n d he expects three religious
practices to a c c o m p a n y petitionary prayer for healing: r e p e n t a n c e (aTTOOTnoov
6 0
TrAr]|j|j6AEiav Kai EiiSuvov x s » p a s ) , an act o r attitude o f cleansing (OTTO i r a o n ^
a p a p T t a s K a B a p i a o v KapSt'av), and a public act o f expiation. T h e c o m m a n d
to allow a physician to help in v. 12 follows immediately u p o n these practices,
and is linked to t h e m by a c o o r d i n a t i n g Kai. F u r t h e r m o r e , in v. 9 , following
the introductory subordinate clause, "when you are ill" (EV appcooTfipaTi o o u ) ,
the initial negative imperative is followed by a string o f eight clauses, all gov
erned by aorist imperatives, the first seven having to d o with t h e above-
m e n t i o n e d acts o f expiation, and the final in v. 12 being to "give" (60s) the
physician his place in healing, a c o m m a n d that e c h o e s the clause, "offer [5os]
a pleasing odor," at v. 1 1 . T h e parallel exhortations to h o n o r the physician
138 •JAMES RILEY S T R A N G E *
E I A
"for the value o f his services" (irpos TCCS X P S G\JTOU TIMOUS auToO) in verse
1 and to give the physician his place in verse 1 2 , as well as to pray without de
lay in verse 9 , stand side by side in the passage as religious responses t o illness.
A c c o r d i n g to Sirach, w h e n people b e c o m e sick, they should avail themselves o f
all divine aid at their disposal: prayer a n d the care o f physicians.
Given this reading o f the passage, the supposed apostrophe that closes the
passage in the G r e e k text (v. 15) takes o n meaning, n o t as hostility toward the
61
sinner n o r skepticism a b o u t the physician's abilities —a s e n t i m e n t that con
flicts with what has c o m e before—but as a deprecatio for the healing a n d spiri
62
tual restoration for the s i n n e r . T h e passage as a whole expresses the
assumption that o n e w h o is sick also has sinned, a n d that b o t h problems must
be addressed in order for the Lord to heal that person. In the remedy that Si
rach prescribes, r e p e n t a n c e a n d a t o n e m e n t take their place alongside prayer
for healing and the work o f physicians. T h e s e ideas are picked up and carried
i n t o verse 1 5 , in w h i c h we may assume that the participle b aMCcpTcivcov also
contains the idea o f sickness (the o n e w h o sins has fallen ill); likewise, the ex
pectation o f "falling into the h a n d o f a physician" carries with it the idea o f
receiving care from the G o d w h o works through t h e physician. S u c h a wish is
in line with o t h e r sections o f S i r a c h that call for repentance and speak o f
63
God's mercy.
T h e issues o f sin, repentance, and divine j u d g m e n t bring up the question
o f eschatology in S i r a c h . S i r a c h claims that G o d metes o u t b o t h reward and
p u n i s h m e n t in the present life, b u t what does he say a b o u t the role o f judg
m e n t in the world to come? T h e answer is, his eschatology follows the law o f
retribution expressed in chapter 2 8 o f D e u t e r o n o m y ; j u d g m e n t occurs before
64 65
death (even i f just before i t ) , after w h i c h all descend to H a d e s / S h e o l .
T h e r e are only vague references in S i r a c h to a j u d g m e n t after death o r to life
66
in a world to c o m e , and very few o f t h o s e . T h e way to survive death is
through the h o n o r that o n e has accrued in life by o n e ' s reputation and the
67
legacy o f children w h o follow o n e ' s e x a m p l e .
W e begin the c o m p a r i s o n and contrast o f J a m e s and S i r a c h with Sirach's
use o f a<|>(r|Mi to indicate "putting away" one's faults (aTTOOTrjoov TTAr)|j|jeAeiav
A K a i
KCU Eii0uvov X £ i P S oiro Ttaoris a p a p T i a s K a 0 a p t a o v KCcpSiav). T h i s dis
tinctive usage by S i r a c h also appears in J a m e s (CCTTOOEJJEVOI Traoccv pvTnav Ken
TTEpiaoEiav KaKias in Jas 1:21; cf. 4 : 8 ) , the only example o f such a usage in the
68
New Testament. T h i s "parallel" between the two authors constitutes b u t o n e
69
o f many verbal a n d t h e m a t i c similarities between J a m e s and S i r a c h . Even so,
n o matter how the n u m b e r a n d level o f these similarities may strike us, with
o u t systemic c o m p a r i s o n we are left only with resemblances in details, and
with speculations a b o u t James's literary d e p e n d e n c e o n Sirach, a c o n n e c t i o n
JUDAIC VISIONS OF C O R P O R A T E LIFE • 139
9 5
own suffering by reference to Israel's sins ( 3 : 2 - 5 ) . T o b i t takes up the mantle
o f a prophet to Israel, for his blindness and cure b e c o m e an o b j e c t lesson that
all o f Israel should repent: as T o b i t has d o n e , Israel must c o n t i n u e to worship
G o d faithfully in its exile ( 1 3 : 6 ) ; in exchange, G o d will gather Israel from all
the nations a m o n g w h i c h its people are scattered ( 1 3 : 5 ) , and will rebuild Jeru
96
salem ( 1 3 : 1 6 - 1 7 ) a n d the T e m p l e within it ( 1 3 : 1 0 - 1 7 ; 1 4 : 5 ) .
T h e b o o k signals this m e t o n y m i c treatment o f Israel's plight t h r o u g h its
language for s i c k n e s s / d e m o n i c t o r m e n t and recovery. Like Sirach, it deploys
97
common Greek terms, b u t also uses theological language to diagnose the
98
same a i l m e n t s . By implication, the troubles, treatment, a n d recovery o f T o
b i t and S a r a h reflect what is at stake in Israelite life in exile, and for t h e Jews
o f the Hellenistic Diaspora by extension: maintaining the identity o f G o d ' s
people t h r o u g h fidelity to T o r a h , preserving the integrity o f family b o n d s , and
justifying the trials o f G o d ' s people within a foreign culture.
T h e B o o k o f T o b i t and the Epistle o f J a m e s share s o m e formal a n d the
matic similarities. T o b i t ' s two testaments, and Raphael's/Azariah's instruction
in C h a p t e r 1 2 , are essentially b r i e f g n o m i c discourses, using direct address and
compiling terse c o m m a n d s o n various subjects in order to exhort T o b i a s (and
readers) to lead moral lives. In part, the purpose o f the narrative is to set forth
these exhortations. Perhaps because o f this formal resemblance, and due to
the constellation o f social c o n c e r n s derived from T o r a h , T o b i t and J a m e s
share o t h e r similarities, such as an insistence o n caring for t h e poor and pay
ing one's laborers.
M o s t significantly, like Sirach, J a m e s and T o b i t see the religious faithful as
a c o m m u n i t y living in exile. T o b i t is probably addressed to Jews o f the Helle
nistic Diaspora in the late third and early s e c o n d century B . C . E . F o r his part,
James's address adopts the m e t a p h o r o f Israelite a n d Judahite exile for the in
digenous congregations o f Jewish Christians that grew up across the R o m a n
E m p i r e in the first century C . E . T h e myth o f exile works differently in each
text: T o b i t promises Jews everywhere a return to their native land, whereas
J a m e s informs the faithful living in the lands o f their birth that they reside
there as aliens. B o t h deploy the myth as a m e t a p h o r for the separateness o f
G o d ' s people, living according to a distinctive way o f life and adopting a
worldview that sets t h e m apart from their surroundings.
B o t h authors take up t h e challenges o f remaining faithful to God—and
h e n c e o f maintaining the boundaries o f the community—in hostile surround
ings. B o t h authors wish for G o d ' s people to remain religiously and morally
distinct from the d o m i n a n t culture while living within it; T o b i t expresses this
desire by emphasizing the practice o f endogamy, b u t also by highlighting Isra
elite burial practices; J a m e s , through the intra-community religious practices o f
JUDAIC VISIONS OF CORPORATE LIFE 145
Correction
ports to speak from the time o f the Israelite sojourn in Egypt to the people o f
the Jewish Diaspora in the Hellenized Middle East, and perhaps to the Chris
tian Diaspora in the R o m a n E m p i r e , setting forth the intervening history as
prophecy, and looking still further ahead to G o d ' s final j u d g m e n t a n d re
105
demption o f Israel.
T. 12 Pat. conceives o f Israel as A b r a h a m ' s heirs, w h o like J a c o b ' s sons
constitute a generation o n the cusp o f returning to the land promised to their
forebear and his descendants, b u t w h o for a little while longer must e n d u r e
life as exiles, living as foreigners in the various provinces o f the Hellenized
Mediterranean, yet who are united through their c o m m i t m e n t to a c o m m o n
history and a distinctive way o f life. T h e work is truly pseudepigraphic, pur
porting to convey the very deathbed words o f Israel's heroic tribal founders,
and appropriating their authority to set forth trustworthy instruction. The
work also draws authenticity from the fulfillment o f episodes that the patri
archs "prophesy," namely the events leading up to the Assyrian and Babylo
nian conquests o f Israel, the fall o f Jerusalem, and the Babylonian exile. The
implicit logic is clear: i f these events have indeed occurred, just as J a c o b ' s sons
predicted t h e m , then their descendents (i.e., the intended readers) can rest as
sured that what remains unfulfilled will also c o m e to pass.
T h e a u t h o r o f the Epistle o f J a m e s also purports to convey the instruction
o f a h e r o o f the faith to those w h o claim A b r a h a m as "father." A comparison
o f the two texts, using their construals o f correction as a test case, will reveal
how their respective worldviews generate distinctive visions for the life o f the
faithful w h o live in foreign lands.
W e begin analysis with a passage in the Testament of Benjamin (hereafter T.
Benj.) 4 . 1 - 5 because it lays o u t the character o f the "good m a n " (6 aycc0os),
106
w h o admonishes o t h e r s . T h e passage addresses the issue o f how to deal
with a problem that has religious c o n n o t a t i o n s , namely "sinners" (apapTcoXoi)
w h o reject G o d . T h e discourse draws from the life o f piety yet is thoroughly
moral in character, as is clear from the chain o f virtues with w h i c h B e n j a m i n
characterizes the upright person: he is "a doer o f good" ( a y a 0 o i T O t c o v ) , "shows
107
mercy" (EXES, E X E E I ) b o t h to the p o o r and to those w h o aim to harm him,
"loves the upright" (TOUS...5IKCXIOUS a y a T r a ) , "shows compassion for the sick"
(TCO ao0EVE? au|JTTCX0E't), and G o d h e "praises in song" (avupvEf). Conversely,
he n e i t h e r acts enviously (<|)0OVECO) n o r is he jealous (£r)X6co). R a t h e r , he rec
ognizes virtue in others, for "he eulogizes" anyone w h o is "brave" ( T I S
avSpsfos, ETTCCIVET), "trusts and praises the self-controlled person" (TOV
108
oco<J>povcx ITIOTEUCOV upvEf), and "gives aid to the o n e who loves G o d " (TCO
a y a m o v T i TOV 6E6V OUVEPYET).
148 •JAMES RILEY STRANGE*
son; the covetous will subdue their own passions and give away the items they
crave to the oppressed; and anyone w h o attacks a righteous person will repent
(jjSTavosco) when treated with mercy. Admittedly, the idea that righteous liv
ing can cause others to live piously is n o t u n i q u e to T. Benj. a n d the m o s t no
table examples can be found in the aphorisms regarding anger in Proverbs
15:1 and 1 8 , a n d 2 1 : 1 4 . In the c o n t e x t o f T. 12 Patr. o p t i m i s m about the
t
Notes
The driver did not see him, but the man could not have failed to see the truck, which
was approaching him from the front. The truck missed the soldier by scant inches. He
never moved.
14. Before and after meals—with specific texts recited over certain types of foods (6:1-8:8)—
and blessings for many circumstances of the day (9:4), as well as for encountering forces
of nature that display God's power (9:2A) and geographical phenomena that reveal
God's creation (9:2B), blessings for the institution of something new (9:3A), and for re
ceiving both good and bad news ( 9 : 2 E - F ) .
15. For a discussion of abbreviations or abstracts to the Amidah, see m. Ber. 4:3. For different
wordings dictated by circumstance, see especially the blessings over meals in 6 : 1 - 8 . M.
Ta'anit 2 : 2 - 4 discusses six blessings added to the Amidah during a fast.
16. Talmon categorizes what I am calling "unscripted" and "scripted" prayers as "individual-
voluntary" and "communal-institutionalized" prayers. Shemaryahu Talmon, "The Emer
gence of Institutionalized Prayer in Israel in Light of Qumran Literature," in The World of
Qumran from Within: Collected Studies (Jerusalem: The Magness Press; Leiden: E. J. Brill,
1989), 2 0 0 - 2 0 2 .
17. The ruling that "a man is obligated to recite a blessing over evil just as he recites a bless
ing over good" comes at m. Bex. 9:5A. Cf. Job 1:21; 2:10.
18. Cf. m. Ber. 9:4C, concerning one who enters a town: "And he gives thanks for the past,
and cries out for the future."
19. In present day prayer books one adds a prayer for the sick in the eighth blessing.
20. Cf. m. Ber. 4:3.
21. Based on the "fluidity" of his prayers, R. Haninah b. Dosa could predict whether his in
tercessions for healing would be accepted or rejected, and thus whether the sick person
would live or die.
22. Neusner, The Mishnah, xiii.
23. Jacob Neusner, The Mishnah: Introduction and Reader (Philadelphia: Trinity Press Interna
tional, 1992), 1-4; idem, Evidence of the Mihshan, xi. Although the Mishnah clearly is di
rected toward those people whom its authorship considers to make up holy Israel, an
address to Israel is everywhere assumed but nowhere explicit.
24. One recites, "God save your nation, Israel. In all critical times let their needs be before
you. Blessed are you, O god, who hearkens to prayer.'" Cf. m. Ber. 9:4.
25. Zvee Zahavy, Studies in Jewish Prayer (Lanham, Md., New York, and London: University
Press of America, 1990), 1 8 - 1 9 .
26. M. Sanh. 10 takes up the matter of who is an Israelite.
27. Cf. Howard Eilberg-Schwartz, The Human Will in Judaism: The Mishnah's Philosophy of In-
tention (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1986); Zahavy, Mishnaic Law, 2 - 3 ; Jacob Neusner, Juda
ism Without Christianity (Hoboken, N.J.: KTAV Publishing House, 1991), 112.
28. The discussion of the tongue (Jas 3 : 1 - 1 2 ) may be understood as pertaining to the control
of the will as well.
29. That is, Honi has the ability to cause God nearly to recapitulate the flood of Noah. The
temple mount stands at 7 4 3 m ( 2 4 0 0 ft) above sea level, and 128 m ( 4 2 0 ft) above the
Kidron Valley that separates if from the Mount of Olives to the east.
30. These are the fall "early rains," following the festival of Succot.
• J U D A I C VISIONS OF C O R P O R A T E L I F E * 155
31. In fact, the story of Honi apparently illustrates the ruling at m. Ta'an. 3:8 A - B , which
mentions too much rain rather than too little: "On account of every sort of public trou
ble (may it not happen) do they sound the shofar, except for an excess of rain."
32. Cf. Neusner, Judaism Without Christianity, xii.
33. Ibid., xi, xvii ff.
34. These dates are calculated from information in the text. According to the grandson's
t h
Prologue to the book of Sirach, the grandson came to Egypt in the 3 8 year of the reign
of Ptolemy (VIII) Euergetes (II), who ascended to power along with brother Ptolemy VI
in 170 B.C.E.; hence, 132 is the best date for the grandson's migration and provides a
terminus a quo for the beginning of the translation, which, together with the prologue,
was probably completed some time after 117 (the year of Euergetes II's death). As for the
original composition, in chapter 5 0 Sirach praises the high priest Simon son of Onias,
who served from 2 1 9 to 196 B.C.E. Sirach writes as if Simon were a recently deceased
contemporary, yet he makes no reference either to the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes
( 1 7 5 - 1 6 4 B.C.E) or to the Maccabean Revolt, which began in 167. Placing the comple
tion of the original writing around 180 seems reasonable, and it allows a sufficient
amount of time for the grandson to have reached adulthood by 132. Patrick W . Skehan
and Alexander A. DiLella, The Wisdom of Ben Sira: A New Translation with Notes (New
York: Doubleday, 1987), 8 - 1 0 ; cf. Di Leila, "WISDOM O F BEN-SIRA," ABD VI: 9 3 2 .
35. See the comparison of James and Sirach in Bauckham, Wisdom of James, 7 4 - 1 1 1 ; idem,
"James and Jesus," 1 0 0 - 3 5 .
36. The Mishnah passes on rulings from named authorities, but these have minority status
in the discourse; what nameless "Sages say" forms the authoritative opinion. Likewise, it
is reasonable to conclude that both Sirach and the author of James composed sections of
their texts de novo. Demonstrating which are original compositions is a separate matter.
37. The translation is the author's and is based on the Greek with reference to the Hebrew,
because what concerns us here is the use of the book as instruction to Jews of the Helle
nistic Diaspora. The Greek text followed is that edited by Joseph Ziegler in Sapientia lesu
Filii Sirach, Septuaginta: Vetus Testamentum Graecum, no. 12,2 (Gottingen: Vanden-
hoeck & Ruprecht, 1980); the Hebrew text is from Pancratius C. Beentjes, ed., The Book
of Ben Sira in Hebrew: A Text Edition of All Extant Hebrew Manuscripts and a Synopsis of All
Parallel Hebrew Ben Sira Texts, VTSup LXVIII (Leiden, New York, and Koln: E. J . Brill,
1997), 6 5 - 6 6 . The Hebrew at v. 11 is helpful because cos MH UTtapxcov is unintelligible
and the Hebrew can be rendered into coherent English (see note 4 3 below). The He
t h t h th
brew for Sirach 3 8 is found solely in MS B of the 1 0 - 1 2 c. (Di Leila dates B to the 1 2
c.) Cairo Geniza manuscripts (38:1 also survives in MS D). The Hebrew texts of Sirach
(not including rabbinic citations) consist of the incomplete manuscripts A, B, C, D, and
t h
E, from the Cairo Geniza ( 1 0 - 1 2 c. C.E.), the 2 6 fragments comprising Sirach 3 9 : 2 7 -
st
44:17 found at Masada ( 1 c. B.C.E.; published by Yigael Yadin, The Ben Sira Scroll from
Masada [Jerusalem: The Israel Exploration Society and the Shrine of the Book, 1965]),
and what was found among the DSS: the small scraps from Cave 2 ( 2 Q 1 8 ) and the nine
3
verses of Sirach 51 contained in the Psalms Scroll from Cave 11 ( l l Q P s ) . All in all we
have about 6 8 % of the Hebrew text of Sirach (Skehan and Di Leila, Ben Sira, 53; Collins,
Jewish Wisdom, 4 3 ) . Di Leila argues that despite a few emendations, the Geniza frag
ments faithfully preserve the original Hebrew (Di Leila, Text of Sirach, 4 7 - 1 5 1 ; cf. Col
lins, Jewish Wisdom, 43).
156 •JAMES RILEY STRANGE •
The hermeneutical issues posed by Sirach are as complicated as the textual problems,
which are unlike those typically encountered in New Testament text criticism. With Si
rach, apparently we deal with two Hebrew recensions (HT I and an expanded H T II) and
two Greek versions, one probably by the grandson and based on H T I (G I), and a sec
ond based on H T II (G II). An Old Latin version (OL) is based largely on G II, but has
its own peculiarities and complicated history of transmission. The fourth century Syriac
translation was based on a Hebrew text that combined H T I and II, but shows influence
from a Greek version similar to but not identical with G II, and also displays unique di
vergences. See Skehan and Di Leila, Ben Sira, 5 1 - 6 0 ; cf. Ziegler, Sirach, 8 1 - 8 4 . The con
sequence of these facts is that one must establish (and then exegete) either the text of
Sirach's original composition or that of the grandson's translation, where this is possible.
Now that we have a substantial portion of the Hebrew, most translations and critical
readings in books and articles base their work on the Hebrew with reference to the
Greek; a few critical treatments (including the present one) attempt to deal with both.
In the pages that follow I try to make it clear when I am talking about either Sirach or his
grandson.
38. Skehan and Di Leila, Ben Sira, 4 4 1 .
39. 38:9 (labials and liquids: 2, s, b, ")), 10 (alliteration and assonance in the imperatives of
Skehan's restored text, which differs significantly from MS B in Beentjes' volume [Beent-
jes, Ben Sira in Hebrew, 66]), 15 (6 and e/e); Skehan and Di Leila, Ben Sira, 4 4 0 , 4 4 2 - 4 4 3 .
40. Epitasis: "as much as you can afford." This phrase is supplied by the Hebrew: -B:D3 "f-]in,
lit. "to the edge of your wealth." The Greek (cos MH UTTapxcov) is difficult. Torrey's trans
lation of the Greek of 1 lb is as difficult as the Greek: "Make your offering generous, as
though you did not exist"; C. C. Torrey, "The Hebrew of the Geniza Sirach," in Saul Lie-
berman, ed., Alexander Marx: Jubilee Volume on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday, vol.
1 (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1950), 593f; quoted in Alexander
A. Di Leila, The Hebrew Text of Sirach: A Text-Critical and Historical Study (London, the
Hague, and Paris: Mouton & Co., 1966), 3 8 (emphasis added). The Vulgate omits this
phrase altogether. Despite his high opinion of the authenticity of the manuscripts of the
Cairo Geniza (Ziegler, Sirach, 8 4 ) , Ziegler makes no note of the Hebrew of verse 11. Nei
ther Skehan's translation notes nor Di Leila's commentary mentions the Greek; Skehan
and Di Leila, Ben Sira, 4 4 0 , 4 4 2 .
41. Enthymeme: the omitted premise (implied from the earlier statement in v. 9) is that the
Lord will also answer the physician's prayer.
42. Vv. 6a (a- and 6-), 7a (a-, e-, and n-).
43. Vv. 2b (v|/ and o), 9b (£ and a), 10b (K-), 14 (o).
44. Vv. 1 0 - 1 1 (-ov and -cxv).
45. Note the frequency of ending clauses with CXUTOU (+ one instance of CXUTOTS).
46. Apostrophe. The quite different sentence in the Hebrew of v. 15 does not necessitate a
shift in audience.
47. Deprecatio: v. 15. See the discussion below. I interpret the wish expressed here as having
the opposite effect of ara, or a curse.
48. In v. 9 the text instructs people to pray (euxoucti) in their illness (appcoornua), to seek
healing G'acns) from a physician (iaxpos), not to despise medicines (4>ap|jaKa) that the
• J U D A I C VISIONS OF C O R P O R A T E LIFE 157
pharmacist (uupsv|;6s) mixes, and the author shows great confidence that that the Lord
will heal (iaouai) those who do so.
49. Sir 7:2; 23:12; 27:22; 35:3; cf. 17:25.
50. See LXX Exod 23:7; Ps 119:29; Isa 52:11; Lam 4:15; Tob(BA) 4:21; 1 Mac 2:19.
51. W occurs only around 24 times in the MT, and a feminine form is slightly more
common (BDB 7 3 2 ) .
52. See Plutarch, Adul amic. 6 7 B , in Chapter 3, p. 103.
53. A search for "rrAriuueX*" in the on-line T L G nirned up 149 instances in the TLG's full
corpus of 12,000 works; a similar search for "auapx*" produced a list of 1,474 instances
in the full corpus; Thesaurus Linguae Graecae [digital library on-line]; available from
http://www.tlg.uci.edu/; Internet; accessed 2 0 September 2 0 0 6 . Among the Apocryphal
books the occurrences of TTAriuueAeia are found exclusively in Sirach and 2 Esdras (the
Greek text of Sirach has TrXrjMueAsia for "guilt offering" [as in Lev; Sir 7:31], "error"
[9:13], and "injustice" [10:7]; cf. Sir 18:27; 19:4; 23:11; 26:11, 29; 41:18; 49:4; 2 Esd 9:6,
7, 13, 15; 10:10, 19), but the word appears repeatedly in L X X translations of books of
the Hebrew Bible, especially in Leviticus, where TTAnjJUEAEia renders the MT's n«on for
guilt offering, and TrArjUUEAsco expresses the MT's ceto/cp* for incurring guilt (see esp.
Lev, chapters 4 - 7 , 14, and 19; cf. N u m 5:8; 6:12; 18:9; Josh 7:1; 22:16, 20, 31; Ezra,
chapters 9 - 1 0 ; it is interesting that the words are absent from the NT). The use of
rrArmuEAEia in connection with the grain offering in Sirach 3 8 : 1 0 shows particular affin
ity with the close association of guilt, atonement, and forgiveness of sins in Lev 5 : 1 5 - 1 9
(in v. 11 Ben Sira alludes to the instructions for the grain offering in Lev 2). Finally, in
verses 8 and 14 the Greek text twice expresses the notion of "health" with synonyms for
"peace" (eipnvn and avarrauots; cf. Judges 18:5; 2 Sam 11:7; Ps 75:3 [eipnvn "in peace"
for MT c t e "in Salem"]; Micah 2:8 [TT)S eipr)vr|s auxou "his peace" for MT ne ?© "a 1
robe"], Ezek 34:29 [eipr)vns "of peace" for MT unb "for renown"]). Such usage is not well
attested outside of the LXX and surely indicates an influence from Hebrew, in which the
1
root meaning of el ?© ("soundness") carries the ideas of both physical health and a state
of peace. Interestingly, does not appear in the extant Hebrew of Sirach 38; Eiprjvn
translates rrenn ("wisdom") in v. 8, while avarrauois translates m r a (lit. "division") in v.
14b. The Hebrew of v. 14b reads, n^ir -learncs "that he prosper treatment for him" (a
marginal note corrects n^ir to nse* "endow with skill"). In Rabbinic texts rncs connotes
compromise or reaching a settlement in legal disputes (Jastrow cites t. Sank. 1:2; y. Sank.
1:18b, Ber. 10; b. Ketub. 10:6; Sifre Num. 9 5 ; Jastrow, s.v. "mra"), hence "arbitration,"
"[making] judgment": "diagnosis/treatment."
54. It is unclear that the discussion of illness continues into w . 1 8 - 2 0 because the heading
before v. 18 in some Greek mss reads, "Concerning Foods," and after v. 17 sickness is no
longer mentioned explicitly. Other ms, however, place this heading before w . 16 and
17, which contain overt references to health and sickness. Moreover, despite the head
ing, the topic at w . 1 8 - 2 0 is the vanity of offering pleasures to what cannot enjoy them.
The images of mouth, grave, idol, and eunuch can function as analogies to the chroni
cally ill person.
55. Cf. Sir 18:21.
56. C f Sir 5:3-6:4; 9 : 1 1 - 1 2 ; 1 0 : 1 0 - 1 8 ; 1 1 : 2 1 - 2 2 , 26; 12:6; 1 4 : 1 2 - 1 9 ; 1 6 : 1 1 - 1 2 ; 17:1-2,
2 5 - 3 2 ; 1 8 : 2 3 - 2 4 ; 19:3; 2 1 : 1 - 5 ; 26:38; 27:29; 2 8 : 1 - 7 ; 3 5 : 1 4 - 2 6 ; 3 6 : 1 - 2 2 ; 4 0 : 1 2 - 3 0 ;
41:1-13.
158 • JAMES RILEY STRANGE
71. This topos is missing entirely in James. Interestingly, Sirach never raises the issue of die
tary restrictions, unless the admonition, "Eat what is placed in front of you" (31:16) is an
oblique reference to dietary laws. For a discussion of Sirach's response to Hellenism, see
Collins, Jewish Wisdom, 2 3 - 4 1 .
72. Cf. Job 28; Prov 1-9; Wis 6 : 1 2 - 1 0 : 2 1 ; Bar 3 : 9 - 3 7 .
73. Bauckham, Wisdom of James, 9 8 .
74. As noted earlier, James contrasts friendship with God with friendship with the "world";
cf. Sir 6 : 5 - 1 7 ; 3 7 : 1 - 6 .
75. Sir 3 1 : 1 2 - 3 2 : 1 3 ; 3 7 : 2 7 - 3 1 .
76. Bauckham, Wisdom of James, 102-103.
77. See especially Sir 4 1 : 1 4 - 4 2 : 8 .
78. Collins, Jewish Wisdom, 3 4 - 3 5 , 6 9 - 7 2 .
79. Scholars generally agree that Tobit is an ancient romance that interweaves other literary
forms, such as prayers, hymns, proverbial wisdom in the form of testaments, and a pro-
phetic/eschatological vision; see Carey A. Moore, Tobit: A New Translation with Introduc
tion and Commentary, A B 4 0 A (New York: Doubleday, 1996), 1 8 - 2 1 . Zimmerman tries
to show that the story adopts and condenses elements from five universal folk tale mo
tifs; Frank Zimmerman, The Book of Tobit, JAL (New York: Harper Brothers, 1958), 5 - 1 2 .
Scholars have generally been willing to accept that the author of Tobit drew from two of
these: "The Grateful Dead" and "The Monster in the Bridal Chamber." T h e author ap
parently also was familiar with the "Ahiquar Tale"; Moore, Tobit, 1 1 - 1 2 ; Zimmerman,
Tobit, 1 3 - 1 5 .
80. The siege of Samaria began under Shalmaneser V ( r . 7 2 7 - 7 2 2 B.C.E.), "the king of As
syria" in 2 Kings 17:5, and after more than two years the city fell in 7 2 2 / 1 under Sargon
II, "the king of Assyria" in 2 Kings 17:6. Tobit's superscription places the deportation of
Naphtali under Shalmaneser V, but it occurred earlier, under Tiglath-Pileser III (r. 7 4 5 -
727; cf. 2 Kings 15:29). Tobit's author also says that Sennacherib, rather than Sargon II,
succeeded Shalmaneser V (1:15). Moore, Tobit, 10; Zimmerman, Tobit, 1 5 - 1 6 .
81. Probably in the late third or early second century B.C.E.; Moore, Tobit, 4 0 - 4 2 . Scholars
have not reached consensus on the place of composition; many simply suggest the East
ern Diaspora; Richard A. Spencer, "The Book of Tobit in Recent Research," CurBS 7
(1999): 152.
82. Amy-Jill Levine, "Tobit: Teaching Jews How to Live in the Diaspora," BR 8 (1992): 4 2 -
51,64.
83. The author follows the Greek text of Robert Harnhart, ed., Tobit, Septuaginta: Vetus
Testamentum Graecum 8,5 (Gottingen: Vendenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1983). Unless oth
erwise noted, translations are the author's.
84. Tobit gives generously to the poor and keeps dietary restrictions, and as a result God re
wards him with high standing with the king, Shalmaneser. Tobit performs his signature
good deed in defiance of Assyrian law: he buries fellow Israelites who have been executed
and their bodies dumped.
85. W e have noted that Tobit's surfeit of piety recalls the biblical giants of Noah, Joseph,
Job, and Daniel, and we should also add to the list Ruth, Judith, and Apocryphal Esther.
86. The eight family names introduced in the superscript of the story are theophoric: Tobit's
own name is probably a Greek form of the Hebrew "Tobi" ("my good), itself an abbrevia-
160 JAMES RILEY S T R A N G E *
tion of "Tobiah" ("Yah is my good"), the name of Tobit's son; "Tobiel," by extension, is
"El/God is my good"; "Hananiel," "God has been gracious"; "Raphael," "God has
healed" (also the name of the angel who is sent to aid Tobit and Sarah); and "Raguel,"
perhaps "friend of God." The derivations of "Aduel," "Gabael," and "Asiel" are obscure;
Moore, Tobit, 1 0 0 - 1 0 1 . The ironic use of theophoric names continues with Raphael's
alias and supposed family: "Azariah" = "Yahu has helped"; "Hanathiah" = "Yahu has be
come gracious"; "Nethaniah" probably = "Yahu has given"; "Shemaiah" = "Yahu has
heard"; ibid., 1 8 6 - 8 7 . Moore points out that the preponderance of the "-el" suffix in
Tobit's family tree, rather than "-yah," is typical of Northern Israel in the eighth and sev
enth centuries B.C.E.; ibid., 100.
87. Sarah's name recalls the childless plight of the matriarch, which God intervenes to cor
rect and announces his intention to do so via angels.
88. See Deut 2 8 : 1 - 6 8 .
89. He admits that if he has sinned, he has done so "unaware" (ayvonuct; Tobit 3:3).
90. Levine, "Tobit," 5 0 - 5 1 ; idem, "Diaspora as Metaphor: Bodies and Boundaries in the
Book of Tobit," in J. Overman and R. MacLennan, eds., Diaspora Jews and Judaism: Essays
in Honor of, and in Dialogue with, A Thomas Kraabel, South Florida Studies in the History
of Judaism 4 1 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992), 1 0 6 - 1 1 2 .
91. But cf. Alexander A. Di Leila, "Two Major Prayers in the Book of Tobit," in Renate Eg-
ger-Wenzel and Jeremy Corley, eds., Yearbook 2004: Prayer from Tobit to Qumran: Inaugural
Conference of the ISDCL at Salzburg, Austria, 5-9 July 2003 (Berlin and New York: Walter
de Gruyter, 2 0 0 4 ) , 1 0 2 - 1 0 3 .
92. Tobit must depend on the help of his wealthy cousin Ahikar, and then endures a role
reversal, relying on his wife's work to feed his family. Both Tobit and Sarah decry the
ignominy of having to suffer "insults" or "reproaches" (6vei5iouous, 3:6, 13, 15).
93. Cf. J . R. C. Cousland, "Tobit: A Comedy in Error?" CBQ 65 (2003): 5 4 5 ; Levine, "Me-
taphor," 113. The match is not exact, because the text is clear that Israel—Naphtali in
particular—suffers because of its sins, whereas Tobit is more righteous than any of his
contemporaries, and Sarah is innocent of any wrongdoing.
94. Anathea Portier-Young, "Alleviation of Suffering in the Book of Tobit: Comedy, Com
munity, and Happy Endings," CBQ 63 (2001): 39.
95. Tobit makes the same connection again at 11:15 and 13:2: just as God "scourged"
(iuaaTiycooas) him and "had mercy" (nAenpas) upon him (BA), so "he scourges and
shows mercy" (CXUTOS uacrnyo? Kai sAsot; cf. 13:5, 9 [BA 10b]) to Israel. Cf. Job 5:18.
96. The so-called doctrine of retribution spelled out in Deut 28 is also tied to the myth of
exile and return, specifically the myth of Israel's slavery in Egypt and safe renirn to the
land promised to their father Abaraham.
97. In addition to general vocabulary for treatment/healing (Separreuco 2:10; iaoucxi 3:17;
uyiafvco 6:9), medicine (((xxpuaKov 2:10; 6:7), and the physician ( i a T p o s 2:10), the author
can also be quite specific about Tobit's diagnosis and treatment: Tobit is completely
blinded (arroTu<|>A6co 2:10; arrcoXsoEv T O U S cx|>0aAuous 7:6 BA) because white films
( A E U K C O U C X T C X 2:10; 3:17; 6:9) cover his eyes, and their cure requires blowing (6:9; 11:11),
the application (eyxpico 2:10; 6:9) of fish gall (xoAr] 6:5, 8, etc.) to the eyes, and the films
to be pealed off (arroAerrco 11:12). Smoking (KCXTTVI^CO) fish heart (Kap5(a) and liver
J U D A I C VISIONS OF C O R P O R A T E LIFE 161
(rJTTap) will produce an odor (oouf| 6:17) that will cause any demon to flee away. Cf. Tes
tament of Solomon 5 : 9 - 1 0 ; see also Josephus, J.A. 8 . 4 6 - 4 8 .
98. Tobit describes his blindness as abandonment by God (3:6), and divine punishment (the
Lord has "scourged" [uacmyoco] him; 11:15). Sarah seeks release "from troubles," the
same word with which Raguel characterizes Tobit's problems (7:6; so Sinaiticus; the BA
text does not include this language, but in less figurative terms relates how Raguel had
heard that Tobit "had completely lost his eyesight" [aTrcoXeoEV TOUS 6<t>0aAuous)]. Just as
divine abandonment and retribution characterize illness, so healing is "mercy" (eAeos
6:18; 8 : 1 6 - 1 7 ; 11:15), and "salvation" (ocoTnp(a/oco£co 6:18), the very things that Israel
seeks as it awaits full restoration, and hence the justification of its exile and repentance
( 1 3 : 2 , 5 , 6 , 9 ; 14:5,7).
99. In Tobit, because of endogamous marriage, wife and husband are kin, and so are "sister"
and "brother," but the act of marriage itself appears to bring new meaning to the terms
(7:11 cf. 7:15; 8:4), just as Azariah describes Tobias's sons as his "brothers" (6:18).
100. For a definition, see Chapter 1.
101. For a few examples, see Lev 5:5; 16:21; 26:10; Num 5:5-7; Ps 32:5; 4 Q 3 9 3 ; m. Shank
6:4; m. Yoma.
102. In the original draft of this project the story of Joseph and Aseneth was treated at some
length without a significant advancement of the thesis. James Riley Strange, "The Moral
World of James," Ph.D. dissertation (Emory University, 2 0 0 7 ) , 2 8 0 - 9 0 .
103. Cf. also David's farewell discourse of 1 Chron 2 8 - 2 9 .
104. Several include promises of a messianic figure, characterized as either a priest from the
tribe of Levi or a king from Judah, or both; see T. Reu. 6.8, 11; T. Sim. 7.1; T. Levi 1 8 . 1 -
12; T. Jud. 1.6; 2 4 . 1 - 6 ; T. Iss. 5 . 7 - 8 ; T. Dan 5.10; T. Naph. 5 . 1 - 5 ; 6.7; 8.2; T. Gad 8.1; T.
Jos. 19.11; T. Benj. 4.2.
105. Kee places the composition of an original, Jewish writing between 2 5 0 B.C.E. and the
end of the second century B.C.E.; Howard Clark Kee, "Testament of the Twelve Patri
archs: A New Translation and Introduction," in OTP, vol. 1 (New York: Doubleday,
1983), 7 7 7 - 7 8 . Hollander and de Jonge see no reason to posit an earlier, Jewish form of
the text, and date the work to some time after the beginning of the early third century
C.E., based on Origen's knowledge of T. 12 Patr. and on affinities between the work and
Justin's and Irenaeus' views on God's dealing with Jews; H. W . Hollander and M. de
Jonge, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs: A Commentary (Leiden: E. J . Brill, 1985),
82-83.
106. I work with a translation of T. Benj. slightly modified from Holander and de Jonge, Tes
taments, 4 2 0 - 2 1 . For the Greek text I follow M. de Jonge, ed., The Testaments of the
Twelve Patriarchs: A Critical Edition of the Greek Text (Leiden: E . J. Brill, 1978), 1 7 0 - 7 2 .
107. Cf. T. Iss. 7.5; T. Jud. 18.3; T. Zeb. 2.4; 5:1-3; 7 . 1 - 4 ; 8.6.
108. Cf. T. Jos. 4 . 1 - 5 ; 6.7; 9 . 2 - 3 ; 1 0 . 2 - 3 .
109. According to Johnson, "In effect, [in T. 12 Patr.] the patriarchs are used to provide bibli
cal examples for the topoi of Hellenistic moral exhortation"; Letter of James, 4 4 .
110. CLT.Jud. 17.1; 19.103.
111. Cf. Wis 2 : 1 0 - 2 0 .
112. Cf. T. Reu 6.4; T. Iss. 7.5; T. Levi 16.2.
162 • JAMES RILEY STRANGE •
B
1
ecause the Community Rule o f the D e a d S e a Scrolls ( 1 Q S ) presents the
practices o f prayer, confession, and correction in relative proximity to
o n e another, the analysis o f this d o c u m e n t warrants a separate investi
gation. T h e Community Rule addresses a tightly-knit and clearly-defined group
that lays claim to the title Israel. H e n c e , 1 Q S provides us the opportunity to
view J a m e s alongside a text that strictly segregates "the C o m m u n i t y " from all
o t h e r claimants to Israel. Aside from the particular type o f separation set forth
in 1 Q S , the authors also understand that the group is made distinctive from
o t h e r claimants by its way o f life, within w h i c h religious practices take a prom
inent place. J a m e s t o o makes claims a b o u t w h o constitutes G o d ' s holy people,
the constitution o f the people into a c o m m u n i t y or c o m m u n i t i e s , and how
they live their lives in distinction to outsiders. T h e r e f o r e , we ask, how d o the
various religious practices that we find in 1 Q S and J a m e s generate categories
that reveal distinctive religious systems?
T h e general topic o f this passage is presented in the first section: the In
structor is obliged t o bless G o d "in all that happens," a n d nothing, including
"distress" (nplH, I X . 2 6 ) shall abrogate that obligation.
7 8
H o w is such a univer
sal p r o n o u n c e m e n t t o b e understood? First, there are appointed times for
9
prayer ("the periods w h i c h G o d decreed" X . l ) , organized by times o f day, sea
10 11
sons, m o n t h s , a n d holy days (X. 1 - 5 ) . S e c o n d , with the shift to first person
address at X . 6 (indicating t h e inclusion o f a prayer text o r vow), the Instructor
adds a m o r e rigorous interpretation o f his own duties: n o t only will h e pray at
the times o f day marked by the passage o f heavenly bodies, he will also bless
G o d at m o m e n t s marked o u t by daily routine.
In 1 Q S X . 1 3 b - 1 6 a , t h e Instructor organizes his time for prayer by two cri
teria: there are times that follow t h e cycles o f sun, m o o n , a n d stars, a n d there
is a m o r e exacting obligation, freely undertaken, t o bracket every daily activity
with a blessing directed toward G o d . T h e language o f t h e passage evokes li-
minal states, those interstitial m o m e n t s that lie between t h e close o f o n e ac
tion o r circumstance a n d the c o m m e n c e m e n t o f another: "when I start"
(rrera), "before" (D-ira), a n d "at the o n s e t o f (also r r i r a ) ; "to stretch o u t my
hands a n d my feet" suggests t h e m o m e n t o f waking, as "lying down in my b e d "
12
implies the wakeful period before s l e e p . T h e Instructor declares that he will
bless G o d before every meal, a n d in c o n t e x t t h e statement, "I shall bless
him...in t h e row o f m e n , " suggests obligatory c o m m u n a l prayer while seated o r
standing in ranks, perhaps at the start o f the day.
In addition t o t h e emphasis o n the practice o f prayer, a strong moral
thread runs through t h e text o f the vow, augmented by eschatological strands.
Beginning at X . l 7 b , the Instructor acknowledges an obligation to d o good t o
13
his fellows, b u t h e states that he will n o t transgress what falls to G o d ' s re
sponsibility alone. W h e r e a s the Instructor promises t o s h u n sinners a n d apos
tates with righteous anger ( X . l 9 b - 2 l a ) , nevertheless he will " n o t repay anyone
with an evil reward" ( X . 1 7 ) , "for t o G o d (belongs) the j u d g m e n t o f every living
being" ( X . l 8 ) . O t h e r acts a n d attitudes to b e avoided are jealousy, t o "crave
wealth by violence," a n d t o engage in disputes with outsiders ("the m e n o f t h e
pit"; X . 1 9 ) . W i t h i n "the C o m m u n i t y " (irrn), t h e Instructor vows t o c o n t r o l
1 4
his speech with care ( X . 2 1 b - 2 5 a ) , a n d t o carry o u t his duties with justice a n d
compassion ( X . 2 5 b - X I . 2 a ) .
T h i s focus o n right action between fellow m e m b e r s raises two important
points: the speaker clearly voices this h y m n as a participant in the select society
15
that 1 Q S e n v i s i o n s , a n d h e contrasts his own wantonness with G o d ' s good
ness, affirming that redemption c o m e s from t h e merciful G o d alone ( X I . 9 b -
15a). T h e resulting picture is o f a yhd kept separate a n d distinct from the sin
ful mass o f humanity that surrounds it, a n d completely reliant o n G o d , b o t h
• T H E D E E D S O F T H E C O M M U N I T Y IN iQS* 165
for its acts o f goodness in this world and for its redemption in the world to
c o m e . T h i s portrayal o f the yhd c o n t i n u e s the idea that only G o d is just and
capable o f remitting sins ( X I . 9 ; cf. X I . 3 , 12, 1 4 ) ; G o d alone discloses knowl
edge, guides the speaker's path, a n d grants wisdom that is h i d d e n from the
rest o f h u m a n i t y ( X I . 2 b - 6 a ) .
W e see the same ideas repeated in the final b e n e d i c t i o n (the only clear
prayer text in this section, for it is the only passage that addresses G o d di
rectly): as the closing statement o f a d o c u m e n t laying o u t strict protocols for
righteous behavior, what stands o u t is the deep gulf dividing the h u m a n and
divine natures. W h e r e a s h u m a n s are frail, G o d is mighty; whereas G o d is per
fect, apart from G o d h u m a n s can m a k e n o claim to goodness. T h e prayer
emphasizes G o d as the foundation o f true knowledge, as is evident in the ab
u n d a n c e o f n o u n s and verbs that refer to h u m a n cognition (nxn "knowledge,"
X I . 1 5 , X I . 1 8 ; b*3E7lb "to understand," X I . 1 8 ; mOTD "thoughts of," X I . 1 9 ; H T H
1
"your mysteries," X I . 1 9 ; pinm ? "to fathom," X I . 1 9 ; HOT "be considered,"
X I . 2 1 ; j * T "understand," X I . 2 2 ) . O n their own, h u m a n s perceive n o t h i n g o f
God, h e n c e knowledge a b o u t the divine c o m e s from G o d alone, and the
community—here identified as "the selected o n e s o f h u m a n k i n d " (CIK " T m ,
X I . 16)—is the sole recipient o f that knowledge. Finally, eternal life is to b e had
only through G o d , for in contrast to the C o m m u n i t y itself, w h i c h the speaker
earlier characterized as "an everlasting plantation throughout all future ages"
( X I . 8 - 9 ) , h u m a n beings themselves (C7KH p "the son o f man," a n d T\m T i ' r
"one b o r n o f a w o m a n " o f X I . 2 0 ) are frail and destined for death ( X I . 2 1 - 2 2 ) .
It should b e noted that calendrical cycles o f prayer laid o u t at the begin
ning o f the passage recall regulations for feasts and sacrifices found in scrip
16
ture, for these o c c u r in stipulated seasons a n d m o n t h s , and o n holy days.
T h e suggested c o n n e c t i o n between prayer in the C o m m u n i t y R u l e and sacri
fice in scripture presents o n e possible function o f these prayers: in the text
17
they may substitute for s o m e types o f ritual sacrifice for the C o m m u n i t y . At
18
IX.26b-X.la the text reads, " [ . . . a n d with the offering of] his l i p s he shall
bless h i m during the periods w h i c h G o d decreed...." (cf. X . 6 , 8, 1 4 ) . T h e lan
guage is repeated, this time in the first person singular, at X . 6 , with the affir
mation that the speaker will indeed bless G o d at the appointed times, a n d
giving special attention to seasons and "seven-year periods" ( X . 7 - 8 ) . We
should also n o t forget that at the site o f Q u m r a n itself, in m o s t o f the o p e n
spaces between buildings, Harding a n d de V a u x uncovered several deposits o f
disarticulated a n i m a l b o n e s overlaid with pottery sherds, many o f t h e m hardly
covered with earth (the n u m b e r o f deposits found is n o t specified, and de
V a u x hypothesizes that m o r e remain to b e uncovered; 3 9 were e x a m i n e d close
ly). T h e fact that the b o n e s were bare o f m e a t when collected, with charring
166 •JAMES RILEY STRANGE •
that form o f prayer alone. It is possibe that these blessings may also c o u n t as
31
ritual sacrifices, particularly sacrifices o f a t o n e m e n t .
In 1 Q S , prayer is a religious act, and the text sets it forth using religious
discourse. Prayer is a discipline that follows a schedule prescribed by the cal
endar o f festivals and the cycle o f the day. Nevertheless, whereas 1 Q S regu
lates the times for prayer, there are n o stipulations for where prayer must
happen. T h e r e are indications that m e m b e r s o f the yhd pray while in assem
bly, b u t otherwise the places for prayer are the bed, the doorway, the table,
and any place where the individual might be w h e n the time for prayer arrives.
M o r a l discourse colors the discussion o f prayer as well, particularly in the
catalogue o f vices in the vow that the Instructor promises to avoid. Prayer,
therefore, n o t only meets a religious obligation, b u t c o n f o r m s to the moral
standards that the C o m m u n i t y embraces, and the rigorous n o r m s that the In
structor additionally takes o n .
C o n c e r n e d as it is with the preservation o f the C o m m u n i t y , the discourse
o n prayer alludes to the eschatological assumptions that lie b e h i n d the forma
tion o f the yhd. A n d as a c o m p o n e n t o f the way o f life that distinguishes the
Community—through prayer according to its own calendar and prayers mark
ing o u t the daily tasks that make C o m m u n i t y life unique—prayer plays a role
in assuring the salvation o f C o m m u n i t y m e m b e r s at "the day o f vengeance,"
while distinguishing them from "the m e n o f the pit," w h o will suffer eternal
punishment.
Based on these diagnostic categories, the similarities between 1 Q S and
James are clear. 1 Q S shares with J a m e s the category o f a c o m m u n i t y that is at
32
odds with and that shapes its ethos over against that o f a d o m i n a n t society;
moreover, 1 Q S may shun the priesthood in Jerusalem a n d the congregation
33
calling itself Israel w h o m it serves. Also, in 1 Q S the surrender o f all posses
sions into the c o m m o n purse o f the C o m m u n i t y is at odds with o t h e r known
forms o f Judaism that presume ownership o f property, a n d h e n c e that encour
34
age social stratification along e c o n o m i c l i n e s . Similarly, J a m e s ' s vision o f
egalitarian social structures stands in direct contrast to the hierarchical, status-
oriented organization o f R o m a n society, t h r o u g h o u t w h i c h "the twelve tribes
o f the D i a s o p o r a " are scattered.
It is important to n o t e that beyond regulating power and wealth, b o t h
James and 1 Q S place controls o n proper speech in the assembly, a n d readers
familiar with o n e text will hear echoes in the other. T h e Instructor's declara
tion that he will n o t speak "foolishness" ( 1 Q S X . 2 2 ) recalls James's reproach,
" O empty m a n " (Jas 2 : 2 0 ) , and the Instructor's promise to s h u n "wicked de
35
ceptions," "sophistries," and "lies" in that same passage is similar to James's
repeated pleas that his readers n o t deceive themselves (Jas 1:16, 2 2 , 2 6 ; cf.
168 • JAMES RILEY STRANGE •
3 6
2:1). T h e implication is that individuals d o n o t merely h o l d these deceptive
ideas, b u t also spread t h e m t h r o u g h the m e d i u m o f speech. Similarly, the In
37
structor's avoidance o f "profanity" ( 1 Q S X . 2 2 ) a n d "worthless words, un
clean things and plotting" ( 1 Q S X . 2 4 ) evokes the warnings in James to replace
every "sordidness a n d r a n k growth o f wickedness" with "the implanted word
that has the power to save" (Jas 1:21), that b o t h blessing and curses should n o t
c o m e from the same m o u t h (Jas 3 : 8 - 1 2 ) , a n d that verbal expressions o f get-
rich schemes fail to acknowledge G o d ' s sovereignty (Jas 4 : 1 3 - 1 6 ) .
In b o t h texts, prayer stands in sharp contrast to these types o f profane
speech. B o t h the Instructor a n d J a m e s eschew ways o f speaking that divide the
c o m m u n i t y ; b o t h characterize prayer as b i n d i n g together a c o m m u n i t y that is
38
self-conscious a b o u t its distinctiveness. T h e Instructor a n d J a m e s alike af
firm the goodness o f singing hymns, the Instructor because he uses hymns to
"continually r e c o u n t the just acts o f G o d and the unfaithfulness o f m e n " ( 1 Q S
X.23). T h i s claim gets at the very heart o f the religious system that 1 Q S pre
supposes: G o d a l o n e is good, h u m a n beings are corrupt, b u t G o d has kept
pure those w h o separate themselves from the " m e n o f the pit" a n d w h o sub
m i t themselves to the " S o n s o f Zadok." F o r his part, J a m e s prescribes hymn
singing as a particularly C h r i s t i a n reaction to happiness (Jas 5 : 1 3 ) . In an ex
h o r t a t i o n that recalls b o t h the instruction to c o u n t trials as a joy (Jas 1:2) a n d
the r e m i n d e r that all good gifts c o m e from G o d a l o n e (Jas 1:17), J a m e s calls
o n "any o n e a m o n g you"—a fellow m e m b e r o f t h e "twelve tribes o f t h e Dias
pora"—to pray to G o d when suffering a n d to sing G o d ' s praises when cheerful.
T h i s a d m o n i t i o n goes to the heart o f J a m e s , w h o calls for the assembly to
m a i n t a i n an unflagging devotion to G o d while living in exile.
T h e r e are m a n y o t h e r similarities, n o t all o f w h i c h have to d o with prayer
specifically, b u t w h i c h do characterize two c o m m u n i t i e s w h o distinguish
themselves through acts o f prayer. Just as the Instructor values teaching with
prudence, justice, compassion, and love for the oppressed (i.e. the m e m b e r s o f
t h e C o m m u n i t y ; 1 Q S X . 2 4 - 2 6 ) , so J a m e s , w h o also shows keen c o n c e r n for
t h e oppressed (also m e m b e r s o f the c o m m u n i t y ; Jas 2 : 6 ; cf. 1:27; 2 : 2 - 5 ; 5 : 4 - 6 ;
5 : 7 - 8 ) , admonishes those w h o possess wisdom to demonstrate it within the
assembly through works d o n e in gentleness (Jas 3 : 1 3 ) . Likewise, b o t h the In
structor a n d J a m e s value instructing a n d correcting with meekness ( 1 Q S X I . 1-
2a; Jas 1 : 1 9 - 2 1 ; 3 : 1 3 - 1 8 ; 5 : 1 9 - 2 0 ) . N e i t h e r justifies personal retaliation; ra
ther, b o t h expect ultimate justice at the eschaton a n d affirm that it should
c o m e from the h a n d o f G o d alone ( 1 Q S X I . 1 8 ; Jas 2 : 1 3 ; 4 : 1 2 ; 5 : 1 - 6 ) . Both,
as well, call for stalwart faithfulness toward G o d in the face o f trials; in terms
o f prayer, the Instructor is to c o n t i n u e to bless G o d ( 1 Q S I X . 2 6 ; X . 1 5 b - 1 6 a ) ,
whereas J a m e s instructs m e m b e r s o f the assembly to pray for wisdom (Jas 1:2-
• T H E D E E D S O F T H E C O M M U N I T Y IN lQS 169
1 Q S lays out the rite o f confession, blessing, and curse as an act with es-
chatological c o n s e q u e n c e s . T h o s e w h o confess their sins and j o i n the yhd y
Because o f the earlier work o n these two texts, we can forego a compari
son o f the Community Rule a n d J a m e s at the level o f details and move quickly
to a discussion o f shared categories. W h e r e a s 1 Q S primarily discusses prayer
as the practice o f the Instructor, and implies in subtle references that the
c o m m u n i t y gathers for prayer as well, confession is clearly a corporate act, in
t o n e d over the body o f initiates and o n their b e h a l f by the Levites o f the
C o m m u n i t y , and accepted by the initiates in a n t i p h o n a l response. Individual
trespasses play n o part in this confession; rather, the Levites cast the initiates
as penitent Israel, turning b a c k to G o d and to G o d ' s T o r a h through their
submission t o the yhd's way o f life and its hierarchical authority. T h e sins that
are confessed do n o t have to do with interaction between m e m b e r s , b u t with
their former lives as outsiders, as m e m b e r s o f o t h e r groups laying (false) claims
to their continuity with biblical Israel. 1 Q S deploys n o m o r a l discourse here,
b u t characterizes the practice as Israel's fulfillment o f its c o v e n a n t obligation
as G o d ' s people.
Confession in 1 Q S constitutes the reverse o f t h e pattern we saw in James.
In this passage, initiates hear their past sins enumerated. Levites play the
priestly role o f intermediaries with the divine while also taking o n aspects o f
the prophets, proclaiming aloud the wrongs that the people have c o m m i t t e d
a n d hearing their concession, thus underlining t h e status authority o f the Le
vites in c o m p a r i s o n to the relative powerlessness o f the initiates. T h e discus
sion in C h a p t e r 2 showed that it is difficult to tell i f J a m e s prescribes
confession o f sins within the assembled congregation, or i f h e means for indi
viduals to confess to o n e a n o t h e r in private, b u t it is clear that m e m b e r s direct
this practice toward o n e another, and presumably toward m e m b e r s w h o m they
have wronged. In this way, through confession m e m b e r s serve as divine in
termediaries for o n e another, and they reinforce the relatively unstratified
c o m m u n i t y organization in J a m e s .
• T H E D E E D S O F T H E C O M M U N I T Y IN lQS» 173
W i t h its ethos o f strict segregation from outsiders, 1 Q S sets forth rules govern
ing the admission to, retention within, and expulsion from the religious
c o m m u n i t y . Focused as it is o n the issue o f purity before G o d , t h e Community
Rule presents a strict protocol o f licit behaviors and attitudes within the daily
life o f the yhd (although it nowhere lays o u t this code o f behavior in detail),
and an e x a m i n a t i o n process is designed to correct the behavior of, or weed
out, those w h o d o n o t keep up their life-long c o m m i t m e n t to this way o f life.
N o t surprisingly, e x a m i n a t i o n and correction play a central role in c o m m u n i t y
and m a i n t e n a n c e .
T h e a d m o n i t i o n , " O n e should reproach o n e a n o t h e r in truth, in meek
ness and in lovingkindness for o n e ' s fellow-man" ( V . 2 4 b ) follows immediately
after general instructions a b o u t the testing o f new m e m b e r s to t h e C o m m u
nity (in the text to j o i n is called "to return [nwb] within the C o m m u n i t y to
[Aaron's] c o v e n a n t " V . 2 2 ) , and the c o n t i n u e d testing, "year after year," o f all
m e m b e r s in order to advance t h e m in rank. T h e s e b r i e f instructions o n cor
rection appear to assume a c o n v e n i n g o f an assembly ( o f the " M a n y "
52
m n n ) , in which c o n t e x t o n e may "reprove" ( r r a i n ^ ) a "fellow" ( n m ) . NO
formal procedure governs how m e m b e r s engage in this form o f mutual correc
tion, b u t the task does require morally upright speech. W h e n correcting a fel
low, o n e must tell the truth (nQK) with an attitude o f humility (m3U) and
174 •JAMES RILEY S T R A N G E *
the people Israel to o n e nation, gathered again in the land o f Israel, and wor
shiping at the glorious, rebuilt T e m p l e together with the N a t i o n s , thus fully
6 9
realizing the prophetic visions o f N a h u m and Isaiah ( T o b i t 1 4 . 4 - 5 ) .
A l o n e a m o n g the sources, the Q u m r a n literature and T. Benj. share with
J a m e s the expectation o f G o d ' s emissary/ies accompanying G o d ' s ultimate sal
vation. In J a m e s it is the Lord h i m s e l f w h o will return. References to the
priestly and kingly Messiahs are m u t e d in 1 Q S (see 1 Q S I X . 11), b u t can be
read in conversation (if n o t synchronically) with the m o r e detailed discussions
70
o f these figures in o t h e r Q u m r a n t e x t s . In 1 Q S , as in J a m e s , salvation is re
served for insiders, while outsiders receive c o n d e m n a t i o n . Distinctive to 1 Q S
is the idea that those w h o have left the yhd suffer the same fate as those w h o
never j o i n e d , whereas J a m e s envisions the return o f the straying. T h e two
texts differ as well in their understanding o f the outsider: 1 Q S establishes the
yhd over against o t h e r claimants to the n a m e Israel and to G o d ' s instruction
handed down at S i n a i , whereas J a m e s apparently imagines c o m m u n i t i e s o f the
faithful s h u n n i n g pollution by, and withstanding the abuse of, G e n t i l e s .
[4] In J a m e s , faith—presented as prolonged and single-minded devotion to
God—is present explicitly in the practices o f prayer and healing, a n d implicitly
in the restorative aspects o f confession and correction. T h i s category provides
the m o s t significant point o f c o m p a r i s o n between J a m e s and the J u d a i c texts
studied in this chapter, for whereas n o n e besides J a m e s regularly uses the term
"faith" in n o m i n a l or verbal forms, all present unflagging devotion to G o d as a
primary c o m p o n e n t o f Israelite identity. T h e tractates o f the M i s h n a h take up
the issue o f every Israelite h o u s e h o l d maintaining priestly purity before G o d in
all aspects o f their workaday lives. T h e Community Rule d e m a n d s rigorous ad
h e r e n c e to the way o f life o f G o d ' s true people, the yhd. Sirach, T o b i t , and T.
Benj. address the problems o f maintaining devotion to G o d in the alien envi
r o n m e n t o f the Diaspora.
[5] In J a m e s , through religious practices, c o m m u n i t y m e m b e r s take up
G o d ' s example o f prolonged and single-minded care for the c o m m u n i t y , and
G o d ' s j u d g m e n t o f it. T h i s category provides a significant p o i n t o f contrast
between J a m e s and the texts read in this chapter. A l t h o u g h several o f the texts
e x a m i n e d above also use the discourse o f virtue and vice, and s o m e (particu
larly Sirach) make use o f rhetorical devices that would b e familiar to any edu
cated person, n o n e similarly conceives o f moral behavior in the c o m m u n i t y .
W h e r e these texts deploy moral discourse, it is to characterize the keeping o f
T o r a h in terms that draw o n values a n d modes o f expression shared with G r e
c o - R o m a n society.
In particular, the importance o f the category o f intercessory prayer in
James stands o u t in sharp contrast to the absence o f the same in 1 Q S and m.
180 •JAMES RILEY STRANGE •
gin and the persistence o f "trials" as the basis for his exhortations to keep
faithful a n d to m a i n t a i n t h e integrity o f the C h r i s t i a n c o m m u n i t y . Waiting
o u t present suffering means surviving to see G o d ' s justice finally prevail with
the arrival o f the Judge.
W h a t is most remarkable in a c o m p a r i s o n between J a m e s a n d these par
ticular examples o f J u d a i c instruction is the use o f only o b l i q u e references to
Israelite history in the epistle's eschatology. T h e text focuses o n the circum
stances a n d fate o f c o m m u n i t i e s o f believers. B y contrast, with the exception
o f Sirach, the J u d a i c texts that characterize Israel as living in the p r e d i c a m e n t
o f a disassembled people scattered t h r o u g h o u t t h e Diaspora draw o n the twin
myths o f S i n a i (sometimes obliquely by reference to G o d ' s law) a n d David's
dynasty to put forth an expectation o f Israel's glorious restoration to L a n d and
T e m p l e . T h i n g s are destined to return to the way they o n c e were, a n d m o r e
importantly, to the way G o d wants t h e m to b e , with Israel's propensity for
sinning erased a n d sin's disastrous c o n s e q u e n c e s set right. Even S i r a c h looks
b a c k to Israel's glorious past (for Sirach, the past that was made great by great
m e n o f wisdom), a n d for their part the M i s h n a h ' s Sages imagine Israel as a ful
ly functioning society, with an e c o n o m i c system, a single calendar for deter
mining festivals and sacrifices, a working Temple cult with rules for
maintaining purity for b o t h the priesthood and non-priestly families, a code o f
civil laws, a n d a plan for Israelite governance that did n o t exist at the time o f
72
the work's c o m p l e t i o n .
In a text that presents an understanding o f w h o constitutes Israel, a way o f
life for that holy people, a n d an understanding o f their social order such as
J a m e s does, the absence o f a restored Israel in J a m e s ' s eschatology is conspicu
ous. J a m e s ' s eschatology c o n c e r n s n o t restoration to a former idyllic state, b u t
the arrival o f what has n o t existed before: the perfection o f the c o m m u n i t y in
wisdom, the overturning o f its fortunes, a n d its reception o f "the crown o f
life." A n d all o f these benefits are to c o m e to localized c o m m u n i t i e s in the cit
ies o f the E m p i r e . T h e Diaspora is n o t u n d o n e ; t h e scattered people are n o t
reconstituted, d o n o t repopulate the Land, and d o n o t re-establish the T e m p l e
cult, n o r d o they o n c e again enjoy self-rule u n d e r a reinstated high priest and
king. In James, "the L o r d " will rule justly a n d mercifully, b u t it is n o t at all
clear what type o f society h e will govern, n o r what role G o d ' s people will play
in it.
W h a t distinguishes J a m e s from o t h e r Judaic systems is n o t merely his ven
eration o f Jesus C h r i s t as L o r d a n d his setting forth o f Jesus' teachings as
c o m m u n i t y instruction, b u t his vision o f a way o f life for G o d ' s people that
has c o m e to light in every section o f this study. J a m e s remains focused o n the
problem o f daily living in the here-and-now, b u t his aim is the survival o f
• T H E D E E D S O F T H E C O M M U N I T Y IN lQS 183
Notes
1. In the discussion of The Community Rule, I refer only to the manuscript of 1QS.
2. The Hebrew text of 1QS is that of Florentino Garcia Martinez and Eibert J. C. Tigche-
laar, eds., The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, vol. 1 (Leiden, Boston, and Koln: Brill,
1997), 9 3 - 9 9 . The translation is adapted from the same volume.
3. The term occurs some four times in 1QS. Three of these occurrences Martinez and Tig-
chelaar translate as "Instructor" (1.1; III. 13; DC. 12); for the passage under review here
(IX.21) they use the term "Inspector." Nowhere do they explain the shift in English
terms. The Damascus Document ( C D - A ) repeatedly refers to an Inspector (ipse). I use
"Instructor" in this chapter.
4. 1QS IX.26a.
5. lQSXI.15b-16a.
6. Cf. Talmon ("Prayer in Israel," 2 1 2 0 , who divides this concluding passage, which he calls
"a separate literary unit," into three subunits: a section beginning in IX.26, another
comprising X . 8 - X I . 15, and a final section beginning at XI. 16.
7. Cf.n-iaX.15, 17; XI. 13.
8. The necessity for such an attitude has already been established at IX.24.
9. The text specifies sunrise, set times during daylight, sunset, dark, set times during the
night, and morning twilight. Talmon interprets the language of X . l a - 3 a ("at the com
mencement of the dominion of light, during its rotation and at its retirement to its ap
pointed abode. At the commencement of the vigils of darkness...and during its rotation,
when it retires before the light. W h e n the lights shine out of the holy vault, when they
retire to the abode of glory") as dividing both daylight and night into three watches,
marked by prayers at the beginning and end of each, as well as the midpoint (noon and
b i s
midnight). Talmon, "Prayer in Israel," 2 1 5 . Cf. the liturgical prayers of l Q 3 4 / 3 4 II. 1,
4 Q 4 0 8 , and 4 Q 5 0 3 .
10. For a concern with the calendar, see the delineation of the priestly courses in 4 Q 3 2 0 ,
4 Q 3 2 1 , and 4 Q 3 2 5 ; 4 Q 3 2 7 ; 4 Q 3 2 8 . See also the calendrical system laid out in 4 Q 3 1 9 ,
and the astrological and astronomical texts of 4 Q 1 8 6 , 4 Q 3 1 7 , 4 Q 3 1 8 , 4 Q 5 3 4 , and
4Q561.
11. Cf. 4 Q 5 0 4 - 6 and 4 Q 5 0 7 - 9 .
12. Cf. the language of the Shema: "Recite them to your children and talk about them when
you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise" (Deut
6:7).
13. The language of 1QS simply does not acknowledge interaction between men and wom
en, and addresses members of the community in exclusively male terms (but see XI. 16,
21).
14. Cf. V.25b-VI.2a; VI.24b-VII. 10a.
15. Cf. X I . 7 - 8 .
16. Exod 13:3-10; 2 3 : 1 4 - 1 9 ; Lev 16, 23; Num 2 8 - 2 9 .
• T H E D E E D S O F T H E C O M M U N I T Y IN lQS« 185
17. Talmon, "Prayer in Israel," 2 0 2 - 2 0 9 . Cf. Joseph M. Baumgarten, "The Essenes and the
Temple: A Reappraisal," in Studies in Qumran Law, SJLA 24 (Leiden: E. J . Brill, 1977),
5 7 - 7 4 ; Daniel K. Falk, "Qumran Prayer Texts and the Temple," in Sapiential, Poetical,
and Liturgical Texts from Qumran: Proceedings of the Third Meeting of the International Organi
zation for Qumran Studies, Oslo 1998, ed. Daniel K. Falk, Florentino Garcia Martinez, and
Eileen M. Schuller, STD] 35 (Leiden, Boston, and Koln: E. J . Brill, 2000); Esther G.
Chazon and Moshe J. Bernstein, "An Introduction to Prayer at Qumran," in Prayer from
Alexander to Constantine: A Critical Anthology, ed. Mark Kiley et al (London and New
York: Routledge, 1997), 9. The idea that prayer and attitudes of the heart suffice for sac
rifice is present already in some scripture passages: cf. Ps 5 0 : 1 2 - 1 5 , 23; 5 1 : 1 5 - 1 7 ; Prov
15:8; Hos 14:2; Sir 3 5 : 1 - 5 ; Tob 4 : 1 1 . See also 1QS I X . 3 - 5 a : "When these [of the
'Community of holiness,' unp irr) exist in Israel in accordance with these rules...in order
to atone for the guilt of iniquity and for the unfaithfulness of sin, and for approval for
the earth, without the flesh of burnt offerings and without the fats of sacrifice—the offer
ing of the lips in compliance with the decree will be like the pleasant aroma of justice
and the perfectness of behavior will be acceptable like a freewill offering...." W e must al
so note, on the other hand, the repeated references to special "feasts" (riir.C; 1.15) and
"pure food" (mno V.13; VI. 16, 25; VII.3, 16, 20; VIII. 17, 24) in the Rule, which suggests
rituals associated with sacrifice, whether in actual practice or also figuratively (cf. C D - A
IX. 14; X I . 1 7 b - 2 1 a ; XIV.20; l Q 2 8 b III. 1). Translations of m r a (Martinez' and Tigche-
laar: "pure food"; Vermes: "pure Meal") leave some ambiguity about its meaning.
18. CT.SE [ncnrr. ...J.
19. Roland de Vaux, Archaeology and the Dead Sea Scrolb: The Schweich Lectures of the British
Academy, 1959 (London: Oxford University Press, 1973), 1 2 - 1 4 ; PI. Xlb; Jean-Baptiste
Humbert and Alain Chambon, Fouilles de Khirbet Qumran et de Ain Feschkha I: Album de
photographies Repertoire du fonds photographique Synthese des notes de chantier du Pere Roland de
Vaux OP, NTOA.SA 1, Fouilles de Khirbet Qumran (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ru-
precht, 1994), 1 2 8 - 1 3 0 , Pis. 2 6 2 - 6 8 ; Roland de Vaux, Die Ausgrabungen von Qumran und
en Feschcha IA: die Grabungstagebucher, NTOA.SA 1A, ed. Ferdinand Rohrhirsch and Bet-
tina Hofmeir (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1996), 7 6 - 7 7 . Cf. C D - A X I . 1 7 b -
21a.
20. For a recent, thorough study that argues this case, specifically taking on alternative hy
potheses, see Jodi Magness, The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Studies in
the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2002).
a
21. See also the citation of Prov 15:8 in CD-A X I . 2 0 - 2 1 ; cf. 1 1 Q 5 / 1 lQPs (= Syriac Ps II)
XVIlI.9b-12a: "The person who gives glory to the Most High is accepted like one who
brings an offering [nn:c], like one who offers [ r i p e ] rams and calves, like one who makes
the altar greasy with many holocausts, like the sweet fragrance from the hand of just
ones."
22. The Qumran community lived out this ideal by withdrawing to a desert plateau near the
Dead Sea. Other Essene communities may well have lived in other villages or special
neighborhoods (so-called "Essene quarters") in cities. Josephus, B.J. 2 . 1 2 4 - 1 2 5 ; Philo,
Prob. 76; 8 5 .
23. The individual nature of the prayer is evident in the opening language, "And these are
the regulations for the behavior of the Instructor" (IX.21).
186 • JAMES RILEY STRANGE •
24. "Vow" is the term that I have selected to call this section of 1QS. It is neither addressed
to God nor, as is quite often the case in the Greco-Roman world, accompanied by a vo
tive offering or promise of one, but it reads like a solemn oath uttered in the hearing of
the Community and in the presence of the Deity.
a
25. Cf. especially the Hodayot hymns of l Q H . Eileen M. Schuller, "Prayer, Hymnic, and
Liturgical Texts from Qumran," in The Community of the Renewed Covenant: The Notre
Dame Symposium on the Dead Sea Scrolb, ed. Eugene Ulrich and James VanderKam, Chris
tianity and Judaism in Antiquity Series 10 (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre
Dame, 1994), 155; cf. Talmon, "Prayer in Israel," 2 1 3 .
26. Cf. 4 Q 2 8 0 , 2 8 6 - 9 0 (4QBerakhot). In l Q 2 8 b (IQRule of Benedictions), it is the Instructor
who blesses the Community as a whole, the priests ("sons of Zadok), and "the prince of
the congregation," presumably before an assembly. According to Chazon, "Prayer at
Qumran," 9, the Dead Sea Scrolls contain over 2 0 0 non-biblical prayer texts of various
types.
27. XI.2b-9a.
28. The language is strongly suggestive of resurrection from the dead on the day of judg
ment: "and raise up [opm] the son of your handmaid to stand everlastingly in your pres
ence...."
29. Petitions are more prevalent in prayers from other Dead Sea Scrolls texts. Blessings in
voked over individuals or groups may be interpreted as intercessions; see l Q 2 8 b (=
lQSb). Other texts contain more explicit petitions; see Word of the Luminaries ( 4 Q 5 0 4 -
b i s a > b> e
506); Festival Prayers ( l Q 3 4 - 3 4 , 4 Q 5 0 7 - 5 0 9 ) ; War Scroll (1QM, 4QM ) ; War Rule
(4Q285); HQBerakhot.
30. The blessings and curses in 1QS II. 1 - 1 0 may be taken as general forms of intercession
lacking any references to specific circumstances.
31. If this is the case, then 1QS VIII.8b-9a-referring to the Community ("[It will be] the
most holy dwelling for Aaron...in order to offer a pleasant /aroma/....")—may indicate
the Community at prayer. Cf. l Q 2 8 b III. 1.
32. 1QS formulates the community as ^fc "inn "\m ("those whom God has selected" XI.7), UT\D
("their assembly" XI.8), irr ("the Community" XI.8), and cn» "vna ("the chosen ones of
humankind" XI. 17); James, as ouvaycoyr) (2:2, although this term could refer to the place
of gathering) and EKKAEOICX (5:14).
33. Conducting a limited reading as we are, it is difficult to draw firm conclusions about
who makes up "the men of the pit" (nne? -TOR DC.22 ; X . 2 0 ) , whom the Instructor is to
%
shun and to hate. The epithets of XI.9—"assembly of unfaithful flesh" (b ,v -ien T.D) "as
sembly of worms" (nm Tie?), and "those who walk in darkness" ("fcnn -D^in)—in context re
fer to all of humanity, which the text decries generally as "evil" (nircn cn«). Earlier in the
document, however, the contrast between the "sons of light" and "sons of darkness"
(1.9-10), and between "sons of justice" and "sons of deceit" (111.20-21) but especially the
requirement that the "men of the Community" must segregate themselves from the
"congregation of the men of injustice" and submit to the authority of the "sons of Za
dok" ( V . l - 2 ) , implies that 1QS envisions a separate priesthood and congregation, re
garding all other claims to the same as false, thus excluding the Jerusalem priesthood and
its apparanis, namely the Temple. Cf. C D , lQpHab.
• T H E D E E D S O F T H E C O M M U N I T Y IN lQS 187
34. M. Peak; Lev 19:9-10; m. Terumot; Exod 2 9 : 2 7 - 2 8 ; Lev 7:14, 32; Num 1 8 : 2 6 - 2 9 ; cf. Lev
2 5 : 1 - 5 5 . The first division of the Mishnah addresses the topic of agriculture, and so of
the economy. For example, the entire discussion of peak (the designation of produce for
the poor) is governed by the categories of those who own property, and hence who des
ignate peak, and those who do not and so whose ability to feed themselves and their
families depends on the Israelite's designation of it. Likewise, the discussion of terumot
("heave offering": tithe for the feeding of priestly families), is predicated on the separa
tion of heave offering from the produce of the land-owning Israelite's field; the process is
therefore controlled by the intention of the owner to designate a portion of his own
earnings as a gift to the priesthood. In neither case does the Israelite male turn over the
sum of his possessions to be held in common by a group; rather, he surrenders a portion
of what belongs to him for the care of those who otherwise have no means of support.
35. n-.c-ic; it is not clear that this word carries the subtle connotations of "sophistries" (mean
ing plausible but misleading arguments). It is better read as a synonym (and thus a re
dundancy) forcriD ("deception"; Martinez and Tigchelaar translate it as a plural) and
riTD ("lies").
36. These vows of the Instructor echo regulations regarding correct speech in a convening of
the Many in V I . 2 4 - V I L 1 8 b .
37. C'ir.pc, literally "detestable things," usually reserved for unclean animals.
38. Talmon, "Prayer in Israel," 2 0 1 - 2 0 2 .
39. 1QSI.1-I3a; V.l-3a.
40. Cf. 1QS V. 1 0 - 1 1 ; 13b-20a; VI. 1 3 - 1 4 .
41. Pliny, Nat. 5.17.4 [731; cf. Philo, Prob. 7 6 .
42. An assembly of all ranks together is called "the Many" (csnr:); cf. 1QS V I . 8 - 9 .
43. Cf. esp. 1QS V I . 8 b - 9 a also V.9; VI.4, 8 b - 1 3 a .
;
45. The admonition for the happy person to sing hymns in 5:13 is individualistic (as is the
preceding instruction for the suffering person to pray), although it reveals that James
knows of hymns. This in turn suggests that he assumes that his readers engage in this
sort of communal practice. He has nothing further to say on the subject, however.
46. T o claim that the author of 1QS (or that the Essenes) had no notion of intercessory
prayer, or oaths, or petition is an argument from silence. The same must be said for
James's silence on the subject of liturgical prayer.
a
47. But cf. l Q H X X . 2 4 - X X V . 9 , which may reflect some kind of personal confession by the
Instructor.
48. The text does not specify what sins the Levites mention.
49. Cf. Jud 10:10, 15; 1 Sam 7:6; 12:10.
50. Cf. III.26-IV. 1; IV.6-7, 1 2 - 14a.
51. See promises of "plentiful peace in a long life" to the sons of light in I V . 6 - 7 and of "bit
ter weeping" during "all the ages of their generations...until their destruction" to the
sons of darkness in IV. 1 2 - 1 4 a . John Collins' discussion of eschatology in the Dead Sea
Scrolls focuses on the phrase, "the last days" ( c c n mn&), and so deals with 1QS only pe
ripherally. John J. Collins, "The Expectation of the End in the Dead Sea Scrolls," in Es-
chatobgy, Messianism, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, ed. Craig A. Evans and Peter W . Flint
188 •JAMES RILEY STRANGE •
(Grand Rapids, Mich, and Cambridge, U. K.: William B. Eerdmans, 1997), 7 4 - 9 0 . The
expectation in 1QS of a day of judgment at some unspecified time contrasts with the ex
pectations in the Pesher on Habakkuk (lQpHab) 7 : 6 - 1 3 and CD-A X I I I . 2 3 - X I V . l a that
this day would occur on a specific date; ibid., 8 2 - 8 5 .
52. Cf.CD-AVII.2.
53. Cf. Jas 5:9.
54. From ]ny "to have an offensive smell," hence, "to offend, insult."
55. Martinez and Tigchelaar translate this word as "with deception." Their rendering creates
a pair of redundant prohibitions with "making deceit," which follows. Hence, my sug
gestion of "haughtily," reading Diioa as "proudly" (fr. e n ) ; B D B 929a. nemo indicates
"fraudulent"; Jastrow, 8 3 9 .
56. 1QSX.22
57. Readme.
58. The sanction takes into account blaspheming (bbp), using an expletive, or unintention
ally calling the name in a blessing or while reading from a text, which is done aloud in
the ancient world. See the discussion above in m. Berakhot about differentiating between
reading the verses of the Shema vs. reciting them in prayer.
59. See note 5 4 .
60. Cf. VI 1 3 b - 2 3 .
61. Presumably this language refers to ritual meals of some type, or it may be that every meal
has religious significance, and one eats alone or with other catechumens during the pro
bationary period. The ancient copyist corrected the manuscript at this point. See
Martinez and Tigchelaar, Study Edition, 8 6 .
62. This appellation falls within a discussion of the Community Rule's "two ways" ("two spir
its") discourse in III.13-IV.26. See esp. III. 17b-19a; cf. 1QM 1.16.
63. W e examined only banned forms of speech, but the section also talks about feeling ani
mosity toward a fellow, retaliation, lack of modesty (in the form of exposing oneself to a
fellow deliberately or inadvertently) and crude acts (spitting): 1QS VII.8b- 14a.
64. W h e n James uses forensic language, it is usually negative: one should not "judge a
a s
neighbor" because this is God's place ( J 4 : 1 1 - 1 2 ) ; it is wealthy outsiders who drag
members of James's communities into court (Jas 2:6).
65. Granted, the "rich" and "poor" language and James probably operates on a figurative
level as well, and so may not merely describe people of different economic status. See
Johnson, "The Social World of James: Literary Analysis and Historical Reconstruction,"
in The Social World of the First Christians: Essays in Honor of Wayne A. Meeks, ed. L. M.
White and O. L. Yarbrough (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995), 1 7 8 - 1 9 7 ; repr., Brother
of Jesus, Friend of God, 1 0 1 - 2 2 . Penner uses the ambiguity of the language to argue that
James's outsiders are "Jews who are opposed to the incipient Christian movement"; Pen
ner, James and Eschatology, 2 7 2 . He then adduces the anti-Jewish sentiment evident in Q,
the tensions in Paul's letters, and Matthew as corroborating evidence for his claim; ibid.,
2 7 3 - 7 6 . In those texts, however, the polemic against religious rivals is transparent, and
along with 1QS they provide examples of how a group that lays claim to Torah rejects
other such claims. In contrast to them, James's characterization of outsiders does not
engage religious rivals, but focuses on social and economic oppression.
66. Notably absent is a true apocalypse.
T H E D E E D S O F T H E C O M M U N I T Y IN lQS 189
67. This conclusion is based on the isolationist language in 1QS correlated with descriptions
of Essene communities in Pliny and Josephus and the archaeology of Kirbet Qumran.
68. Eschatology is notably absent in Sirach, which follows the precedent of many Israelite
texts by regarding the end of earthly life as the end of meaningful existence, and escha
tology is peripheral in the Mishnah. While we can find eschatological expectations (the
coming of Messiah, the resurrection of the dead, the world to come) expressed here and
there in the Mishnah, the Mishnah's teleology is focused on Israel's sanctification in the
here-and-now rather than on its future salvation. Jacob Neusner, Messiah in Context: Is
rael's History and Destiny in Formative Judaism, The Foundations of Judaism: Method,
Teleology, Doctrine Part Two: Teleology (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984), 1 9 - 2 0 , 3 0 .
69. Cf. I Enoch 9 1 : 1 1 - 1 4 .
70. For examples, see 4 Q 1 7 5 ; 4 Q 2 4 6 ; 4 Q 5 2 1 ; CD-A XII.23-XII.1; XIV.19; C M XIX. 1 0 -
11; 4 Q 1 7 4 (4QFlor). For a synchronic reading of Qumranic eschatological texts, see
Collins, "Expectation of the End"; for a critique of Collins and an alternative, dia-
chronic reading, see Philip R. Davies, "Eschatology at Qumran," JBL 104 (1985): 3 9 - 5 5 ;
reprint, Sects and Scrolls: Essays on Qumran and Related Topics (Atlanta: Scholars Press,
1996), 6 1 - 7 8 .
71. Abraham is "father" as a metaphor for the heroic ancestor and progenitor, but "God
gave birth" to James's congregations and sustains them through his mercy.
72. Neusner, Messiah in Context, 18.
73. See Timothy B. Cargal, Restoring the Diaspora: Discursive Structure and Purpose in the Epistle
of James, SBLDS 144 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993), 4 9 - 5 0 . Cargal argues that James's
use of "Diaspora" is multilayered, both referring to his readers' "status as 'exiles' in an
evil and hostile world," and "because they have become a 'Diaspora' by 'wandering from
the truth'"; ibid., 50.
C O N C L U S I O N
the c o m m u n i t y signals the death o f its faith, the failure to endure to the end,
a n d seduction by its own desires. D e a t h also shows that t h e group has been
receiving instruction from the envious, d e m o n i c wisdom o f the world rather
than from the wisdom that G o d gives generously to all w h o ask for it. C o n s e
quently, J a m e s draws an unambiguous line between the friends o f G o d and
the friends o f the world, and he erects boundaries a r o u n d small c o m m u n i t i e s
to keep o u t the vast "world" until the e n d that G o d is bringing.
A m o n g the texts read for this study, such stark, moral a n d eschatological
dualism finds its closest m a t c h in the c o m m u n i t y vision o f 1 Q S , w h i c h also
draws sharp distinctions between outsiders and insiders, and in w h i c h confes
sion and correction are key practices for the formation and preservation o f the
yhd, w h i c h also awaits the e n d , expressed in its own terms. S o the epistle o f
J a m e s emerges, m u c h as 1 Q S does, as a d o c u m e n t produced within a minority
group that is attempting to define a distinctive way o f life tied to the past o f
a n c i e n t Israel, b u t also looking forward to the eschaton. T h e current existence
is an interim state. Nevertheless, it is clear that J a m e s ' s "Twelve T r i b e s o f the
Diaspora" are n o t the regimented ranks o f Israelites envisioned in the Commu
nity Rule, for 1 Q S solidifies and canonizes status distinctions, based o n its own
system, rather than equalizing m e m b e r s . Likewise, J a m e s ' s c o m m u n i t i e s must
develop tactics for maintaining their distinctive way o f life while living in for
eign and hostile surroundings. Surprisingly, unlike 1 Q S , J a m e s m e n t i o n s nei
ther a warrant for, n o r a m e a n s of, e x c o m m u n i c a t i o n . S i n n e r s are to b e
corrected b u t n o t expelled.
F r o m the beginning, this study has bracketed questions about t h e date
and authorship o f the Epistle o f James, and even n o w it is inappropriate to say
m o r e than a few sentences a n d to draw o u t a handful o f implications. T h e is
sues m e n t i o n e d above bear o n any discussion o f t h e date o f the letter's com
position. W e ask, in what setting o f Christianity's early decades does James's
m o r a l vision fit best? C o n s i d e r the strong links between righteousness and
T o r a h observance in J a m e s a n d the corresponding failure to separate from T o
rah cleanly in the ways that Paul and all four gospel writers attempt to do.
N o t e the striking similarities with some aspects o f the vision o f 1 Q S , tempered
by the relative egalitarianism o f the congregational structure. N o t i c e the ad
dress to small groups that probably are made up largely o f lower-class people,
a n d references to those people enduring trials in the courts a n d tribulations in
the workplace at the hands o f wealthy outsiders. T h e reworking o f unattrib-
uted sayings o f Jesus and recapitulations o f Jesus' healing ministry—none o f
w h i c h can b e shown to draw directly from the G o s p e l s themselves—and the
u n d i m m e d expectation o f Jesus' immediate return without a h i n t o f having to
a c c o u n t for its delay are b o t h significant factors, a n d they correspond with
• T H E MORAL W O R L D O F JAMES • 193
Notes
1. Apparently unable to differentiate Jews from Christians, Claudius expelled Jews from
Rome in around 4 9 C E : Suetonius, Life of Claudius 25 A; Acts 18:2.
2. Nero's infamous persecution of Christians in Rome occurred in 6 4 C E : Suetonius, Life
of Nero 16.2; Tacitus, Annals 1 5 . 4 4 . 2 - 8 . If the letter is a response, whether directly or
indirectly, to persecutions under Nero, any link to James the brother of the Lord can on
ly be posthumous, perhaps through a follower of James, since based on Josephus' ac
count in Ant. 20.9 James's death is typically dated to 62 C E .
3. The term "peasant" does not accurately describe farmers and artisans of first century Ju-
dea. See J . Andrew Overman, "Jesus of Galilee and the Historical Peasant," in Archae
ology and the Galilee: Texts and Contexts in the Graeco-Roman and Byzantine Periods, Edited by
Douglas R. Edwards and C. Thomas McCollough (Atlanta, Ga.: Scholars Press, 1997),
67-73; Sharon Lea Mattila, "Jesus and the 'Middle Peasants'? Problematizing a Social-
Scientfic Concept," CBQ 72, No. 2 (April 2010): 291-313.
4. Challenges to the old hypothesess can be traced to Martin Hengel, Judaism and Hellenism:
Studies in their Encounter in Palestine during the Early Hellenistic Period, trans. John Bowden
(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974). See also Martin Hengel, "Hellenism and Judaism
Revisited" in John J. Collins ck Gregory E. Sterling, Editors, Hellenism in the land of Israel
(Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2 0 0 1 ) , 6-37.
5. For a thorough treatment of the issue of authorship and an argument for authenticity,
see Johnson, Letter of James, 8 9 - 1 2 3 . For an argument for a late date of composition and
inauthenticity based in part on the implications of his study of Stoic influences on
James's thought, and responding to Johnson's views, see Matt A. Jackson-McCabe, Logos
and Law in the Letter of James The Law of Nature, the Law of Moses, and the Law of Freedom,
NovTSupp, vol. C (Leiden: Brill, 2001), 2 4 3 - 5 3 .
Bibliography of Ancient Sources
Aland, Barbara, Kurt Aland, Johannes Karavidopoulos, Carlo M. Martini, and Bruce M. Metz-
th
ger, eds. Novum Testamentum Graece. 2 7 ed. Snittgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1999.
Albeck, Chanoch, ed. 7\Wf2 " H D nm. 6 vols. Jerusalem: The Bialik Institute; Tel Aviv: Dvir
Publishing House, 1988.
Aristides, P. Aelius. Aristides in Four Volumes, trans. C. A. Behr. L C L . Cambridge, Mass.: Har
vard University Press, 1973 (a single volume of this work has been published).
. The Complete Works, trans. Charles A. Behr. 2 vols. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1981.
"Athens, NM 175, Statue of Ploutos." In "Perseus Sculpture Catalogue." The Perseus Digital Li
brary. Database online. Available from http://www.perseus.uifts.edu/cgibin/ptext?doc=Per-
seus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0041%3Aliead%3D%231433; Internet; accessed 18 April 2 0 0 5 .
Beentjes, Pancratius C. ed. The Boole of Ben Sira in Hebrew: A Text Edition of All Extant Hebrew
Manuscripts and a Synopsis of All Parallel Hebrew Ben Sira Texts. VTSup LXVIII. Leiden, New
York, and Koln: E. J. Brill, 1997.
Betz, Hans Dieter, ed. Greek Magical Papyri in Translation Including the Demotic Spells. Chicago
and London: University of Chicago Press, 1986.
de Jonge, M. ed., The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs: A Critical Edition of the Greek Text. PVTG
1. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1978.
Dindorff, W . ed. Aristides. Vol. 1. Leipzig: Reimer, 1829. Reprint, Hildesheim: Olms, 1964.
Greek text online. Available from http://www.tlg.uci.edu; Internet; accessed 6 June 2 0 0 6 .
Edelstein, E. J. and L. Edelstein, eds. Asclepius: A Collection and Interpretation of the Testimonies. 2
Vols. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1945.
Epictetus. Discourses, The Encheiridion, trans. W . A. Oldfather. 2 vols. LCL. Cambridge, Mass.
and London, U.K.: Harvard University Press, 1 9 2 5 - 1 9 2 8 .
Hanhart, Robert, ed. Tobit. SVTG 8,5. Gottingen: Vendenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1983.
Horace. The Odes and Epodes. Vol. 1, trans. C. E. Bennett. LCL. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1964.
Kase, Jr., E. H., ed. "No. 107: Gnostic Fever Amulet." In Papyri in the Princeton University Collec
tions. Vol. 2, 1 0 2 - 1 0 3 . Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1936.
Kee, Howard Clark. "Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs: A New Translation and Introduc
tion." In OTP, ed. James H. Charlesworth. Vol. 1, 7 8 2 - 8 2 8 . New York: Doubleday, 1983.
Kline, Mosheh. "The Structured Mishnah." Whole Torah: An Integrative Approach to the Sources.
Database online. Available from http://www.chaver.com/Mishnalv/TheMishnah.htm; In
ternet; Accessed 21 March 2 0 0 5 .
198 •JAMES RILEY STRANGE •
Kotansky, Roy. "PGM LXXXIII. 1-20." In Greek Magical Papyri in Translation Including the De
motic Spells, ed. Hans Dieter Betz, 3 0 0 . Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press,
1986.
Luck, Georg. Arcana Mundi: Magia e occulto nel mondo Greco e Romano. Vol. 1, Magia, Miracoli,
Demonologia. Rome: Fondazione Lorenzo Valla: 1997.
Maltomini, Franco. "I Papiri greci." In Nuovi papyri magici in Copto, Greco e Aramaico, 97-112.
S C O 29. Pisa: University of Pisa, 1979.
Martinez, Florentino Garcia and Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar, eds. The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition.
Vol. 1. Leiden, Boston, and Koln: Brill, 1997.
Menander of Laodicea. Menander Rhetor, ed. and trans. D. A. Russell and N. G. Wilson. Oxford,
U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1981.
Neusner, Jacob. The Mishnah: A New Translation. New Haven and London: Yale University
Press, 1988.
Petzl, Georg ed. Die Beichtinschriften Westkkinasiens. Epigraphica Anatolica: Zeitschrift fur Epi-
graphik und historische Geographie Anatoiens. Vol. 22. Bonn: Dr. Rudolf Habelt GMBH,
1994.
Plato. Laws, trans. R. G. Burry. 2 vols. LCL. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967.
Plutarch. Moralia, trans. Frank Cole Babbit. 16 vols. LCL. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univer
sity Press, 1927.
. Moralia, trans. Frank Cole Babbit. 16 vols. LCL. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 1927. Greek text online. Available from http://tlg-.uci.edu; Internet; accessed 14
April 2 0 0 5 .
Powell, J . U., ed. Collectanea Alexandrina. Oxford, U. K.: Clarendon Press, 1925. Reprint, 1970.
Book online. Available from http://www.tlg.uci.edu; Internet; accessed 2 0 April 2 0 0 5 .
Preisendanz, Karl. Papyri graecae magicae: die greischischen Zauberpapyri. Sammlung wissenschalt-
licher Commentare. 2 Vols. Stuttgart: B. G. Teubner, 1 9 7 3 - 1 9 7 4 .
Ricl, Marijana. La conscience du peche dans les cultes anatoliens a lepoque romaine. La confession des
fautes rituelles et ethiques dans les cultes meoniens et phrygiens. Belgrade, 1995 (Serbian, with a
French summary).
Scarborough, John. "PGM VII. 2 6 0 - 2 7 1 . " In Greek Magical Papyri in Translation Including the
Demotic Spells, ed. Hans Dieter Betz, 1 2 3 - 1 2 4 . Chicago and London: University of Chicago
Press, 1986.
Vermes, Geza. The Dead Sea Scrolls in English. New York and London: Allen Lane the Penguin
Press, 1997.
Yadin, Yigael. The Ben Sira Scroll from Masada. Jerusalem: The Israel Exploration Society and the
Shrine of the Book, 1965.
Ziegler, Joseph, ed. Sapientia lesu Filii Sirach. SVTG 12,2. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht,
1980.
Bibliography of Modern Authors
Ahrens, Matthias. Der Realitaten Widerschein: oder Arm und Reich im Jakobusbrief, eirxe sozial-
geschichtliche Untersuchung. Berlin: Alektor-Verlag, 1995.
Albl, Martin C. "'Are Any among You Sick?' The Health Care System in the Letter of James."
J B L 1 2 1 n o . 1 (2002): 1 2 3 - 1 4 3 .
Alderink, Larry J. and Luther H. Martin. "Prayer in Greco-Roman Religions." In Prayer from Al
exander to Constantine: A Critical Anthology, ed. Mark Kiley and others, 1 2 3 - 1 2 7 . London
and New York: Routledge, 1997.
Arnold, Russell C D . The Social role of Liturgy in the Religion of the Qumran Community. Leiden
and Boston: Brill: 2006.
Asirvatham, Sulochana R., Corinne Ondine Pache, and John Watrous, eds. Between Magic and
Religion: Interdisciplinary Studies in Ancient Mediterranean Religion and Society. Greek Studies:
Interdisciplinary Approaches. Lanham, Md.: R o w m a n & Littlefield, 2 0 0 1 .
Aune, David E. ed. Greco-Roman Perspectives on Friendship. SBLRBS 3 4 . Atlanta: Scholars Press,
1997.
Ausfeld, K. "De Graecorum precationibus quaestiones." Jahrb. Class. Phil. 2 8 (1903): 505ff.
Quoted in J . M. Bremer, "Greek Hymns." In Faith Hope and Worship: Aspects of Religious
Mentality in the Ancient World, ed. H. S. Versnel, 1 9 4 - 1 9 7 . Studies in Greek and Roman
Religion 2. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1981.
Avalos, Hector. Health Care and the Rise of Christianity. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1999.
Baker, William R. "Christology in the Epistle of James." EvQ 74, no. 1 (2002): 4 7 - 5 7 .
. "Who's Your Daddy? Gendered Birth Images in the Soteriology of the Epistle of James,"
EvQ 79, no .3 (2007): 195-207.
Bakke, Odd Magne. Concord and Peace: A Rhetorical Analysis of the Letter of First Clement with an
Emphasis on the language of unity and sedition. Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2 0 0 1 .
Bauckham, Richard. "James and Jesus." In The Brother of Jesus: James the Just and His Mission, ed.
Bruce Chilton and Jacob Neusner, 1 0 0 - 1 3 7 . Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press,
2001.
. James: Wisdom of James, Disciple of Jesus the Sage. London and New York: Routledge, 1999.
200 •JAMES RILEY STRANGE •
Baumgarten, Joseph M. "The Essenes and the Temple: A Reappraisal." In Studies in Qumran
Law, 5 7 - 7 5 . SJLA 24. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1977.
Betz, Hans Dieter, ed. Plutarch's Theological Writings and Early Christian Literature. S C H N T 3.
Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1975.
Bobonich, Christopher. Plato's Utopia Recast: His Later Ethics and Politics. Oxford, U. K.: Claren
don Press, 2 0 0 2 .
Boismard, Marie-Emile. "Une liturgie baptismale dans la Prima Petri, II: Son influence sur
I'epitre de Jacques." RB 6 4 (1957): 1 6 1 - 1 8 3 .
Bottini, Giovanni Claudio. La preghiera di Elia in Giacomo 5,17-18: Studio della tradizione biblica e
giudaica. Studium Biblicum Franciscanum Analecta 16. Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing
Press, 1981.
e
Boulanger, A. Aelius Aristide et la sophistique dans la Province d'Asie au U siecle de notre ere. Paris:
Boccard, 1923.
Bremer, J . M. "Greek Hymns." In Faith Hope and Worship: Aspects of Religious Mentality in the An
cient World, ed. H. S. Versnel, 1 9 3 - 2 1 5 . Studies in Greek and Roman Religion 2. Leiden:
E . J . Brill, 1981.
Brenk, Frederick. "Finding One's Place: Eschatology in Plato's Laws and First-Century Platon-
ism." In From Theory into Practice; Proceedings of the VI Symposium Platonicum Selected Papers,
ed. Samuel Scolnikov and Luc Brisson, 3 1 2 - 3 1 9 . International Plato Studies 15. Sankt
Augustin: Academia Verlag, 2 0 0 3 .
Brown, Michael J. The Lord s Prater Through North African Eyes: A Window into Early Christianity.
New York and London: T & T Clark International, 2 0 0 4 .
Cargal, Timothy B. Restoring the Diaspora: Discursive Structure and Purpose in the Epistle of James.
SBLDS 144. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993.
Carpenter, William B. The Wisdom of James the Just. New York: Thomas Whittaker, 1903.
Chazon, Esther G. and Moshe J . Bernstein. "An Introduction to Prayer at Qumran." In Prayer
from Alexander to Constantine: A Critical Anthology, ed. Mark Kiley et al, 9 - 1 3 . London and
New York: Routledge, 1997.
Chilton, Bruce and Jacob Neusner, eds. The Brother of Jesus: James the Just and His Mission. Louis
ville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2 0 0 1 .
Collins, John J. Apocalypticism in the Dead Sea Scrolls. London and New York: Routledge, 1997.
. Jewish Wisdom in the Hellenistic Age. O T L . Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997.
. "The Expectation of the End in the Dead Sea Scrolls." In Eschatology, Messianism, and the
Dead Sea Scrolls, ed. Craig A. Evans and Peter W . Flint, 7 4 - 9 0 . Grand Rapids, Mich, and
Cambridge, U. K.: William B. Eerdmans, 1997.
Culpepper, R. Alan. "The Power of Words and the Tests of Two Wisdoms: James 3." RevExp 83
no. 3 ( 1 9 8 6 ) : 4 0 5 - 4 1 7 .
Cuschieri, Andrew. Anointing of the Sick: A Theological and Canonical Study. Lanham, New York,
and London: University Press of America, 1993.
Davids, Peter H. "James and Jesus." In The Jesus Tradition Outside the Gospeb, ed. D. Wenham,
6 3 - 8 4 . Gospel Perspectives 5. Sheffield, U.K.: JSOT Press, 1985.
. The Epistle of James. New International Greek Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids,
Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1982.
. "Tradition and Citation." In Scripture, Traditions and Interpretation. Essays Presented to Everett
F. Harrison by His Students and Colleagues in Honor of His Seventy-Fifth Birthday, ed. W . W .
Gasque and W . S. Lasor, 1 1 3 - 1 2 6 . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978.
Davies, Philip R. "Eschatology at Qumran." 7BL 104 (1985): 3 9 - 5 5 . Reprint, Sects and Scrolb:
Essays on Qumran and Related Topics, 6 1 - 7 8 . Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1996.
Davies, W . D. The Setting of the Sermon on the Mount. BJS 186. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1989.
de Vaux, Roland. Archaeology and the Dead Sea Scrolb: The Schweich Lectures of the British Academy,
1959. London: Oxford University Press, 1973.
. Die Ausgrabungen von Qumran und en Feschcha IA: die Grabungstagebucher. NTOA.SA 1A, ed.
Ferdinand Rohrhirsch and Bettina Hofmeir. Gottingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1996.
Deppe, Dean R. "The Sayings of Jesus in the Epistle of James." Doctoral Thesis, Free University
of Amsterdam, 1989.
Di Leila, Alexander A. The Hebrew Text of Sirach: A Text-Critical and Historical Study. S C L 1,38.
London, the Hague, and Paris: Mouton & Co., 1966.
. "Two Major Prayers in the Book of Tobit." In Yearbook 2 0 0 4 : Prayer from Tobit to Qumran:
Inaugural Conference of the ISDCL at Salzburg, Austria, 5 - 9 July 2003, ed. Renate Eggar-
Wenzel and Jeremy Corely, 9 5 - 1 1 6 . D C L . Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2 0 0 4 .
. "WISDOM O F BEN-SIRA." In ABD. Vol VI, ed. David Noel Freedman, 9 3 1 - 9 4 5 . New
York and London: Doubleday, 1992.
Dibelius, Martin. James: A Commentary on the Epistle of James, rev. Heinrich Greeven, trans. Mi
chael A. Williams. Hermaneia. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976.
Dockery, David. "True Piety in James: Ethical Admonitions and Theological Implications." CTR
1 no. 1 (1986): 5 1 - 7 0 .
Dunn, James D. G. Jesus Remembered. Christianity in the Making, vol. 1. Grand Rapids, Mich,
and Cambridge, U.K.: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2003.
202 •JAMES RILEY S T R A N G E *
7
Edgar, David Hutchinson. Has God Not Chosen the Poor. The Social Setting of the Epistle of James.
JSOTSup 206. Sheffield, U.K.: Sheffield Academic Press, 2 0 0 1 .
Eilberg-Schwartz, Howard. The Human Will in Judaism: The Mishnah's Philosophy of Intention. BJS
103. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1986.
Eisenman, Robert. James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity
and the Dead Sea Scrolls. New York: Penguin Books, 1997.
Eliade, Mircea Patterns in Comparative Religion, trans. Rosemary Sheed. New York: New Ameri
can Library, 1958.
Elliott, John H. "The Epistle of James in Rhetorical and Social Scientific Perspective: Holiness-
Wholeness and Patterns of Replication." BTB 23 (1993): 7 1 - 8 1 .
Evans, Craig A. "Comparing Judaisms: Qumranic, Rabbinic, and Jacobean Judaisms Com
pared." In The Brother of Jesus: James the Just and His Mission, ed. Jacob Neusner and Bruce
Chilton, 1 6 1 - 1 8 3 . Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2 0 0 1 .
Evans, Craig A. and Peter W . Flint, eds. Eschatology, Messianism, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Grand
Rapids, Mich, and Cambridge, U. K.: William B. Eerdmans, 1997.
Falk, Daniel K. "Qumran Prayer Texts and the Temple." In Sapiential, Poetical, and Liturgical
Texts from Qumran: Proceedings of the Third Meeting of the International Organization for Qum
ran Studies, Oslo 1998, ed. Daniel K. Falk, Florentino Garcia Martinez, and Eileen M.
Schuller, 1 0 6 - 1 2 6 . STDJ 3 5 . Leiden, Boston, and Koln: E. J. Brill, 2 0 0 0 .
Faraone, Christopher A. and Dirk Obbink, eds. Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion.
New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Fitzgerald, John T. "Friendship in the Greek World Prior to Aristotle." In Greco-Roman Perspec
tives on Friendship, ed. David E. Aune, 1 3 - 3 4 . SBLRBS 34. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1997.
. " V I R T U E / V I C E LISTS." In ABD. Vol VI, ed. David Noel Freedman, 8 5 7 - 8 5 9 . New
York: Doubleday, 1992.
Frankenmolle, H. Der Brief des Jakobus. O T K 17. Giiterslolv. Gi'itersloher Verlagshaus, 1994.
. "Zum Thema des Jakobusbriefes im Kontext der Rezeption von Sir 2 . 1 - 1 8 und 1 5 . 1 1 -
20." BN 4 8 (1989): 2 1 - 4 9 .
Frankfurter, David. "Amuletic Invocations of Christ for Health and Fortune." In Religions of
Late Antiquity in Practice, ed. Richard Valantasis, 3 4 0 - 3 4 3 . Princeton, N. J . and Oxford, U.
K.: Princeton University Press, 2 0 0 0 .
Geertz, Clifford. "Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture." In The Inter
pretation of Cultures: Selected Essays, 3 - 3 0 . New York: Basic Books, 1973.
Gill, Christopher. "The Laws—Is it a real dialogue?" In Plato's Laws; Proceedings of the VI Sympo
sium Platonicum, Selected Papers, ed. Samuel Scolnicov and Luc Brisson, 4 2 - 4 7 . Interna
tional Plato Studies. Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag, 2 0 0 3 .
Gray, Patrick. Godly Fear: The Epistle to Hebrews and Greco-Roman Critiques of Superstition. SBLAB
16. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2 0 0 4 .
Gryglewicz, Feliks. "L'Epitre de St. Jaques et l'Evangile de St. Matthieu." RTK 8 no. 3 (1961):
33-55.
Halston, B. R. "The Epistle of James: 'Christian Wisdom?'" In SE 4: Papers presented to the Third
International Congress on Biblical Studies held at Christ Church, Oxford, 1965, ed. F. L. Cross,
3 0 8 - 1 4 . Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1968.
Hartin, Patrick J. A Spirituality of Perfection: Faith and Action in the Letter of James. Collegeville,
MN: The Liturgical Press, 1999.
. James and the Q Sayings of Jesus. JSNTSup 47. Sheffield, U.K.: JSOT Press, 1991.
. "James and the Sermon on the Mount/Plain." In SBLSP 28, 4 4 0 - 4 5 7 . Ed. D. J. Lull. At
lanta: Scholars Press, 1989.
Hays, Richard. The Moral Vision of the New Testament: A Contemporary Introduction to New Testa
ment Ethics. San Francisco: HarperSanFranciso, 1996.
Hengel, Martin. Judaism and Hellenism: Studies in their Encounter in Palestine during the Early Helle
nistic Period. Trans. John Bowden. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974.
. "Hellenism and Judaism Revisited." In John J. Collins & Gregory E. Sterling, eds., Hellen
ism in the land of Israel, 6-37. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2 0 0 1 .
Hollander, H. W . and M. de Jonge. The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs: A Commentary. SVTP
8. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1985.
Hoppe, Rudolf. "Der Jakobusbrief als briefliches Zeugnis hellenistisch und hellenistich-judisch
gepragter Religiositat." In Der neue Mensch in Christus: hellenistische Anthropologic und Ethik
im Neuen Testament, ed. Johannes Beutler, 1 6 4 - 1 8 9 . Freiburg: Herder, 2 0 0 1 .
Houlden, J. L. Ethics and the New Testament. Middlesex, U.K.: Penguin Books, 1973.
Howard, J. Keir. Disease and Healing in the New Testament: An Analysis and Interpretation. Lanham,
Md., New York, and Oxford, U.K.: University Press of America, 2 0 0 1 .
Humbert, Jean-Baptiste and Alain Chambon. Fouilles de Khirbet Qumran et de Ain Feschkha I: Al
bum de photographies Repertoire du fonds photographique Synthese des notes de chantier du Pere Ro
land de Vaux OP. NTOA.SA 1. Fouilles de Khirbet Qumran. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht, 1994.
Jackson-McCabe, Matt A. Logos and Law in the Letter of James: The Law of Nature, the Law of Mos
es, and the Law of Freedom. NovTSup. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2 0 0 1 .
204 JAMES RILEY STRANGE*
Johnson, Luke Timothy. Among the Gentiles: Greco-Roman Religion and Christianity. New Haven
and London: Yale University Press, 2 0 0 9 .
. Brother of Jesus, Friend of God: Studies in the Epistle of James. Grand Rapids and Cambridge,
U.K.: Eerdmans, 2 0 0 4 .
. "James 3 : 1 3 - 4 : 1 0 and the Topos ircpi <J)06vou." NovT 25 (1983): 3 2 7 - 3 4 7 . Reprint, Brother
of Jesus, Friend of God: Studies in the Letter of James, 1 8 2 - 2 0 1 . Grand Rapids, Mich, and
Cambridge, U.K.: Eerdmans, 2 0 0 4 .
. "James's Significance for Early Christian History." In Brother of Jesus, Friend of God: Studies
in the Epistle of James, 1-23. Grand Rapids and Cambridge, U.K.: Eerdmans, 2 0 0 4 .
. The Letter of James: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. A B 37A. New
York: Doubleday, 1995.
. "The Social World of James: Literary Analysis and Historical Reconstruction." In The
Social World of the First Christians: Essays in Honor of Wayne A. Meeks, 1 7 8 - 1 9 7 , ed. L. M.
White and O. L. Yarbrough. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995. Reprint, Brother of Jesus,
Friend of God: Studies in the Epistle of James, 1 0 1 - 1 2 2 . Grand Rapids and Cambridge, U.K.:
Eerdmans, 2 0 0 4 .
. "Taciturnity and True Religion (James 1:26-27)." In Greeks, Romans, and Christians: Essays
in Honor of Abraham J. Malherbe, ed. D. Balch et al., 3 2 9 - 3 3 9 . Minneapolis: Fortress Press,
1990. Reprint, Brother of Jesus, Friend of God: Studies in the Epistle of James, 1 5 5 - 1 6 7 . Grand
Rapids and Cambridge, U.K.: Eerdmans, 2 0 0 4 .
Johnson, Luke Timothy and Wesley Wachob. "The Sayings of Jesus in the Letter of James." In
Authenticating the Words of Jesus, ed. Bruce Chilton and Craig A. Evans, 4 3 1 - 4 5 0 . NTTS
28:1. Leiden: Brill, 1999. Reprint, Brother of Jesus, Friend of God: Studies in the Epistle of
James, 1 3 7 - 1 4 3 . Grand Rapids and Cambridge, U.K.: Eerdmans, 2 0 0 4 .
Johnston, Wendell G. "Does James Give Believers a Pattern for Dealing with Sickness and Heal
ing?" In Integrity of Heart, Skillfulness of Hands: Biblical and Leadership Studies in Honor of Don
ald K. Campbell, ed. Charles H. Dyer and Roy B. Zuck, 1 6 8 - 1 7 4 . Grand Rapids: Baker
Books, 1994.
Karris, Robert J. Prayer in the New Testament. New York: The Crossroads Publishing Company,
2000.
Kawaidas, P. Fouilles Epidaure. Athens, 1891. Quoted in Louise Wells, The Greek Language of
Healing from Homer to the New Testament Times. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter,
1998,21.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MODERN AUTHORS 205
Kawaidas, P. To hpov TOU 'AoxArjrrtou iv 'EmSaupcS KCU' rj dspaireia TCOV dotevcov. Athens, 1900.
Quoted in Louise Wells, The Greek Language of Healing from Homer to the New Testament
Times. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1998, 2 1 .
Kee, Howard Clark. Miracle in the Early Christian World: A Study in Sociohistorical Method. New
Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1983.
Kelsey, Morton T. Healing and Christianity in Ancient Thought and Modem Times. New York: Har
per ck Row Publishers, 1973.
Kierkegaard, Soren. Fear and Trembling and The Sickness unto Death, trans. Walter Lowrie. Prince
ton: Princeton University Press, 1954.
. For Self Examination; Judge for Yourself. Kierkegaard's Writings 5. Edited and translated by
H. V. Hong and E. H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990. Quoted in Ri
chard Bauckham, James: Wisdom of James, Disciple of Jesus the Sage. London and New York:
Routledge, 1999.
Kiley, Mark and others, eds. Prayer from Alexander to Constantine: A Critical Anthology. London
and New York: Routledge, 1997.
Klauck, Hans-Josef. "Die kleinasiatischen Beichtinschriften und das Neue Testament." In Ge-
schichte-Tradition-Reflexion: Festschrift fur Martin Hengel zum 70. Geburtstag. Vol. 3, Frillies
Christentum, ed. Hubert Cancik, Hermann Lichtenberger, and Peter Schaffer, 6 3 - 8 7 .
Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Ziebeck), 1996.
. The Religious Context of Early Christianity, trans. Brian McNeil, ed. John Barclay, Joel Mar
cus, and John Riches. Snidies of the New Testament and Its World. Edinburgh: T & T
Clark, 2 0 0 0 .
. "The Emulation of the Jesus Tradition in the Letter of James." In Reading James with New
Eyes: Methodological Reassessments of the Letter of James, ed. Robert L. Webb and John S.
Koppenborg, 1 2 1 - 1 5 0 . LNT 3 4 2 . London and New York: T & T Clark, 2 0 0 7 .
Konradt, Matthias. Christliche Existenz nach dem Jakobusbrief: eine Studie zu seiner soteriologischen
und ethischen Konzeption. S U N T 22. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998.
Laws, Sophie. "The Doctrinal Basis for the Ethics of James." In Studia Evangelica 7: Papers pre
sented to the Fifth International Congress on Biblical Studies held at Oxford, 1973, ed. Elizabeth
A. Livingstone, 2 9 9 - 3 0 5 . Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1982.
206 •JAMES RILEY STRANGE •
Levine, Amy-Jill. "Diaspora as Metaphor: Bodies and Boundaries in the Book of Tobit." In Di
aspora Jews and Judaism: Essays in Honor of, and in Dialogue with, A. Thomas Kraabel, ed. J.
Andrew Overman and Robert S. MacLennan, 1 0 5 - 1 1 7 . SFSHJ 4 1 . Atlanta: Scholars Press,
1992.
Levine, Lee I., ed. Ancient Synagogues Revealed. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1981.
. The Ancient Synagogue: The First Thousand Years. New Haven and London: Yale University
Press: 2000.
Lockett, Darian. Purity and Worldview in the Epistle of James. LNT 3 6 6 . London and New York:
T & T Clark International, 2 0 0 8 .
. "The Spectrum of Wisdom and Eschatology in the Epistle of James and 4QInstruction,"
Tyndale Bulletin 5 6 , no. 2 (2005): 1 3 3 - 1 4 8 .
Lohse, Eduard. Theological Ethics of the New Testament, trans. M. Eugene Boring. Minneapolis:
Fortress Press, 1991.
Luther, Martin. "Preface to the New Testament." In Word and Sacrament. Vol 3 5 , trans. Theo
dore Bachmann. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1960.
Magness, Jodi. The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerd
mans, 2 0 0 2 .
Malherbe, Abraham J. "Hellenistic Moralists and the New Testament." ANRW 11.26.1, ed.
Wolfgang Haase and Hildegard Temporini, 2 6 7 - 3 3 3 . Berlin and New York: Walter de
Gruyter, 1992.
Manns, Frederic. '"Confessez vos peches les uns aux autres'. Essai d'interpretation de Jacques
5,16." RevScRel 5 8 no. 4 (1984): 2 3 3 - 2 4 1 .
Marshall, L. H. The Challenge of New Testament Ethics. New York: The Macmillan Company,
1947.
Marxsen, Willi. "Christliche" und christliche Ethik im Neuen Testament. Gutersloh: Gtitersloher
Verlagshaus Gerd Mohn, 1989.
Matera, Frank J. New Testament Ethics: The Legacies of Jesus and Paul. Louisville: John Knox Press,
1996.
Mattila, Sharon Lea. "Jesus and the 'Middle Peasants'? Problematizing a Social-Scientfic Con
cept." CBQ 72, no. 2 (April 2010): 291-313.
• BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MODERN AUTHORS* 207
Maynard-Reid, Pedrito U. Poverty and Wealth in James. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1987.
r d
Mayor, Joseph B. The Epistle of James. 3 ed. London: Macmillan, 1913. Reprint, Grand Rapids,
Mich.: Kregel, 1990.
Meyer, Arnold. Das Ratsel des Jakobusbriefes. BZNW 10. Gieften, Germany: Topelmann, 1930.
McCollough, C. Thomas and Beth Glazier-McDonald. "Magic and Medicine in Byzantine Gali
lee: A Bronze Amulet from Sepphoris." In Archaeology and the Galilee: Texts and Contexts in
the Graeco-Roman and Byzantine Periods, ed. Douglas R. Edwards and C. Thomas McCol
lough, 1 4 3 - 1 5 0 . SFSHJ. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1997.
McDonald, Ian H. The Crucible of Christian Morality. London and New York: Routledge, 1998.
Meeks, Wayne A. The Moral World of the First Christians. Library of Early Christianity 6. Phila
delphia: The Westminster Press, 1986.
. The Origins of Christian Morality. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1993.
Meijer, P. A. "Philosophers, Intellectuals, and Religion in Hellas." In Faith Hope and Worship:
Aspects of Religious Mentality in the Ancient World, ed. H. S. Versnel, 2 1 6 - 2 6 2 . Leiden: E. J.
Brill, 1981.
Mitchell, Margaret M. Paul and the Rhetoric of Reconciliation: An Exegetical Investigation of the Lan
guage and Composition of 1 Corinthians. Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1991.
Moore, Carey A. Tobit: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. A B 40A. New York:
Doubleday, 1996.
Moralee, Jason. For Salvations Sake: Provincial Loyalty, Personal Religion, and Epigraphic Production
in the Roman and Late Antique Near East. Studies in Classics. New York and London: Rout
ledge, 2 0 0 4 .
Muftner, Franz. Der Jakobusbrief. HTKNT, 1 3 / 1 . Freiberg, Basel, and Vienna: Herder, 1964.
Nails, Debra and Holger Thesleff. "Early academic editing: Plato's Laws" In Plato's Laws, from
Theory into Practice; Proceedings VI Symposium Platonicum Selected Papers, ed. Samuel Scolnicov
and Luc Brisson, 1 4 - 2 9 . International Plato Studies. Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag,
2003.
Neusner, Jacob. "Introduction: W h a t Is a Judaism?" In The Brother of Jesus: James the Just and His
Mission, ed. Jacob Neusner and Bruce Chilton, 1-7. Louisville: Westminster John Knox
Press, 2 0 0 1 .
n d
. Judaism: The Evidence of the Mishnah. 2 ed., augmented. BJS 129. Atlanta: Scholars Press,
1988.
. Messiah in Context: Israel's History and Destiny in Formative Judaism. The Foundations of Ju
daism: Method, Teleology, Doctrine Part Two: Teleology. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984.
. The Mishnah: Introduction and Reader. Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1992.
. A Rabbi Talks with Jesus: An Intermillenial, Interfaith Exchange. New York: Doubleday, 1993.
208 •JAMES RILEY S T R A N G E *
. "The Synagogue in Law: W h a t the Texts Lead Us to Expect to Find." In Religious Texts
and Material Contexts, ed. Jacob Neusner and James F. Strange, 1 5 7 - 1 7 3 . SFSHJ. Lanham,
N.Y.: University Press of America, 2 0 0 1 .
Neusner, Jacob and Tamara Sonn. Comparing Religions Through Law: Judaism and Islam. London:
Routledge, 1999.
Neusner, Jacob and James F. Strange, eds. Religious Texts and Material Contexts. SFSHJ. Lanham,
N.Y.: University Press of America, 2 0 0 1 .
Nock, Arthur Darby. "Paul and the Magus." In The Beginnings of Christianity. Pt. 1, vol. 5, ed. F.
J. Foakes Jackson and K. Lake, 1 6 4 - 8 8 . London: Macmillan and Co., 1 9 2 0 - 1 9 3 3 . Reprint,
Essays on Religion and the Ancient World. Vol. 1, 3 0 9 - 3 3 0 . Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Uni
versity Press, 1972.
Omanson, Roger L. "The Certainty of Judgment and the Power of Prayer: James 5." RevExp 83
no. 3 (1986): 4 2 7 - 4 3 8 .
Overman, J . Andrew. "Jesus of Galilee and the Historical Peasant." In Archaeology and the Gali
lee: Texts and Contexts in the Graeco-Roman and Byzantine Periods, ed. Douglas R. Edwards and
C. Thomas McCollough, 67-73. Atlanta, Ga.: Scholars Press, 1997.
Painter, John. Just James: The Brother of Jesus in History and Tradition. Studies in Personalities of
the New Testament. Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1997. Reprint,
Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1999.
Penner, Todd C. The Epistle of James and Eschatology: Re-reading an Ancient Christian Letter.
JSNTSup 121. Sheffield, U.K.: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996.
Perdue, Leo G. "Paraenesis and the Epistle of James." ZNW 72 Heft 3 / 4 (1981): 2 4 1 - 2 5 6 .
Pettazzoni, Raffaele. "Confession of Sins and the Classics." HTR 3 0 (1937): 1-14.
Pickar, Charles H. "Is Anyone Sick Among You?" CBQ 7 no. 2 (1945): 1 6 5 - 1 7 4 .
Pilch, John J. Healing in the New Testament: Insights from Medical and Mediterranean Anthropology.
Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2 0 0 0 .
Plecket, H. W . "Religious History as the History of Mentality: The 'Believer' as Servant of the
Deity in the Greek World." In Faith Hope and Worship: Aspects of Religious Mentality in the
Ancient World, ed. H. S. Versnel, 1 5 2 - 1 9 2 . Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1981.
Popkes, Wiard. Der Brief des Jakobus. THKNT. Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2 0 0 1 .
Ricl, Marijana. "The Appeal to Divine Justice in the Lydian Confession-Inscriptions." In For-
schungen in Lydien, 6 7 - 7 6 . AMS 17. Bonn: Dr. Rudolf Habelt GMBH, 1995.
Robbins, Vernon K. The Tapestry of Early Christian Discourse: Rhetoric, Society and Ideology. London
and New York: Routledge, 1997, 3 0 .
Ropes, James Hardy. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle of St. James. ICC. New
York: Charles Scribner & Sons, 1916.
Rostad, Aslak. "Confession or Reconciliation? The Narrative Structure of the Lydian and Phry
gian 'Confession Inscriptions.'" SO 77 (2002): 1 4 5 - 1 6 5 .
Sanders, Jack T. Ethics in the New Testament: Change and Development. Philadelphia: Fortress
Press, 1975.
Schaffer, Peter "Jewish Liturgy and Magic." In Geschichte-Tradition-Reflexion: Festschrift fur Mar
tin Hengel zum 70. Geburtstag. Vol. 1, Judentum, ed. Hubert Cancik, Hermann Lichtenber-
ger, and Peter Schaffer, 5 4 1 - 5 5 6 . Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1996.
Schnabel, Eckhard J. "Divine Tyranny and Public Humiliation: A Suggestion for the Interpreta
tion of the Lydian and Phrygian Confession Inscriptions." NovTXLV (2003): 1 6 0 - 1 8 8 .
Schnackenburg, Rudolf. The Moral Teaching of the New Testament, trans. J. Holland-Smith and
W . J. O'Hara. London: Burns & Oates, 1965.
Schrage, Wolfgang. The Ethics of the New Testament, trans. David E. Green Philadelphia: Fortress
Press, 1988.
Schuller, Eileen M. "Prayer, Hymnic, and Liturgical Texts from Qumran." In The Community of
the Renewed Covenant: The Notre Dame Symposium on the Dead Sea Scrolb, ed. Eugene Ulrich
and James VanderKam, 1 5 3 - 1 7 1 . CJAS 10. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame,
1994.
Scolnicov, Samuel and Luc Brisson, eds. Plato's Laws, from Theory into Practice; Proceedings VI
Symposium Platonicum Selected Papers. International Plato Studies. Sankt Augustin: Acade-
mia Verlag, 2 0 0 3 .
Shauf, Scott. Theology as History, History as Theology: Paul in Ephesus in Acts 19. B Z N W 133. Berlin
and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2 0 0 5 .
Shepherd, M. "The Epistle of James and the Gospel of Matthew." JBL 75 (1956): 4 0 - 5 1 .
Shogren, Gary S. "Will God Heal U s - A Re-Examination of James 5:14-16a." EvQ 61 (1989):
99-108.
Skehan, Patrick W . and Alexander A. Di Leila. The Wisdom of Ben Sira: A New Translation with
Notes. A B 3 9 . New York: Doubleday, 1987.
Smith, Jonathan Z. Drudgery Divine: On the Comparison of Early Christianities and the Religions of
Late Antiquity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.
Smith, Morton. "De Superstitione." In Plutarch's Theological Writings and Early Christian Litera
ture, ed. Hans Dieter Betz, 1 - 3 5 . Smdia ad corpus hellenisticum Novi Testamenti 3. Lei
den: E. J. Brill, 1975.
Strubbe, J. H. M. "Cursed be he that moves my bones." In Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic
and Religion, ed. Christopher A. Faraone and Dirk Obbink, 3 3 - 5 9 . New York and Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1991. Quoted in Eckhard J. Schnabel, "Divine Tyranny and Pub
lic Humiliation: A Suggestion for the Interpretation of the Lydian and Phrygian Confes
sion Inscriptions." NovTXLV (2003): 1 6 0 - 1 8 8 .
Thomas, John Christopher. "The Devil, Disease, and Deliverance: James 5 : 1 4 - 1 6 . " 7PT 2
(1993): 2 5 - 5 0 .
. The Devil, Disease, and Deliverance: Origins of Illness in New Testament Thought. Sheffield:
Sheffield Academic Press, 1998.
Torrey, C. C. "The Hebrew of the Geniza Sirach." In Alexander Marx: Jubilee Volume on the Occa
sion of His Seventieth Birthday, ed. Saul Lieberman, 5 8 5 - 6 0 2 . New York: Jewish Theological
Seminary of America, 1950. Quoted in Alexander A. Di Leila, The Hebrew Text of Sirach: A
Text-Critical and Historical Study. S C L 1,38. London, the Hague, and Paris: Mouton & Co.,
1966.
Van der Leeuw, G. Religion in Essence and Manifestation, trans. J . E. Turner. London: Allen &
Unwin, Ltd: 1938. Reprint, New York and Evanston, In.: Harper & Row, 1963.
van Stratten, F. T. "Gifts for the Gods." In Faith Hope and Worship: Aspects of Religious Mentality
in the Ancient World, ed. H. S. Versnel, 6 5 - 1 5 1 . Studies in Greek and Roman Religion 2.
Leiden: E . J . Brill, 1981.
Verhey, Allen. The Great Reversal: Ethics and the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984.
Verseput, Donald J. "Plutarch of Chaeronea and the Epistle of James on Communal Behav
iour," NTS 47 (2001): 5 0 2 - 5 1 8 .
Versnel, H. S. "Beyond Cursing: The Appeal to Justice in Judicial Prayers." In Magika Hiera:
Ancient Greek Magic and Religion, ed. Christopher A. Faraone and Dirk Obbink, 6 0 - 1 0 6 .
New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Versnel, H. S., ed. Faith Hope and Worship: Aspects of Religious Mentality in the Ancient World. Stu
dies in Greek and Roman Religion 2. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1981.
Via, Jr., Dan Otto. "The Right Strawy Epistle Reconsidered: A Study in Biblical Ethics and
Hermeneutic." JR 4 9 no. 3 (1969): 267.
• BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MODERN AUTHORS 211
von Vogtle, Anton. Die Tugend- und Lasterkataloge im Neuen Tetament. Minister: Aschendorf,
1936.
Wachob, Wesley Hiram. "The Languages of 'Household' and 'Kingdom' in the Letter of James:
A Socio-rhetorical Study." In Reading James with New Eyes: Methodological Reassessments of the
Letter of James, ed. Robert L. Webb and John S. Kloppenborg, 1 5 1 - 1 6 8 . LNT 342. London
and New York: T & T Clark, 2007.
. The Voice of Jesus in the Social Rhetoric of James. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University
Press, 2 0 0 0 .
Wall, Robert W . Community of the Wise: The Letter of James. Valley Forge, Penn.: Trinity Press
International, 1997.
Webb, Robert L. and John S. Kloppenborg, eds. Reading James with New Eyes: Methodological Re
assessments of the Letter of James. LNT 3 4 2 . New York, and London: T & T Clark Interna
tional, 2 0 0 7 .
Wells, Louise. The Greek Language of Healing from Homer to the New Testament Times. BZNW 8 3 .
Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1998.
Wilkinson, John. The Bible and Healing: A Medical and Theological Commentary. Edinburgh: The
Hansel Press; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1998.
Wright, Frederick J. "Healing: An interpretation of James 5 : 1 3 - 2 0 . " Journal of the Christian Med
ical Fellowship 37 no. 1 (1991): 2 0 - 2 1 .
Zahavy, Zvee. Mishnaic Law of Blessings and Prayers: Tractate Berakhot. BJS 8 8 . Atlanta: Scholars
Press, 1987.
. Studies in Jewish Prayer. SJ. Lanham, Md., New York, and London: University Press of
America, 1990.
Zegler, John J. "Who Can Anoint the Sick?" Worship 61 no. 1 (Jan. 1987): 2 5 - 4 4 .
Zias, Joseph E. "The Cemeteries of Qumran and Celibacy: Confusion Laid to Rest?" DSD 7 no.
2 Only, 2000): 2 2 0 - 2 5 3 .
. "Qumran Archaeology: Skeletons with Multiple Personality Disorders and other Grave
Errors." RevQ 21 no. 1 (2003): 8 3 - 9 8 .
u n e
. "Tombes bedouines: histoire d'une erreur." MdB 151 ( J > 2003): 4 8 - 4 9 .
Zimmerman, Frank. The Book of Tobit. JAL. New York: Harper Brothers, 1958..
Index of Ancient Texts
[Aristotle]
• Greco-Roman Texts •
Virt. vit.
1250B, 1251A 77,79
Aelian
Nat. an.
BWK
9.33 117
1 122, 123
11.17 121
3 109
4,5 122,123
Aelius Aristides
6,7 122
Disc.
10 122,123
23.16-17 104
11,12 122
47.1 121
15, 19 123
48.74-78 101
18, 20, 35 122
4 8 . 3 0 - 3 5 , 80;
37 122,123
51.36 121
38 122
43 1 1 1 - 1 1 2 , 122, 123
Anaxagorus 12 43
51,52,57,58,59 122
60 123
Andocides
61,62,63 122
De myst. 73.2 82
65 123
67 122
Apuleius
68 109-110,122
Met.
76 122, 123
8.27-28 80
97, 109 122
11.2 77
112 110-111
116 122
Aristotle
Eth. nic.
Cato
1.2 82
Agr. 139, 141 77
1.4 81
8 . 1 , 3 , 7tY, 13, 14;
Catullus 34,
9. Iff 83
63.92-93,
10.7,9 82
64.1-04 77
Polit.
1.1,3.4,3.6 82
Celsus
7.4-12 16
De med. 4 . 2 6 . 4 - 5 46
214 • JAMES RILEY STRANGE •
Chariton 14,28 77
Chaer.
3.8.7.2-3.8.9.6 77 Galen
Med. Temp.
Cicero 2.10 (DC) 46
Cli*. 5 5 . 1 5 2 81
Div. 1.129 77 Heraclitus
Fam. 12.15.3 81 Frg. 5 77
Phil. 13.1.2 81
Herodotus
CIL 12.4333 77 Hist.
1.31 77
Corpus Hermeticum 77 2.177 81
Epictetus Horace
Diatr.
1.1-8 84 Odes 3.6 77
2.1.31; 2.9.21 82
3.10 117 Iamblichus
3.10.15; 3.22 84 Life of Pythagoras 77
2
Isaeus 8 . 1 5 - 1 6 77 PGM
I. 4 2 - 5 4 , 8 8 - 9 0 ,
Isocrates 95-132, 247-49,
Aerop. 7 . 2 9 - 3 0 77,81 262-347 117
Or. 15.246 77 11.51-54 81
II. 6 4 - 1 8 3 ,
Juvenal 145,171 117
Sat. 6 . 5 3 5 - 5 4 1 121 III. 50ff., 95-160ff.,
187-262,
Livy 494-611 117
Ab urb. III. 5 3 8 81
4.43.11 81 IV. 1 5 4 - 2 8 5 ;
5.18.22 77 VII. 2 1 8 - 2 1 117
29.27.2-4 77 VII. 2 6 0 - 7 1 89
LXXXIII. 1 - 2 0 91,117
Lucretius CXXIV. 6-43 93
De re. nat. 6 . 6 8 - 7 8 80
Pindar
Lysias 18.17 82 Odes 10{11}.46 43,77
Pyth. 3.38-53 117
Maximus of Tyre
Diss. Plato
5 77 Euthyphr. 1 4 C E 78
5.3 78 Leg.
1.631B-D 79
Menander 3.679C, 744D 78
Georg. 6 0 46 3.696D-E;
4.709E-710B 79
Menander of Laodicea 4.710B, D 53
Rhet. 51,77 4.713B,C,D-E 78
4.716B-717A 52
Orphei Hymni 4.716B-718C 52,54
1-86 77 4.717A 78
32.16,43.2 81 4.717A-B 54
4.717E 79
Ovid 4.718A-B;
Ars 2 . 3 2 5 - 3 3 0 80 4.737C-D;
Epist. 5 1 - 5 8 121 4.742A-B;
Fast. 6 . 3 0 5 - 3 2 7 121 4.743C-D;
Metam. 1 1 . 1 2 9 - 1 4 3 121 4.745A;
4.745C-E;
Pausanias 4.753B;
Descr. 4.764A;
1.8.3 81 4.814C 54
2.26.1-2.27.1-6 117 5.726A-B 84
5.15.3-12 77 5.739C-E 79
7.801A 78
216 • J A M E S RILEY STRANGE*
10.909E-910D 79 74B 84
Resp. 74C 83
2.379A-308C 80 74C-D, D-E 84
2.347E-367E 77 Amic. mult.
2.406C 78 93F; 94Aff;
95C, G D 83
Pliny the Elder Aem. 2 9 80
Nat. Def. orac.
5.17.4173] 187 417E 423D
; 80
23.39-50 46 Fac. 9 4 4 D 80
28.3-13 77 Is. Os.
360E-361Q
Pliny the Younger 351C 80
Epist Mor.
8.5.1-2 82 84B 82
10.96.7 16 93A-97B 83
164E-171F 79
Plutarch 167F 81
Adul amic. 1033B 82
4 9 C - D , E; Quaest. gr. 3 6 77
50A, D - E ; Stoic. Abs. 1 82
5IB, B-C, E-F; Suav. viv. 1 1 0 2 E - F 8 0
52B-D; Superst.
54C, F ; Book 2 59
55C, E-F; Book 4 16,60,61
55D 83 164F 80,81
56A 83,84 165B, C, D, E - F 80
56F; 166A-B, E 81
58A, C, C - D , 168D 84, 121
E-F 83 169F-170A 80
59F 84 170A, E 81
60B-D 83 171B 80,81
61D 84 171F 81
62A, B, E - F 83 Virt. prof. 14 82
66E 66
67B 67, 157 Porphyry
67D 83
67E, F 84 Abst. 2 16
67E-F 68
P. Oxy. 1070 77
• INDEX OF ANCIENT TEXTS • 217
Pseudolsocrates Zeno
Demon. 11 77, 79 Stoic. 1.61; 3 . 1 6 0 82
Sappho
Frg. 1 77
•HebrewBible •
Seneca
Genesis
Epist.
1:1-2:4 22
10.5,41.1 77
1:11-12 136
20.1; 9 4 . 4 6 82
1:26 22
28:18 47
Stobaeus
28:30 43
Eel. 3.9.23 77,81 29:35 47
31:13 43
Suetonius 49 146
Judges Job
9:8-15 47 1:21; 2:10 154
10:10, 15 187 4:8 47
18:5 157 5:18 160
1 Samuel 8:1-22 46
7:6 187 10:1 45
9:16; 10:1 47 11:6 46
12:10 187 17:2 45
15:1; 16:3, 1 2 - 1 3 47 22:1-30 46
28 159
2 Samuel 40:14 47
2:4 47
11:7 157 Psalms
12:20 46 4 44
12:1-15 84 17:50 18,47
14:2 46 18:49 47
22:50 47 23:5 34
• INDEX OF ANCIENT T E X T S • 219
7:7-11 43 9 158
7:10-11 44 9:11-12 44
7:23 47 9:18; 1 0 : 2 6 , 4 9 , 5 2 4 5
8:8, 13, 15 45 11:23 43
9:2 4 6 , 158 11:25 47,158
9:2-8,6-7 45 13:13,20 45
9:6-16 158 16:1 46
9 : 2 1 - 2 3 , 25, 27;
10:8,22 45 16:16 45
10:32 47
12:31-32 158 Luke
12:39 42 1:9-13 43
13:15 45,48 1:16-17 48
14:7 47 1:17 44,48
14:36; 15:28 45 1:47,69,71,77 44
16:3 43 2:11 45
16:25 45 4:18 34
17:6 43 4:25-26,40 45
18:11 45 5:17, 1 7 - 2 6 , 2 4 - 2 5 4 5
18:32,35 158 5:20 46
19:25 45 5:20-21,23-24 158
21:21,22 43 6:9, 1 8 - 1 9 ;
21:28 46 7:7, 10, 14 45
23 16 7:38 46
24:13; 25:36, 39 45 7:46 46,47
26:14-15; 27:9, 25 16 7:47-49 4 5 , 158
28:19 47 7:50 45
8:12, 3 6 , 4 7 , 4 8 ,
Mark 50,54-55 45
1:5 48 9:2, 1 1 , 2 4 , 4 0 ,
1:31 45 42,56 45
2 158 10:21 47
2:1-12,11-12 45 10:34 34
2:5 46 11:4 158
3:3,4 45 12:8 47
3:28 158 14:4 45
4:12 48 17:4 48
17:15, 19;18:26, 42;
4:35 45
19:9, 10 45
5 158
22:32 48
5:21-48 153
5:23, 28, 3 4 , 4 1 - 4 2 4 5
22:51; 24:22 45
6 : 9 - 1 0 a , 11 91
6:13 34
John
6:56 45
1:20 47
7 158
3:17; 4:22, 39, 42,
7:21-22 16
47, 46; 5:3, 8, 13,
7:29 45
34; 6:2 45
9:2 46
INDEX OF A N C I E N T T E X T S * 223
9:22 47 19:12 45
10:9; 1 1 : 1 - 6 45 19:18 47
11:2; 12:3 46 20:35 45
12:40,47 45 21:23 43
12:42 47 26:18,20 48
16:24 43 28:8, 27 45, 48
20:23 158
Romans
Acts 1:29-31; 2 : 1 7 - 2 9 16
2:1,40 45 4:19 45
2:23,36 16 4:20 43
2:38; 3:6, 16 47 4:24-25 45
3:7 45 6 : 1 2 - 1 4 , 19;
3:19 48 7:5,23 42
4:9, 12 45 8:3 45
4:10, 19 16 10:9 45,47
4:12 45 10:10 47
4:18 47 12:4-5 42
5:28,39 16 12:16 82
5:31 45 14:1-2 45
5:40 47 14:11 47
6:1-6 19 15:5 82
7:17 47 16:5 121
7:51-53 16
9:27 47 1 Corinthians
9:34,37 45 1:10 82
9:35 48 1:13 47
10:20 43 4:7 43
10:38 45 5:4 47
10:48 47 6:5 43
11:2,12 43 6:9-11 16-17
11:14 45 6:11 47
11:21 48 6:15 42
12:1-3 16 6:14; 8 : 1 1 - 1 2 45
13:11 117 11:17-32 16
13:23, 26, 47 45 11:29,31 43
13:46 16 11:29-30 45
14:9 45 11:30 46
14:15 48 12:12-27 42
15:1,11 45 14:29 43
15:9 43 15:33 47
15:19 48 16:19 121
16:17 45,47
16:30-31 45 2 Corinthians
16:31 46 3:16 48
18:18 43 4:14; 1 1 : 2 1 , 2 9 ;
19:5 47 12:10; 1 3 : 3 - 4 , 9 45
224 •JAMES RILEY STRANGE*
Galatians 13:15 47
3:10,23-25 16
3:27 42 James
4:21-5:1; 5:19-21 16 1:1 5
1:2 158, 168
6:7 37
1:2-4 5, 24, 28, 169
1:4 139
Ephesians
1:5 4, 1 7 , 4 0 , 114, 180
4:3, 13 82 1:5-6 17,29,43
4:17-19,21-32 16 1:6 18, 4 3 , 9 9
4:22-24 42 1:6-8 28
5:3-13 16 1:7 75
Philippians 1:9 17
2:2 82 1:9-11 22,85
2:11 47 1:10-11 18
2:26-27 45 1:12 2 2 - 2 4 , 2 8 , 7 0 , 169
3:1-9 16 1:12-18 40
1:13 158
Colossians 1:14-15 24-25
3:1-17 16 1:15 34,40
3:9-10 42 1:16 167
3:14 82 1:17 2 2 , 2 4 , 114, 168
3:17 47 1:18 5,17,22
4:15 121 1:19 75,158
1:19-21 168
1 Thessalonians 1:9 4 8 1:21 16, 1 7 , 2 2 , 2 5 , 4 7 , 4 8
168
1 Timothy 1:22 75, 167
1:9-10 16 1:22-25,26-27 25
4:20 45 1:23 85
6:4 16 1:25 58
6:12 47 1:26 75, 167
1:27 1 7 , 2 5 , 2 7 , 4 5 , 158,
2 Timothy 3 : 2 - 5 16 168, 169
2:1 168
Titus 2:1-4 158
1:16; 3 : 3 - 5 16 2:1-7 140
2:1-12 85
Philemon 2 121 2:1-13 5
2:2 169
Hebrews 2:2-3 17,45
1:9 47 2:2-5 168
3:12 42 2:4 5,43
4:14-5:10 16 2:6 5, 140, 168, 169, 188
6:4-8 42 2:6-7 24
7 : 2 6 - 2 8 ; 8 : 1 - 1 0 : 1 8 16 2:8 18
12:3, 13 45 2:9 22
• INDEX OF ANCIENT T E X T S • 225
2:10 25 4:8-10,9 85
2:11 18,25 4:10 24,40,132
2:12 5,58 4:11 17
2:13 168 4:11-12 5,188
2:14 24-25,33,28 4:12 2 5 , 3 3 , 3 8 , 5 8 , 168
2:15 140 4:13 42
2:15-16 17,22 4:13-16 168
2:16 82 4:13-17 85
2:17 24 4:13-5:6 24
2:18 75 4:14 18,85
2:20 167 4:15 42,114
2:23 18,40 4:16 25
2:26 18 4:17 24,42
3:1 17,45,169 5:1 5,24,42
3:5 17,45 5:1-5 70
3:1-12 1 8 , 2 2 , 2 5 , 154 5:1-6 5,22-24,37-38,85,
3:2 158 168
3:5,6 25 5:2 18,85
3:5-6 18 5:3 18, 158
3:6 158 5:4, 5 18, 8 5
3:8 26 5:4-6 168
3:8-12 168 5:6 24
3:9 25, 158 5:7 18, 24, 8 5
3:9-12 81 5:7-11 5,85,169
3:11,12 18 5:9 23, 36, 188
3:13 1 7 , 4 5 , 158, 168 5:10 35,47,85
3:13-18 75, 168 5:11 5,40,85
3:13-4:3 132 5:12 17,169,176
3:14 176 5:13 168
3:15 16 5:13-18 27-31
3:17 40 5:13-20 3,6, 18,27-41,49,
3:17-18 5 113-116, 177-183
3:18 82 5:14 43,46
4:1,5 17,25 5:14-16 5,29,31-36
4:1-2 22,25 5:15 28,99,158
4:1-3 34,38 5:16 18,36-37,48
4:1-6 85 5:17 158
4:2 25, 29, 43 5:17-18 4,20,29,35,85
4:2b-3 114 5:19-20 1 8 , 3 3 , 3 7 - 4 0 , 169
4:3 6, 7, 24, 4 3 5:20 38,40
4:4 18, 22, 26, 4 0 , 52, 8 5 ,
158 1 Peter
4:5 18, 75 1:23; 2:1 16
4:6 18 2:24 45
4:7 18, 24, 132 2:25 48
4:7-10 17,22,40 3:3 16
4:8 38 4:8 18
226 JAMES RILEY STRANGE •
Testament of Adam
• Early Christian Texts • 1.7 46
Didache
Testament of Solomon
5: Iff 16
18.34 46
Epistle of Barnabas
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
20: Iff 16
T Reu.
1.6, 7, 9; 3 . 1 0 - 4 . 2 ;
Justin
4.4, 7 - 8 ; 5 . 1 - 3 ;
lApol 61.1-3,
6.1 162
14-17 16
6.4 161
6.6 162
Paulus
6.8,11 161
Descr. 139 81
T. Sim.
2.6-7; 4.4-6;
• Old Testament 5.2,3 162
7.1 161
Pseudepigrapha •
T. Levi
1 Enoch 9 1 : 1 1 - 1 4 189
4.1 161
9.9; 14.6 162
2 Enoch 2 2 . 8 - 9 47
16.2 161
17.11 162
Joseph and Aseneth
18.1-12 161, 162
12-13 153
T. Jud.
Jubilees 1 0 : 3 - 6 153
1.6 161
1 1 . 1 - 5 ; 12.1-9;
• INDEX OF A N C I E N T T E X T S 227
T. Zeb.
CD-BXIX.10-11 189
2.4; 5 . 1 - 3 ; 7 . 1 - 4 ;
8.6 161
1QS
1.1 184
T. Dan
I.l-13a 187
5.4 162
1.3-4 172
5.10 161
I.5b-10 171
1.8 172
T. Naph.
1.9-10 186
3.5 151
1.11-12 175
5 . 1 - 5 ; 6.7; 8.2 161
1.15 185
1.16,1.21-11.1 171
T.Gad
II. 1-10 186
3 . 1 - 5 . 1 1 ; 7.7 162 II.7-10 16
II.8 172
8.1 161
11.10 166
11.15,17 172
T.Ash. 150
11.18 166
II. 19b-23 170
T. Jos.
11.24 175
4 . 1 - 5 ; 6.7; 9 . 2 - 3 ;
III.4-5 172
10.2-3 161
III. 13 184
17.2-8 162
III.13b-IV.26 172, 188
19.11 161
III. 17b-19a 188
T. Benj.
111.20-21 186
3.1-8 149 III.26-4.1 187
3.3, 4; 4 150 IV.3,5 175
4.1-5 147-149 IV.6-7 187
4.2 161 IV.9-14 16
5 150 IV.12-14a 187
5.1-5 148 IV.16-17, 1 8 - 1 9 172
6.1 150 V.l-2 186
228 • JAMES RILEY STRANGE •
a
4QShir 153 2:1 127-128
2:2,4:1 153
a
4QShirShabb 153 4:3 153, 154
4:4 128-130
4 Q 1 7 4 , 175 189 4:5,5:1 128
4Q186 184 5:2 130, 133
4Q246 188 5:5 129, 131
4Q280, 285, 5:12,13 130
286-290 186 6:1-8:8,9:2 154
4Q317,318,319, 9:3 129, 154
320, 3 2 1 , 3 2 5 , 9:4,5 154
327,328 184
4Q393 161 m. Peak 186
4Q408,503 184
4Q504-506 184, 186 m.Terumot 19, 186
4Q507-509 184, 186
4Q521 188 m. Yoma 161
4Q534,561, 184
a
HQapPs 153 m. Ta'anit
llQBerakhot 186 1:2-5 132
a
HQ5/llQPs 1:3-7,2:1 133
XVIII.9b-12a 185 2:2-3 153
2:2-4 154
3:8 1 3 2 - 1 3 3 , 154
y. Ber. 10 157
Josephus
A J . 2.290 45
y.Sanh. 1:18b 157
A J . 4.212 153
A J . 17.172 46
b. Ketub. 10:6 157
BJ. 1.657,2.123 46
BJ. 2.124-125 185
Sifre Num. 9 5 157
• Rabbinic Literature •
m. Berakhot
1:1 126-127
1:4 130
General Index
Essenes, 2, 47, 169, 185, 187, 198 129, 134-143, 145-146, 154, 156, 158,
Esther, 141, 159 160-161, 176, 178-180, 192
ethics, 2, 6, 59, 82 Hengel, Martin, 194
Evans, Craig A., 16, 187, 199, 200, 202 Hollander, H. W., 161-162, 201
evil spirit. See demon Holy of Holies, 128, 134
homoioteleuton, 5, 136
Honi the Circle Drawer, 132-134, 154,
155
•F* Howard, J. Keir, 46, 105, 195, 200, 201,
203
faith, 1, 9, 24, 28-34, 38, 4 4 , 47, 52, 74,
Humbert, Jean-Baptiste, 185, 201
97, 99, 105, 108, 114, 140, 147, 179,
191
Falk, Daniel K.,185, 2 0 0
fasting, 8, 16, 132, 133 •I*
fever, 8 9 , 9 1 - 9 2 , 101, 117, 118
Fitzgerald, John T., 16, 82, 2 0 0 incubation (at shrines of Asklepios), 32,
flattery, 65-66, 113 96-102, 120
Foerster, W., 81-82 initiation, 3, 22, 57, 105, 169, 170
folktale, 159 Instructor (of the 1QS Community), 163-
Frankfurter, David, 118, 2 0 0 164, 166-168, 172-173, 184-187
frankness, 66, 68-69, 84 intention (human will), 66, 78, 126-129,
friendship, 9, 26, 3 1 , 63-67, 69-70, 82-83, 131, 160, 181, 187
87, 113, 121, 136, 139-140, 150, 158, Irenaeus, 161
159 Isaac, 91-92
Isis, 80, 121
Islam, 11-12, 19-20, 2 0 5
vav (conjunction and consecutive), 135 works, 9, 24, 30-31, 38, 4 0 4 1 , 49-50, 58,
Verseput, Donald ] . , 82-83, 2 0 8 63, 79, 112, 121, 125-126, 131, 138,
Versnel, H. S., 19, 77-79, 121-122, 197, 140, 144-146, 149-150, 157, 168-169
198, 205-206, 2 0 8 wormwood, 102
vice, 2, 16, 37, 39-40, 5 1 , 5 5 , 57, 68-69, Wright, Frederick J., 4 6 , 2 0 9
113-134, 149-150, 171, 175, 178-79
virtue, 2, 16, 4 1 , 5 1 , 54-57, 62-69, 75, 79,
82, 84, 89, 104, 114-115, 134, 147-150,
171, 175, 178-179
voces magicae, 8 8 , 90-94, 9 8
von Vogtle, Anton, 16, 2 0 8 XQpis, see charis
Vulgate, 4 4 , 156
• y
Peter L a n g Publishing
Acquisitions Department
P.O. Box 1 2 4 6
Bel Air, M a r y l a n d 2 1 0 1 4 - 1 2 4 6
W W W . P E T E R L A N G . C O M
In The Moral World of James, James Riley Strange compares the moral system
in the Epistle of James with other Greco-Roman and Judaic texts. The author
of the epistle prescribed moral practices in a world in which other people, both
pagan and Jewish, had long been expressing similar concerns, and more would
continue to take up the task centuries after Christianity was well established
in the Roman Empire. In this fresh and thick analysis, Strange's systemic com-
parison of texts (among them works of Plato, Plutarch, Epictetus, and Aelius
Aristides, as well as Greek Magical Papyri, tractates of the Mishnah, and the
Community Rule of the Dead Sea Scrolls) reveals how James's vision of a dis-
tinctive way of community life was both part of and distinct from the moral
and religious systems among which it emerged.
"Dr. Strange pays the Letter of James the compliment of taking it seriously
as an important voice within the religious and moral discourse of antiquity.
His study is a model of comparative rigor, distinguished at once by a large-
ness of vision and a patient attentiveness to specific texts. The result is a fresh
and compelling vision of the moral world that James constructs."
Luke Timothy Johnson, Robert W. Woodruff Professor of
New Testament and Christian Origins, Emory University
ISBN 978-1-4331-0881-5