L'Epitre de Jacques dans sa tradition d'exegese. Edited by MATTHIEU ARNOLD, GILBERT DAHAN, and ANNIE NOBLESSE-ROCHER.

Abstract

This is an experiment in tracing the exegetical history not of a single text or a pericope but of a whole book of the Bible. The Epistle of James was controversial in the early Christian centuries because some doubted its authenticity. The challenge was mounted again in the sixteenth century, for example by Erasmus. The chief objection to this ‘book of straw’ in Luther’s eyes was that it contains texts which seem irreconcilable with a doctrine of justification by faith alone. The authors of the chapters of this useful short conspectus bring their specialist expertise to the periods they cover: Denis Fricker to modern work and the status quaestionis; Frédéric Chapot to the patristic period and the history of the spread and reception of the book in antiquity with its periods of apparent silence; Gilbert Dahan to its medieval exegesis; Matthieu Arnold to its use in Bibles and Protestant commentaries in the sixteenth century; and Jean-Pierre Delville to Roman Catholic exegesis in the early modern period to the seventeenth century, beginning with Erasmus. Fricker’s opening discussion, with its table of contrasting views in work of the last ten years, frames and sets the context for the continuing uncertainties. The other contributors write selectively on key problems and significant authors. The result is a brief crisp summary of the history of exegesis of this still-puzzling epistle which leaves the reader wanting more, but with the necessary pointers to where to look.