A fragment of an ancient manuscript, probably dating back to the 1st century, has recently been discovered, which contains a large portion of the ancient New Testament epistle of James – the first 13 verses of the second chapter. However, this manuscript differs considerably from all other copies of James’ epistle, in that other words are interspersed among the words of the canonical epistle. It appears that while our canonical epistle contains only the words of James himself, this newly discovered document also has the words of the persons whom James is addressing. It seems to be a dialog and I will attempt to translate it below as such. Though it seems clear who the parties are in the dialog, I have labeled the two speakers with a Jas for James and an Int for interlocutor.
Jas: “My brothers don’t have your faith in our
glorious Lord Jesus Christ with favoritism” (verse 1).
Int: “We agree brother James, favoritism is a
no-no. It would be incompatible with
that Law of Love that Jesus was always talking about.”
Jas: “For if a man wearing gold rings and flashy
clothes enters into your assembly … (verse 2a),
Int: “Ah, yes, brother James. Doesn’t happen often. You know, those rich folks are very busy
people. But when it does happen we will
be sure to show him the love of Jesus. We’ll
actually love him more than ourselves.”
Jas: “… and a poor man
wearing filthy clothes also enters” (verse 2b),
Int: “Yes, that does happen. You know our assembly isn’t located in
exactly the best neighborhood.”
Jas: “and you look at the one wearing the flashy
clothes and you say, ‘You sit here in a good place’ and you say to the poor
man, ‘You stand over there’ or “You sit here under my footstool” (verse 3),
Int: “Yes, yes!”
That’s exactly what we’d do. You
can never be too careful about people like that filthy smelly guy. We get quite a few of those. You have to put them somewhere you can keep
your eye on them.”
Jas: “haven’t you discriminated among yourselves
and become judges with evil motives?”
(verse 4)
Int: “James, you apparently don’t understand. That rich guy deserves preferential treatment. After all, he earned his money. He worked hard for it! And we here in this assembly can sure benefit
from a guy like that. We’re not the
wealthiest congregation you know. We
could use a little trickle down. And as for
that poor guy, for one thing he could clean up a little to come to church. Soap is cheap! And besides he probably doesn’t even have a
job. Lazy. Probably on drugs. Welfare.
Food stamps. He looks like
he could even be an illegal! If he doesn’t
like where we tell him to sit, he can just find another place to worship – with
his own kind.”
Jas: “Listen my beloved brothers, didn’t God
choose the poor of the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom that
He promised to those who love Him? But
you have dishonored the poor!” (verses
5, 6a)
Int: “I thought that that just meant the
spiritually poor. You know, those people
who know they need Jesus. I don’t think
that means worthless people like this guy.
We’d never dishonor someone who’s really spiritually poor.”
Jas: “Aren’t the rich the ones who oppress you and
personally haul you into court?” (verse
6b)
Int: “I wouldn’t call their actions oppression. And those of us who get hauled into court
probably deserve it!”
Jas: “Don’t they blaspheme the beautiful Name that
is called on you?” (verse 7)
Int: “Well, yes – but aren’t we supposed to love
them as ourselves like Jesus said? Aren’t
we fulfilling His Royal Law?”
Jas: “If you really fulfill the Royal Law
according to the Scripture, ‘You will love your neighbor as yourself, you’re
doing fine. But if you practice
favoritism, you’re committing sin and are convicted by the Law as transgressors”
(verses 8, 9).
Int: “I don’t understand. I did love the rich guy as
myself. Isn’t that enough? Do you
expect
me to treat that other worthless bum in the same way? Aren’t there limits to this love business?”
Jas: “For whoever keeps the whole Law, but stumbles
in one point has become guilty of the whole thing. (For He who said, ‘Don’t commit adultery’
also said, ‘Don’t commit murder!’ Now if
you don’t commit adultery, but do commit murder, you’ve become a transgressor
of the Law) (verses 10, 11).
Int: “Let me get this straight. You’re saying that the Law of Love is kind of
like the Law of Moses. If those under
that Law broke one rule they were guilty of breaking the whole
thing. Are you saying that if I don’t
love every person I meet in the same way that I showed love to that rich
guy, I’m guilty of breaking the Law of Love?
Wow! That’s bizarre!”
Jas: “So speak and behave as those who are going
to be judged according to the Law of Freedom! For
judgment is merciless to the one who didn’t show mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment” (verses 12,
13).
Along
with this discovery there was also a smaller fragment containing a few more
verses, with the same format.
Jas: “If a brother or sister is without clothes
and in need of daily food …” (verse 15).
Int: “I’d say to him, ‘Get a job! Then you can feed and clothe yourself! Why should you come to me?’ God helps those who help themselves.”
Jas: “and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace,
be warmed and fed and you don’t give them what they need for their body, what
good is that?” (verse 16).
Int: “Like I said … “
The
remainder of the fragment is missing.
However, now that this document is published, it should change our
thinking about how to deal with the “poor.”
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