Introduction

This chapter comprises an exegetical and rhetorical analysis of James 2.1–13. Our primary concern is the “inner texture” of this unit: its form, structure, and argumentative pattern. Utilizing basic strategies of rhetorical criticism, we shall approach the unit from the perspectives of invention, arrangement, and style. In the course of analyzing the unfolding argumentation in this unit we shall show that James 2.1–13 contains a form of the elaboration of a theme or proposition that approximates a complete argument as it is found and displayed in the progymnasmata and rhetorical handbooks.

James 2.1–13 is recognized by practically all commentators as a clearly defined rhetorical unit. It has a definite beginning, an admonition that states the theme of the unit (2.1); a middle, in which the theme is elaborated (2.2–11); and a conclusion, or summarizing exhortation (2.12–13). Most commentators have also accepted Dibelius' view that the unit exhibits the characteristics of a “treatise” (Abhandlung), a unit in which “the ideas are grouped together,” “closely connected,” and “centered around one theme” (Dibelius, 1975, pp. 124–25; cf. pp. 34–38).

The style of the unit reflects certain features that are common to the diatribe and the sermon (Dibelius, 1975, pp. 38, 125–30). Typical of diatribal style are apostrophe (2.1, 5), vivid and graphic examples (2.2–4), and rhetorical questions (2.7–8).