Bibliography of James and James 5:13–18

Listed below are some important sources relating to the epistle of James, most of which I have found very helpful for my thesis. I have included monographs, commentaries (both English and foreign), and journal articles. I have also included several early church Fathers who made important comments on certain passages of James. I hope you find this helpful.

Adamson, James B. James: The Man and His Message. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989.

 ———. The Epistle of James. New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976.

Albl, Martin C. “‘Are Any Among You Sick?’ The Health Care System in the Letter of James.” Journal of Biblical Literature 12 (2002): 123–43.

Althaus, Paul. “Bekenne einer dem anderen seine Sünden: Zur Geschichte von Jak 5, 16 seit Augustinus.” Pages 165–94 in Festgabe für Theodor Zahn. Leipzig : A Deichertsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1928.

Amphoux, C. B. “L’Emploi du Coordonnant dans l’Épître de Jacques.” Biblica 63 (1982): 90–101.

Armerding, C. “‘Is any among You Afflicted’: A Study of James 5:13–20.” Bibliotheca Sacra 95 (1938): 195–201.

Aquinas, Thomas. The Summa Theologica. Third Part (18). 2d ed. Translated by the English Domincan Province. London: Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1928.

Baker, William R. Personal Speech-Ethics in the Epistle of James. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament. Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1995.

Bauckham, Rickard. James: Wisdom of James, Disciple of Jesus the Sage. New Testament Readings. New York/London: Routledge, 1999.

Bede the Venerable. Commentary on the Seven Catholic Epistles. Translated by David Hurst. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian, 1985.

Blue, J. Ronald. “James.” Pages 815–36 in The Bible Knowledge Commentary. Edited by John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck. Wheaton: Victor Books, 1983.

Burchard, Christoph. Der Jakobusbrief. Handbuch zum Neuen Testament 15/1. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000.

Calvin, Jean. A Harmony of the Gospels Matthew, Mark and Luke Volume III and The Epistles of James and Jude. Calvin’s Commentaries. Translated by A. W. Morrison. Edited by David W. Torrance and Thomas F. Torrance. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972.

Cantinat, Jean. Les Èpitres de Saint Jacques et de Saint Jude. Sources Bibliques. Paris: Gablda, 1973.

Cargal, Timothy B. Restoring the Diaspora: Discursive Structure and Purpose in the Epistle of James. SBL Dissertation Series 144. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993.

Carson, D. A. “James.” Pages 997–1013 in Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Edited by G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007.

Chaine, J. L’Épître de Saint Jacques. Études bibliques. Paris: Gabalda, 1927.

Chrysostom. ΠΕΡΙ ΙΕΡΩΣΥΝΗΣ (De Sacerdotio) of St John Chrysostom. Edited by J. Arbuthnot Nairn. Cambridge: University Press, 1906.

Collins, C. John. “James 5:14–16a: What is the Anointing for?” Presbyterion 23 (1997): 79–91.

Condon, Kevin. “The Sacrament of Healing (Jas 5:14–15).” Scripture 11 (1959): 33–42.

Davids, Peter H. The Epistle of James: A Commentary on the Greek Text. New International Greek Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982.

Dibelius, Martin. Der Brief des Jakobus. Edited by Heinrich Greeven. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1964.

———. Commentary on the Epistle of James. Edited by Heinrich Greeven. Translated by Michael A. Williams. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1976.

Dudley, Martin, and Geoffrey Rowell, eds. The Oil of Gladness: Anointing in the Christian Tradition. London/ Collegeville: SPCK/Liturgical Press, 1993.

Eisenman, Robert. “Eschatological ‘Rain’ Imagery in the War Scroll from Qumran and in the Letter of James.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 49 (1990): 173–84.

Elliott, J. H. “The Epistle of James in Rhetorical and Social Scientific Perspective: Holiness-Wholeness and Patterns of Replication.” Biblical Theology Bulletin 23 (1993): 71–81.

Francis, Fred O. “The Form and Function of the Opening and Closing Paragraphs of James and I John.” Zeitschrift für die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der älteren Kirche
61 (1970): 110–26.

Frankemölle, Hubert. “Das Semantische Netz des Jakobusbriefes: Zur Einheit eines umstritenen Briefes.” Biblische Zeitschrift 34 (1990): 161–97.

———. Der Brief des Jakobus. Vols. 1 and 2. Ökumenischer Taschenbuchkommentar zum Neuen Testament 17. Edited by Erich Gräßser and Karl Kertelge. Würzburg: Gütersloh, 1994.

Friesenhahn, Hans. “Zur Geschichte der Überlieferung und Exegese des Textes bei Jak V,14f.” Biblische Zeitschrift 24 (1938/39): 185–90.

Greenlee, J. Harold. An Exegetical Summary of James. Dallas, TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1993.

Halliburton, John. “Anointing in the Early Church.” Pages 77–91 in The Oil of Gladness: Anointing in the Christian Tradition. Collegeville/London: Liturgical Press/SPCK, 1993.

Hart, George and Helen. A Semantic and Structural Analysis of James. Edited by John Banker. Dallas: SIL International, 2001.

Hauck, Frederick. Die Briefe des Jakobus, Petrus, Judas und Johannes (Kirchenbriefe). Das neue Testament Deutsch 10. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1954.

Hayden, Daniel. “Calling the Elders to Pray.” Bibliotheca Sacra 138 (1981): 258–65.

Howard, J. Keir. Disease and Healing in the New Testament: An Analysis and Interpretation. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2001.

Jeffrey, John. “Anointing in the New Testament.” Pages 46–76 in The Oil of Gladness: Anointing in the Christian Tradition. Collegeville/London: Liturgical Press/SPCK, 1993.

Johnson, Luke T. The Letter of James: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Anchor Bible 37. New York: Doubleday, 1995.

———. Brother of Jesus, Friend of God: Studies in the Letter of James. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004.

Johnston, Wendell G. “Does James Give Believers a Pattern for Dealing with Sickness and Healing?” Pages 168–74 in Integrity of Heart, Skillfulness of Hands. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1994.

Kaiser, Sigurd. Krankenheilung: Untersuchungen zu Form, Sprache, traditionsgeschichtlichem Hintergrund und Aussage von Jak 5, 13–18. Wissenschafliche Monographien zum Alten und Neuen Testament 112. Neukirchener Verlag: Neukirchen-Vluyn, 2006.

Karris, Robert J. “Some New Angles on James 5:13–20.” Review & Expositor 97 (2000): 207–19.

Kennedy, G. A. The Art of Persuasion in Greece. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963.

Kilmartin, E. J. “The Interpretation of James 5:14–15 in the Armenian Catena on the Catholic Epistles: Scholium 82.” Orientalia Christiana Periodica 53 (1987): 335–64.

Konradt, Matthias. Christliche Existenz nach dem Jakobusbrief: Eine Studie zu seiner soteriologischen und ethischen Konzeption. Studien zur Umwelt des Neuen Testaments 22. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998.

Kuske, David P. “Exegetical Brief: James 5:14—’Anoint Him with Oil.’” Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly 102 (2005): 125–27.

Lange, J. P. The Epistle General of James. Translated by J. Mombert. New York: Charles Scribner, 1867.

Laws, Sophie. The Epistle of James. Black’s New Testament Commentaries. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1980.

Manns, Frédéric. “Confessez vos péchés les uns aus autres.” Revue des sciences religieuses 58 (1984): 233–41.

Martin, Ralph P. James. Word Biblical Commentary 48. Waco: Word, 1988.

Mayor, Joseph B. The Epistle of James. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1990.

McCartney, Dan G. James. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Edited by Robert W. Yarbrough and Robert H. Stein. Grand Rapid: Baker, 2009.

Meinertz, Max. “Die Krankensalbung Jak 5.14f.” Biblische Zeitschrift 20 (1932): 23–36.

Meyer, Arnold. Das Rätsel des Jakobusbriefes. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und di Kunde der älteren Kirche 10. Gießen: Alfred Töpelmann, 1930.

Miller, David W. “The Uniqueness of New Testament Church Eldership.” Grace Theological Journal 6 (1985): 315–27.

Mitton, C. L. The Epistle of James. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1966.

Moo, Douglas J. The Letter of James. The Pillar New Testament Commentary. Edited by D. A. Carson. Grand Rapids/Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2000.

Mussner, Franz. Der Jakobusbrief. 4thed. Freiberg: Herder, 1981.

Origen. “Homily 2 on Leviticus.” Pages 39–51 in Homilies on Leviticus: 1-16. Translated by G. W. Barkley. Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1990.

Penner, Todd C. The Epistle of James and Eschatology: Re-reading an Ancient Christian Letter. Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series 121. Sheffield: Academic Press, 1996.

Pickar, Charles H. “Is anyone Sick among You?” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 7 (1945): 165–74.

Plummer, Alfred. The General Epistles of St. James and St. Jude. New York: Hodder & Stoughton, 1899.

Popkes, Wiard. Adressaten, Situation, und Form des Jakobusbriefes. Stuttgart: Verlag Katholisches Werk, 1986.

———. Der Brief des Jakobus. Theologischer Handkommentar zum Neuen Testament. Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2001.

Porter, J. Roy. “Oil in the Old Testament.” Pages 35–45 in The Oil of Gladness: Anointing in the Christian Tradition. Collegeville/London: Liturgical Press/SPCK, 1993.

Reicke, Bo. The Epistles of James, Peter, and Jude. Anchor Bible 37. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1964.

Richardson, Kurt A. James. The New American Commentary. Vol. 36. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1997.

Robertson, A. T. A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in Light of Historical Research. Nashville: Broadman, 1934.

———. Studies in the Epistle of James. New York: George H. Doran, 1915.

Ropes, James Hardy. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle of St. James. The International Critical Commentary. New York: Scribner’s Sons, 1916.

Sailer, J. “Jak 5, 14 und die Krankensalbung.” Theologisch-praktische Quartalschrift 113 (1965): 347–53.

Schneider, Johannes. Die Briefe des Jakobus, Petrus, Judas and Johannes. Die katholischen Briefe. NTD 10. Göttingen, 1967.

Shogren, G. “Will God Heal Us? A Re-examination of James 5:14–16a.” Evangelical Quarterly 61 (1989): 99–108.

Seifrid, Mark A. “The Waiting Church and its Duty: James 5:13–18.” Southern Baptist Journal of Theology (2000): 32–39.

Taylor, Mark Edward. A Text-Linguistic Investigation into the Discourse Structure of James. Edited by Mark Goodacre. Library of New Testament Studies 311. London/New York: T & T Clark International, 2006.

Thayer, Joseph H. Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Coded with Strong’s Concordance. Peabody: Hendrickson, 2005.

Thomas, J. Christopher. “The Devil, Disease and Deliverance: James 5:14–16. Journal of Pentecostal Theology 2 (1993): 25–50.

Varner, William. The Book of James: A New Perspective, A Linguistic Commentary Applying Discourse Analysis. The Woodlands, TX: Kress Biblical Resources, 2010.

Soden, Hermann von. Die Briefe an die Kolosser, Epheser, Philemon, die Pastoral Briefe, der Hebräerbrief, die Briefe des Petrus, Jakobus, Judas. Hand-Commentar zum neuen Testament. Vol. 3. Freiburg/Leipzig: Mohr Siebeck, 1893.

Vouga, François. L’Epître de Saint Jacques. Commentaire du Nouveau Testament. Genève: Labor et Fides, 1984.

Wall, Robert W. Community of the Wise: The Letter of James. The New Testament in Context. Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 1997.

Wallace, Daniel B. Greek Grammar beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996.

Ward, R. B. “Partiality in the Assembly: James 2:2–4.” Harvard Theological Review 62 (1969): 87–97.

Warrington, Keith. “The Significance of Elijah in James 5:13–18.” Evangelical Quarterly 66 (1994): 217–27.

———. “Some Observations on James 5:13–18.” EPTA Bulletin 8 (1989): 160–177.

———. “Anointing with Oil and Healing.” EPTA Bulletin 12 (1993): 5–22.

Wilkinson, John. “Healing in the Epistle of James.” Scottish Journal of Theology 24 (1971): 326–45.

Windisch, Hans. Die katholischen Briefe. Handbuch zum Neuen Testament 15. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1951.

Wuellner, Wilhelm H. “Der Jakobusbrief im Licht der Rhetorik und Textpragmatik.” Linguistica Biblica 43 (1978): 5–66.

Melody is almost crawling

Be sure to check out my wife’s blog (click HERE). She has posted a video showing how close our 6 month old daughter is to crawling. Any predictions on what day she will first crawl?

Gospel Shaped Eyes

Another thought from Gombis’s The Drama of Ephesians:

Because of God’s upside-down logic, performances of God’s triumph will inevitably involve displays of God’s power through human weakness, loss, shame and humiliation. . . . Paul does not merely acknowledge his shameful condition in prison and then move on, hoping not to dwell too long on it. He does not downplay it but exults in his weakness and humiliation. He adopts the title ‘Paul the prisoner’ and uses it throughout his letter. . . . God’s resurrection power is operative in a situation that looks initially like God’s power is absent. But it takes ‘gospel eyes’ to see it. That is why I have talked so much about discernment. If we are not looking at life, at people, with gospel-shaped eyes, we will miss what the gospel wants us to see (Gombis, 112-14).

“Gospel-shaped Eyes,” now that is a thought! God’s way of viewing things looks so different than the world’s. Gospel-glasses delight in weakness, in humility, in impossibilities. People whom the world shakes its head at and discounts as worthless, God looks sees as prime candidates, ripe with weakness, and therefore brimming with the potential of pointing people to Him. I like the way Gombis puts it:

Imagine that your pastor is on sabbatical and a church leader stands up on Sunday morning and announces a guest speaker. She begins rehearsing for the congregation the credentials of the special guest. ‘Mr. Smith ministered for twenty years in a church in the Midwest after earning a seminary degree. Following a three-year stint in a maximum-security prison, he began itinerant ministry, and we are delighted to have him here this morning.’ . . . How can it be that Jesus Christ is victorious Lord, having defeated the powers and authorities, and Paul, the emissary of Jesus, is . . . in prison? (Gombis, 109).

The church and the nation

I’m reading a VERY thought-provoking book right now entitled The Drama of Ephesians: Participating in the Triumph of God, by Timothy Gombis. I hope shortly to post a review/synopsis of the book, but for now I thought I’d offer a challenging quote, one to consider especially with July 4th right around the corner:

The church is always being tempted to blend and confuse its identity with that of a specific nation. This has happened predominantly in the Christian West, where European nations envisioned themselves as Christian nations, furthering the kingdom of God on earth as an inevitable part of their national agendas. Many Christians in the United States today make a similar mistake, envisioning an originally Christian nation that has been hijacked by secularists and liberals. The agenda of the church, then, must orient itself toward “taking America back” and getting it “back on track.” Paul, however, does not tie the history of God’s people to any national identity; our history goes back to eternity past, where God set of on a mission to rescue God’s people and make them a source of life for the world. . . . We do not rightly understand ourselves if we go back to a day when our ancestors came to America.

Another German Resource

If anyone is interested in learning German, I’ve found another useful resource. It’s called deutsch-perfekt.com/ and offers a host of tools for those learning German. For instance, it offers a word-of-the-day, a section where you can listen to news articles, a section with practice games, and even a short test to evaluate your German proficiency. I think you’ll find this a useful resource.

A true team

The Dallas Mavericks won the NBA championship last Sunday. They weren’t supposed to win — they were less talented, less athletic, and quitesimply the underdogs, especially when compared to the Miami Heat’s star-studded line up. Nevertheless, the Mavs won. Their coach commented on the thrill of victory:

This is a true team. This is an old bunch. We don’t run fast or jump high. These guys had each other’s backs. We played the right way. We trusted the pass. This is a phenomenal thing.

Don’t you love that quote! I think the quote can be applied to the church: We are playing well when we play like a true team. We are not a star-studded bunch, just simple folks who love Jesus. We don’t do any fancy tricks, we simply walk in obedience to his word. We’ve got each other’s backs. And most of all, we trust the pass — we are eager to see another get the recognition and trust the Spirit to use our brothers and sisters.

Melody turns 6 months old

Melody turns 6 months old today. My how time flies. Want to see how much she has grown?

In the past 6 months, Melody has learned to roll over, sit up, eat big kid food, and to splash in the pool. I wonder what fun things she’ll learn in the next 6 months.

Listen to german

I’m posting this video because it provides some great practice for listening to German. How is your “race track” vocabulary?

Some thoughts about language-learning

Bear with me as I reflect on language-learning:

1. Language is about the ear, not the eye

I recently heard a story about a prisoner. During his 20 year jail-sentence, he devoted himself to mastering the French language. And he did splendidly. He mastered an incredibly large number of French words, somewhere between 25,000 to 35,000. This is a lot, they say Shakespeare had about this number of words in his vocabulary; the average language speaker only uses between 3,000-5,000 words. So, this prisoner developed a large vocabulary. He was able to read all sorts of books in the French language. At the end of his 20 years, he was released and flew immediately to France. He was devastated when as soon as he got to France, however, because he could not understand a single word that he heard. All of his book learning did not transfer into street-usage. Just because your eye knows a language does not mean your ear and tongue know it as well

2. Langauge is a lifelong commitment

Many students learn languages simply to pass a class. Language is something to be learned in order to pass tests. Once the language course is finally finished, students breath a huge sigh of relief, feeling that their most difficult work is finished. The truth, however, is that the work has only begun because unless the student regularly uses the language, it will quickly be forgotten. The language must be used regularly for the rest of one’s life if it is to be remembered. Therefore, the most lengthy part of any language is not the first few years of study and memorization and repetition, but the many years of steady, determined review and practice. This should cause every student who is about to begin learning a new language to think long and hard, for he is about to do something that, in order to do well, he must do for the rest of his life. Learning this new language will be a labor that lasts the rest of his life. Unless he plans on devoting himself to it, he may as well not even begin the course, because all that time spent on memorizing vocab and learning grammar will be forgotten in a few months; it will be wasted, like an orange left in some dark closet that quickly grows fuzzy green mold. Just as quick as that, the student will not even remember how to pronounce the language. In short, one could compare language learning to a marriage: the real effort is not in the man’s wooing of the woman before marriage, but in his lifelong pursuit of that woman after marriage. Any man can get married, few can stay married. The same is true for language.

3. Language is a wild ride

Language learning is a wild stallion. It will rear up and dare you to come closer, it will intimidate you with its beastly exceptions, it will embarrass you as it throws you out of the saddle, it will gladly leave you in the mud along with the many others who refused to get back on and ride. Know, however, that language-learning is a wild but tameable stallion.

4. The secret to language learning

Many think there is a gift for learning languages. If there is such a thing as a “gift for learning languages,” it comes wrapped in motivation and tied with the bow of will-power. I think this expression applies to language-learning: “One who wants to do something is able to do more than ten who must.”

Pigs all

There are two common views regarding human nature: one side thinks that people are basically good, the other that people are basically bad. I’m often surprised at how many people seem to  hold to  the “basically good” position. This issue has been on my mind a lot lately, for some reason.

I read a biography this week about a teenage girl who lived in Germany during the time of Hitler. She writes,

When I was a girl of about 10 years old, we had neighbors who were very decent people. The Nazis came to power and started spying on everyone. Suddenly our neighbors became changed people in a matter of a few weeks. They began to denounce their neighbors in the village and brought a number of them into serious difficulties, all simply in the intent of their own promotion in the ranks of Nazis (Wilder-Smith, 132).

Then, a newspaper article entitled Wealthy, Poor, Pigs All this week discussed a similar theme. The writer reflected on some recent high-profile affairs (Edwards, Schwarzenegger):

No socioeconomic group has a monopoly on piggish behavior. . . . Edwards was indicted Friday on federal charges of using campaign contributions  to conceal his concubine – Rielle Hunter, a woman he met in a New York hotel bar  and with whom he proceeded to make a baby right in the middle of running for  president. . . . The truth is, men of any socioeconomic or political stripe have the pig gene in  them. Whether it predominates is another matter, but it’s there. The difference  is that the news media are not interested in documenting the extra-route  romances of, say, Otto the garbage man. Wasn’t it ironic, and a tad bit reassuring, that Arnold had to confess to doing  the same thing inside his $23.5 million mansion? The American public,  we know, tends to forgive politicians anything – except hypocrisy. Oh, and  cheating on your wife as she lies dying of cancer.

I’m fascinated that a newspaper reporter admits that, rich or poor, people of all levels of society have a “pig” gene; reminds me of a verse: “Lowborn men are but a breath, the highborn are but a lie; if weighed on a balance, they are nothing; together they are only a breath” (Ps 62:9).