Recent Scholarship on the Structure of James

Abstract

The letter of James, although often neglected in the history of New Testament scholarship, has received renewed interest in the last three decades. Much of the discussion has focused on the letter’s structure, and the result has been a significant departure from the old paraenetic, ‘unstructured’ view of James set forth by Martin Dibelius in favor of a view that sees much more unity and ordering within the composition. Since an assessment of structure virtually determines interpretation, one is not surprised to discover within recent scholarship a thorough re-evaluation of the letter. This shift in perspective raises important questions. Why has scholarship generally set aside Dibelius’s long-standing approach? What new structures have been offered? How crucial is a definitive ‘structure’ to our understanding of the content of the letter? While the overall question of the structure of James is far from settled, some areas of consensus have emerged, and the stage is set for further dialogue.