Continued from Chapter I.

CHAPTER II.

Israel and Judah Re-united During the Captivity. No “Ten Lost Tribes.” No Basis Exists for Anglo-Israelism. The Trial of Faith. “The Jews’ Religion”

From what has been already set forth it will be seen to be strictly in keeping with James’ view of the gospel that, in addressing himself to the household of faith, he should use terms which show that he regarded them as the true “Israel of God.” In this light it is easy to see the significance of his address, “to the Twelve Tribes Scattered Abroad.” Two things appear therein; first, that James views the people of God as being now united into one Kingdom, in fulfilment, in a spiritual sense, of Ezekiel’s prophesy, that God would make Judah and Ephraim “one nation” (Ezek. 37:15-22) ; and second that the people of God, though constituting one “holy nation” (1 Pet. 2:9), are at present “scattered abroad.” This view, namely, that the division between Judah and Ephraim is now done away, and that God’s people are one in His contemplation, appears also in Paul’s words to Herod Agrippa, to whom he spoke of “our twelve tribes” (Acts 26:7).

It would seem that the fusion between the house of Israel and the house of Judah took place during the Babylonian captivity, and that, from thenceforth, the disruption is regarded as at an end. The later prophecies of Ezekiel are addressed to “the house of Israel” (Ch. 40:4; 43:10, &c.). Daniel, though he was of the captivity of Judah (Dan. 1:6), pleads for “all Israel” and tells of “confessing my sin, and the sin of my people Israel” (9:7, 11, 20), which implies that the long sundered people were now at length united, in their common captivity, into which Israel went first. The decree of Cyrus, under which the captivity was ended, refers to Jehovah as the God of Israel (Ezr. 1:3).

Ezra describes the returning captives as “the men of the people of Israel” (2:2); and he says that “the Nethinims dwelt in their cities and all Israel in their cities” (2:70). At the dedication of the rebuilt temple, there was a sin offering “for all Israel, according to the number of the tribes of Israel” (6:17). Further on we read of “The people of Israel and the priests” (9:1) ; of a great congregation “out of Israel” (10:1); of “the Levites and all Israel” (10:5).

Nehemiah likewise speaks of “the children of Israel” (8:17), “the residue of Israel” (11:20), and of all Israel in the days of Zerubbabel.” The later prophets also speak in similar terms (Zech. 12:1), recognizing no distinction between Judah and Ephraim; and the very last of the Old Testament prophecies is entitled, “The Burden of the Word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.”

These records serve, among other useful ends, to dispose of all speculations concerning the supposed “lost ten tribes.” For those speculations utterly disregard the fact that the decree of Cyrus ended the captivity, not of the two tribes only, but that of “all Israel.” They also serve to dispose of that strange modern delusion known as Anglo-Israelism, which has found many adherents, notwithstanding it is opposed by all the pertinent facts of Scripture, history, and philology.

The apostle Peter also who, like James, views Christianity as the continuation and consummation of true Judaism, rather than as a break with the false, addresses his first epistle to “the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia,” &c. (literally “to the sojourners of the dispersion” (1 Pet. 1:1).

These superscriptions remind us that the gospel was, by the Lord’s express command (Lu. 24:47; Acts 1:8; Rom. 1:16), preached first to those who were Jews according to the flesh, and drew its first converts from them. This in itself is proof that God was not severing His relations with His ancient people, and that there is no warrant whatever for such an expression as “the Gentile Church.” But it should not be necessary to say (nor would be, but for false teaching of recent origin which has found acceptance in certain quarters) that all the Epistles, regardless of the particular company to which they were severally addressed in the first instance, were dictated by the One Spirit, and are for the one Kingdom of God, wherein are no distinctions of nationality or the like (Gal. 3:28).

The Dispersion

The location of the particular churches addressed by James is not indicated, only that they were outside of Judea. The word diaspora or dispersion (1 Pet. 1:1) was in common use at that time (see John 7:35). It included all those numerous communities of Jews which existed in various countries, some to the East, called the “Eastern Dispersion,” but more to the West, along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Peter’s first Epistle was addressed to converts from among the Jews who lived in five of the provinces of what is now known as Turkey in Asia, or Asia Minor. Among these was Galatia, to whose churches Paul also wrote an epistle.

But the Epistle of James is more general than that of Peter, being not limited to any specified localities. From this it may be inferred that the conditions rebuked, and the errors corrected, by this Epistle, were prevalent, to some extent, in all those churches which were composed mainly of converts from among the Jews.

For, in reading the Epistles, we should remember that every man when saved brings into the company of saints to which he is added many of the traits and habits of thought and life which characterized him as a natural man. Therefore, the work of conforming him to God’s pattern requires patient dealing in detail with his old ways, habits, notions, prejudices, religious traditions, and the like. As to these matters there would be, of course, considerable differences between men who had been brought up as Jews, and men who had been brought up as Gentiles; though the corrupt nature and tendencies of the heart, from which spring all things that are contrary to God and His ways, are the same in all.

The first Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians reveals the nature of the evils which were mostly prevalent among those saints who had been Gentiles in the flesh; whereas, the Epistle of James reveals the evils that were more conspicuous among those who were by nature Israelites.

“The Jews’ Religion”

In Galatians 1:13, 14 Paul refers by name to “the Jews’ religion” (in the original it is the single word Judaism); and his writings abound in references to it and denunciations of it. Judaism had come to be, in course of time, a system of mere externals; that is to say, a system consisting wholly of rites and ceremonies, forms and observances, rituals, feast days, and various practices of human origin, for which strict rules had been laid down to govern even the pettiest details. Regulations were prescribed as to the precise width of the border of a garment, as to the exact number of times the hands should be washed during the observance of the Passover supper, etc. Heated disputes—involving long and subtle argumentations—were carried on between opposing schools over such trivial matters as whether, in the course of a certain ceremony, the hands should be washed only to the wrist, or the forearm also to the elbow. To such “foolish and unlearned” disputations which “gender strifes,” Paul makes occasional reference, as in 2 Timothy 2:23.

The groundwork of Jewish ritual—the sacrifices, priestly ordinances, feast days, etc., had been appointed by God Himself. But they were only “the shadows of good things to come,” being but symbols of those great spiritual realities which were to be fulfilled in Christ. To these, however, the Rabbis had added an immense mass of traditional observances; and furthermore, the spiritual content of Judaism, as it existed of old, had entirely disappeared. Therefore, in Christ’s day, the “Jews’ religion” was merely an elaborate system of external forms, comprising an enormous mass of wearisome details, and demanding no change whatever in the hearts of its adherents.

For the purpose of an intelligent reading of James it is needful to know, in a general way at least, what that system was out of which saved Jews were called by the Gospel. When we have this information we can readily understand in its light why James, throughout his Epistle, insists so strongly upon that which is inward and real. Those who, all their lives, had been taught to practice, and to rely upon, a religion consisting solely of outward acts, which an unrenewed man could perform with even mechanical precision, needed to be strongly impressed as to the utter worthlessness of all such religious doings. They needed to be continually reminded of the long-forgotten fact that God looks upon the heart, and that only what is inward and real, in the matter of worship, is accepted by Him. We will have frequent occasion to notice, in the course of our present study, how often and how forcibly James calls upon his readers to abandon externalities, and to apply themselves to that which is of the inner man.

In this connection we would call to mind that Peter also enforces the same great lesson when he reminds “the sojourners of the dispersion” that they had been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ from their vain manner of life received by tradition from their fathers (1 Pet. 1:18). That “vain” or empty manner of life received from their fathers was Rabbinism, or the traditional Judaism of Christ’s day, in all its barrenness, and in all its corruption of the truth of God. It was that which Christ so sternly denounced as a system which made the word of God of none effect.

But we are not to suppose, because first-century Judaism no longer exists in a practical sense, that therefore the lessons of James are now out of date. Such is far from being the case; for the very same traits of human nature have produced, even out of the doctrine of Christ, a system or systems of religion which are, in all essential characteristics, the same as that which, in the past era, was produced out of the law and the prophets. Hence the lessons of James areas much needed today as in apostolic times; and indeed as much more as the corrupted “Christian religion” of our day exceeds in magnitude the corrupted “Jews’ religion” of theirs. In both cases the thing to be dealt with is a religious system of mere external acts, wherein the unrenewed man may be quite proficient, and in which he can take part as well as—indeed far better than—the man who is of the faith of Christ.

Nor are we to suppose that the need of these practical lessons is confined to those who are connected with some one or other of the great religious systems of Christendom. For a man may be completely separated from all the sects and systems of our times, and may acknowledge fellowship only with such as abhor every sort of religious formality and ceremonial, and yet be himself a mere externalist, resting content with the correctness of his position, and with his supposedly strict conformity to the apostolic patterns of church order and practice. In fact it is precisely where the outward observances are of the simplest character that the lack of reality is most to be feared, because least suspected.

Therefore we would earnestly commend the lessons of James to all who wish not to be resting upon a mere shell of religion, whether highly ornate or severely plain. For there is the gravest danger at this present time that many, who think they are completely separated from all religious formalism, and who pride themselves that they listen only to the true Gospel and to the soundest of sound doctrine, are in reality deceiving their own selves, and are actually in the same class with those who seek only to make clean the outside of the cup and platter.

Continued in Chapter III. Faith and Patience. True Wisdom. Christian Equality