First let's get something clear about erroneous notions of Paul and his founding a new religion, which he didn't. True, the halakhah of his Judaism switched from the Pharisaic oral law to the Ruach Hakodesh, but his religion was still one of the Judaisms of the time, not a new non-Judaism Gentile religion.

MOSHIACH'S LETTER THROUGH THE SHLIACH YA'AKOV TO THE BRIT CHADASHA KEHILLAH

Like Shliach Sha'ul, Ya'akov did not believe that Yehoshua was

the Moshiach until Yehoshua rose from the dead and appeared to

him personally, calling him to be a Shliach (I Cor. 15:7; Mark

6:3; Yochanan 7:5). Ya'akov "the Just," as he was called, was one

of the childen born naturally to Miryam through Yosef after the

virgin gave birth to Moshiach Yehoshua. Reliable tradition says

that Ya'akov was stoned to death in Jerusalem when Ananias, the

newly appointed Jewish Kohen Gadol, apparently was so envious and

felt so threatened by the vast authority of Ya'akov (whose high

position as a leader of the Israel of G-d rivalled that of

Ananias in the eyes of those Jewish people coming to faith in the

Moshiach) that the Kohen Gadol convened the Sanhedrin or Jewish

Supreme Court and brought Ya'akov before it on charges that led

to his death in C.E. 62 (near the time Shliach Sha'ul was writing

his prison epistles). This means that by the time Acts is

written, Ya'akov is already a martyr.

It is possible that Ya'akov is the first Brit Chadasha book

published. C.E. 45 is a possible date for the writing of Ya'akov

(the letter doesn't seem aware of the reception of the Gentiles

by act of the Jerusalem Council, a burning issue after C.E. 50).

Two prominent leaders have already been martyred, Stephen and the

brother of Yochanan the Shliach, whose name was also Ya'akov (see

Acts 7:59-60 and 12:1-2). The Jewish believers in Jerusalem are

greatly impoverished by persecution and tribulation caused by

ostracism from employment and harassment by the wealthy Jewish

religious establishment, who had apparently tried to make it

impossible for them to live in Jerusalem. In the early days of

this Messianic Jewish community, many of the believers had given

away everything they owned for the cause of the L-rd's work (Acts

4:32-37). However, a famine had recently struck them (see Acts

11:27-29) and added greatly to their suffering for the sake of

the Besuras Hageulah. These early believers, then, were the

"tribulation poor;" that is, those made poor by economic

sanctions under an Anti-Moshiach type of government as opposed to

the "slipshod poor" Shliach Sha'ul chastises in his epistles to

the Brit Chadasha kehillah at Thessalonica.

A law-abiding loyal Jew of the synagogue, whose teaching is

grounded in the authority of his L-rd and Moshiach Yehoshu,

Ya'akov saw that the self-imposed poverty of the Moshiach had

made all the more pernicious the exclusivistic snobbery of the

rich (Ya'akov 2:1-9)

The new communities of believers springing up in Syrian Antioch

and elsewhere would give Ya'akov a reason to send his sermon on

to them in written form.

One of the items that affects the dating of Ya'akov is the

interpretation of Ya'akov 2:14-26. Is Ya'akov polemicizing

against a garbled and misunderstood Rav Sha'ulinism (some such

garbled Rav Sha'ulinism as is in Romans 3:8)? That is, is he not

attacking Rav Sha'ul but a false teaching preached by others who

slanderously attribute their doctrine to Shliach Sha'ul? Or is

there a real doctrinal disagreement between Shliach Sha'ul and

Ya'akov, with Galatians something of a reaction to the epistle of

Ya'akov, both letters being published before the Jerusalem

Council of C.E. 49/50? The former rather than the latter option

seems to be true, as will become clear.

There are at least two crucial passages to interpret in the book

of Ya'akov. What does Ya'akov mean by "the perfect law of

freedom" (1:25; 2:13)? The other crux interpretum (difficult

passage in a text) is Ya'akov 2:24 and whether this is a

contradiction of Rom. 3:28-29; Gal. 2:16; Titus 3:5.

To answer the first question, we must ask whether Ya'akov means

by "the perfect law of freedom" what Shliach Sha'ul means by "the

torah of Moshiach" in Gal. 6:2 and I Cor. 9:21. In the royal

(Messianic) law of love (Ya'akov 2:8; Mark 12:29-31; Deut. 6:4-5;

Lev. 19:18), the "old commandment" of the Law of Moses, esp. the

Ten Commandments, is divinely confirmed by Moshiach Yehoshua

(Mark 10:17-22). It becomes a "new commandment" which, Yochanan

says (I Yochanan 5:7-8), "is true in Him and in you. "With the

life and teaching of the Moshiach as not only the Torah's

fulfillment but also as its interpretative key, the Law of Moses

becomes in Moshiach Yehoshua "the perfect, complete, fully

developed (teleios) law of freedom," the Law of Moshiach (1:25).

The Messianic Jews preached to by Ya'akov have more than the Ten

Commandments; they have the Sermon on the Mount interpretation of

these commandments, making the Torah the law of freedom (see

Matt. 5:21-22, 27 etc). That is, these laws are taught in light

of the Moshiach's new humanity and the Father's true intention

toward humanity from the beginning, revealed in the Brit Chadasha

by the Ruach Hakodesh.

Now to return to the question of a contradiction between Ya'akov

and Shliach Sha'ul. First of all, Ya'akov wrote his letter before

Rav Sha'ul's letters, in fact before C.E. 49. Secondly, Ya'akov

is not dealing with the issue of Gentiles entering the Messianic

Jewish community; neither is Ya'akov dealing with the issue of

Gentiles keeping works of the law in order to enter the Messianic

Jewish faith. Rather, Ya'akov is talking about works of faith

(see Ya'akov 2:21-26; I Thes. 1:3). Furthermore, Ya'akov is

dealing with Jews (1:1; 2:2,19) who claim to follow the Moshiach

but think they can do so by mere verbal, intellectual assent.

These Jewish people want to define the Messianic faith in such a

way that they need not feed the hungry or visit the oppressed or

actualize their faith by any good deeds whatsoever. They believe

in passive quietism and dead orthodoxy and empty confessionism.

Ya'akov says this is no more true saving faith than that which is

possessed by demons (2:19). Just as there is a demonic wisdom

(3:15), so there is a demonic faith, mere quietistic

head-nodding, a loveless parody of true faith, an impotent

pseudo-trust that refuses to come truly alive and get active and

go to work (2:20). This is not an outstanding problem that

Shliach Sha'ul focuses on in his letters and therefore there is

no disagreement in the writings of Shliach Sha'ul and Ya'akov.

Ya'akov does not advocate salvation by works of the law. On the

contrary, he says that the law exposes men as transgressors.

There is agreement between Gal. 5:3 and Ya'akov 2:10 in the

"all-or-nothing" demand of the law as the law acts as G-d's

prosecutor of mankind, indicting Man as a transgressor. Only in

Moshiach Yehoshua can it be said of the Law that mercy triumphs

over judgment (2:12-13).

There can be no doubt that Ya'akov preaches the same Besuras

Hageulah as Shliach Sha'ul, for in Ya'akov 1:21, Ya'akov speaks

of the implanted word that is able to save your soul, a reference

to the Brit Chadasha Torah implant of Jeremiah 31:33. Ya'akov's

allusion to the law of Lev. 19:18 as the "kingly law" must

include a reference to the King Moshiach, which for Ya'akov is

Yehoshua (Jas. 1:1).

Like Shliach Sha'ul, Ya'akov knows that saving faith is not empty

lip service or dead orthodoxy or confessionalism or quietism

devoid of concrete acts of obedience but is active in love (see

Ya'akov 2:14 and Gal. 5:6). Both Ya'akov and Shliach Sha'ul gain

a hearing from unbelievers by displaying the fruit of the Spirit

(see Ya'akov 3:l7-18 and Gal. 5:22-25), though Ya'akov and

Shliach Sha'ul used different cultural strategies, Shliach Sha'ul

putting himself outside the law though not outside the law of the

Moshiach to win Gentiles, Ya'akov putting himself as if he were

under the law to win law-observant Jews (I Cor. 9:19-23; Acts

21:20)!, though in fact he is under the kingly law of love

(Ya'akov 2:8). Shliach Sha'ul would not dispute Ya'akov that we

are set right with G-d and forgiven and considered just and

righteous by works and not by faith alone (see Rom. 2:13 and

Ya'akov 2:21) unless it can be shown that Ya'akov means by

"works" not "faith active in love" (Gal 5:6) but meritorious

works of the law--that is, works meritorious and salvific in

themselves, apart from the death of Moshiach. For the latter to

be true, Acts 15:19 would have to be judged a Lucan fiction since

here Ya'akov is represented as acceding to Gentile liberation

from the full yoke of the Torah, which obviously then is not

necessary for salvation. Both Shliach Sha'ul and Ya'akov refer

to the "work of faith," however. Compare (I Thes. 1:3) and

(Ya'akov 2:18).

Neither Shliach Sha'ul nor Ya'akov minimize the saving death of

Moshiach by offering the law in itself as a means to salvation

(Ya'akov 2:10; Gal. 3:10). Both men speak of the "torah of

freedom" (Ya'akov 1:25; 2:12; I Cor. 9:21) in a way that implies

the Moshiach (Ya'akov 2:1; Rom. 8:2), and Ya'akov, no less than

Rav Sha'ul, emphasizes the need for faith (Ya'akov 1:3.6; 5:15),

for love toward G-d (Ya'akov 1:12),and being born again (Ya'akov

1:21).

Ya'akov begins his letter by exhorting the messianic Jewish

brethren in the various "synagogues" (Ya'akov2:2) scattered

abroad to remain joyful in their sufferings. Why? Because a mere

intellectual faith (one that is not active in works of love) will

not save them, nor will it endure (Ya'akov 2:14-26; 5:7-11). It

is untested and based on an evil-minded self-confidence such as

that shared by the rich (4:13-17), whose worldly, double-minded

greed is dragging them down to hell (5:1-6). Mere intellectual

faith is nothing more than evil-tongued lip service (2:26;

3:1-12) based on mere worldly wisdom (3:13-18) and indicates

worldly class values imported into the Messianic community

(2:1-13) which violate the commands of the Torah (and therefore

the whole Torah --2:10-13). For the commands of the Torah favor

the widow, the orphan, the foreigner, the Levite, and the

righteous-but-oppressed (by the rich) poor. Will this kind of

faith save you? No!

True emunah (faith) must be tested by the fruit of its loving

works and by endurance in the midst of sufferingas it is

nourished through prayer by divine wisdom and through submission

to G-d and His Word, and through the strengthening and healing of

fellowship accountable to the body and its elders (see 1:5-8;

3:13-18; 5:13-20). This means resisting the Devil (4:7) and the

evil impulse (1:14) yetzer ha-rah, that worldly desire within us

which, if not put to death, can lead to bitterness toward G-d

(1:13) and death (1:15).

There is no wavering in G-d! The wavering is in us, in our

succumbing to wrong desires, and in our tendency in religion

toward empty confessionalism and prideful class discrimination.

True faith serves the needy (1:27) instead of one's own greed for

a better life (soon gone, anyway, like a mist), since the Lord's

coming (as Judge!) is so close, he is at the very door.

Biblical criticism (although textual criticism is indispensable)

is largely condemned by Ya'akov 4:11, since in Biblical criticism

scholars make it their business to judge the Word rather than be

judged by it. In these introductory notes, we will not be

stressing novel theories of authorship, editorial hands,

proported errors, etc. The Word judges us, and not vice versa.

Ya'akov 5:17 gives us the length of Elijah's tribulation which is

a paradigm or model in Revelation for the length of the Great

Tribulation. Since Elijah is raptured after this period, we

should hesitate when people dogmatically assert that the rapture

will precede the three and a half year period of the Great

Tribulation.

The more you read this epistle or letter, the more you get the

picture of the poverty and persecution of early Messianic

Judaism, which was Jewish through and through and, with a fervent

love for the Torah, lacked the antinomian libertinism so

prevalent in Gentile circles outside of Jerusalem. The close

association with the themes of Matthew leads us to see both

Matthew and Ya'akov as early and Jewish writings radiating from

Jerusalem, though it is also possible Matthew wrote his Besuras

Hageulah from Syrian Antioch.

Ya'akov attacks the evil delusion of trusting in or boasting in

riches (1:10-11) and irreligiously not bridling the tongue (1:26;

3:2-6), but instead being too quick to speak (1:19) and too quick

also to try to seize the status of teacher (Jam. 3:1; Matt.

23:8). Ya'akov also exposes unsanctifled believers (4:8) and

others who are double-mindedly faithless and untrustworthily

double-tongued. Only the new birth (1:18) issuing in real

sancitification (1:27) can tame the wildly evil tongue of the old

nature (3:7-12). G-d is looking for a meekness from us (1:21;

3:13) which, leading to regeneration/spiritual conversion, is the

only antidote against the poisonous tongue (3:8) of bitter

jealousy and selfishness (3:14) and boasting and lying. Proud

believers with unbridled tongues who are worldly and carnal get

jealous of each other and fight each other with murderous hatred

(4:1-6).

Do not speak against one another, brothers (4:11). Do not murmur

against one another (5:9) lest you be judged. Do not judge your

neighbor (4:12) or take G-d's perogetive (4:12). Do not be so

presumptuous (4:12-17).

True faith must be tested in trials and temptations to sin

(1:2-3), but G-d tempts no one to sin; rather each person is

tempted to sin by his own lusts (1:13-15). True faith must "work"

and produce endurance under trial (1:3-4; see also 2:14-18). True

faith must work through acts of love (2:14-18; Gal. 5:6). The

anger of man is not faith and does not "work" or produce the

righteousness of G-d. One cannot really "do" the Word unless one

has received the "implanted word" of the gospel (1:21-22) in the

new birth--1:18. True faith works by showing real love to all.

That is, true faith must abhor showing partiality (2:9) and

favoritism toward the rich and against the poor, remembering the

persecutions and blasphemies of the wicked rich (2:6-7) and

their ironic poverty (1:10-11) as well as their ultimate

eternally impoverished destiny (5:1-6). True faith works by going

after the wandering sheep drifting off toward sin (5:19-20). True

faith must be the basis of all prayer petitions for wisdom (1:6).

True faith must be in the immutability of G-d (His

changelessness) who gives all good gifts (1:16-17), including the

gift of true wisdom (3:15-18) and the gift of the new birth

(1:18,21; see also Eph. 1:5; Rom.12:2; I Cor. 4:15; Tit.3:5; I

Shimon Kefa 1:3,23; Yochanan 1:13; 3:3-8; I Yochanan 3:9; 4:10).

True faith must "work" in visitation ministry and "rescue work"

for the poor and helpless. Religion and religious faith is

worthless (2:14) if it does not issue in sanctification (see

1:27). The prayer of true faith will deliver the sick person

(5:15).

What is the source of joy in Ya'akov? See 1:1,2,12 in the Greek,

remembering chairein means not just "greetings" but "be glad!"

Ya'akov exhorts to be patient until the coming of the L-rd

(5:7-8), remembering the out come of the patient endurance of Job

and the prophets (5:10-11).

Ya'akov, an explemplary Jew, nevertheless found it necessary to

"come out from among" (II Cor.6:17) the rich, corrupt Jewish

religious establishment of his day. Today, many modern Greeks,

even though they are exemplary Greeks, may find it necessary to

"come out from among" the Greek Orthodox Church. Many Greek

Orthodox adherents ask departed saints to pray for them and they

in turn pray for the departed saints. They actually pray for the

dead. Miryam is venerated and preached and prayed to as Theotokos

(Mother of G-d), Aeiparthenos (Ever-Virgin), and Panayia

(All-Holy) and the Roman Catholic unbiblical dogma of her bodily

assumption to heaven is also believed by the Greek Orthodox. The

saints are venerated through icons. Infants are baptized and

baptism is seen as some sort of regeneration, giving the

impression to many adults who were baptized as infants that they

are reborn when in fact many are not. One cannot be in good

standing with this community unless it has blessed one's

marriage, so right here is its powerful hold over the whole

modern Greek society. Women cannot be ordained. The Bible is

said to be a record of the truth but not truth itself, and the

Greek Orthodox stand against Pentecostals and puts its own

traditions and its own "apostolic succession" and "authoritative"

interpretations and clerical offices above historical-grammatical

exegesis and adherence to sola Scriptura.

Notice that the trials Ya'akov refers to may be those caused by

Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12). In any event these trials require

patience (5:7-11) and meditation on the divine purpose of trials

(1:1-4,12). Ironically, it is the rich who are engaged in this

persecution of the brethren and blaspheming of the Lord's Name

(see 2:6-7). No wonder the brethren are rebuked by Ya'akov for

their sychophantic attitude toward the rich and their love of

filthy lucre (see 4:13-5:6; 2:1-13). Ya'akov will not tolerate

either their partiality or their argumentative nature or their

hypocritical workless faith (3:1-18; 1:22-27; 2:14-26).