WISDOM FROM ABOVE: ECHOES OF OT WISDOM IN JAMES

While acknowledging James’s close connection to Jesus’ teaching, in the following essay I argue that James relies more directly on OT wisdom than is often recognized. In developing this connection, I contend that James refers intertextually to all three books of the OT wisdom corpus. In addition, James’s dependence on OT wisdom is not restricted to literary citation, allusion, and echo but incorporates a wisdom approach characterized by wisdom style, wisdom modes of thought, and wisdom instruction, all grounded in antecedent biblical wisdom. In making these arguments, I am stepping into no fewer than three scholarly controversies: the nomenclature of “biblical wisdom literature” as a category, the nature and methodology of intertextuality, and the manner in which James uses earlier biblical and extra-biblical traditions to advance his own message and themes. There may be other controversies, but where there is knowledge comes responsibility, so I must begin by clearing some terrain.