JAMES AND THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT

Any discerning reader of James' Epistle will be struck at how differently it reads from the other letters in the New Testament. In ways, it almost seems like an OT document with its lack of theological content. On the other hand, many of the teachings in this epistle may seem to be strangely familiar as if we have read them before elsewhere. And that is no accident, as several commentators have noted:

Blue: “James did not actually quote the Lord's words, but he obviously had internalized His teachings and reproduced them with spiritual depth.”

Hort says that “this style is especially remarkable for constant hidden allusions to our Lord's sayings, such as we find in the first three Gospels.”

Adamson responds to the above by saying, “We ourselves believe that this is at least mainly due not merely to James's early sharing some of the oral and written evidence to which those Gospels sooner or later were indebted, but to his own personal witness of the life and teachings of Jesus – a conclusion in harmony with the fact that the groundwork of the Epistle is the same as that of the Sermon on the Mount.”

Schmid: “James not only agrees in numerous passages with Matthew's Gospel, which appear to be but the echo of the discourses of Jesus...the Sermon on the Mount... in its whole spirit may be looked upon as the model of the Epistle of James.”

Tasker: “The author has obviously been profoundly impressed by the teachings of Jesus as we know today in the Sermon on the Mount. The parallels between the ethical precepts of the Epistle and the dominical sayings...are not so close as to suggest direct quotation from any document. Rather does it seem as though James was giving fresh expression to truths he had often heard from the life of Jesus Himself.”

Kistemaker: “James seems to give the impression that he is familiar with the oral gospel of Jesus...In his epistle, James echoes the tone and tenor of Jesus' preaching recorded in the Gospels. The parallel between the Sermon on the Mount and verses, clauses, phrases, and words in the letter of James is remarkable.”

For those of you who may be studying the Epistle of James, one interesting way to look at it is as a commentary of sorts on Jesus' words recorded there. As an aid to such a study, I have compiled the following list of parallels from several sources:

Epistle of James                         Sermon on the Mount (Matthew)

1:2                                              5:10-12

1:4                                              5:28, 48

1:5                                              7:7-12

1:7                                              5:23

1:9                                              5:3

1:12                                            5:10-11; 7:14

1:20                                            5:22

1:21                                            7:16

1:22-25                                      7:24-27

1:26-27                                      7:21-23

2:5                                              5:3

2:11                                            5:21, 27

2:13                                            5:7; 6:14-15

2:14-16                                       7:21-23

2:14-26                                       7:21-23

2:15-16                                       6:11

2:19                                             7:22

3:6                                               5:22

3:10-13, 18                                 7:16

3:13-14                                       5:5; 7:21-23

3:17                                             6:2, 5, 16; 7:5

3:17-18                                        5:9

4:3                                               7:7-8

4:4                                               6:24

4:4,8                                            5:8; 6:22

4:10                                             5:3-5

4:11-12                                        7:1-2

4:13-14                                        6:34

4:15                                             7:21

5:2-3                                            6:19-20

5:9                                               7:1

5:10-11                                        5:11-12

5:12                                             5:33-37

5:15                                             7:7-12