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venture of faith, namely, a provision that anyone who brings back a brother who "wanders from the truth" will "save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins" (James 5.19-20). This new rule, in the midst of other moderate changes of traditional Jewish phrasing, serves well a goal of creating a culture of Messianite belief and practice with an identity distinct from Jews who do not focus on Jesus as Lord Messiah. One notices the absence of any incentive to go out and "recruit" new members to the group. This may simply be a reality of the contexts in which these groups exist. There are limited populations for recruitment in most small villages and towns. Most people already are members of a particular religous group as a result of their kinship relations. The "mission" in the epistle of James works inside Jewish groups that are located somewhere "away from home." The discourse in the epistle sets up a "venture of faith culture" in these settings built on the principles of Abraham's venture of faith. The addition of the Lord Jesus Messiah to the discussion, however, creates new rules and new practices that create a new "culture within a culture." Little by little, phrase by phrase, a new culture begins to emerge with an identity that finally becomes visible as different from the culture within which it lived and moved and had its being. One of the remarkable features of the letter, we have discovered, is its concern about wealth, since perhaps the most noticeable reward for Abraham in the traditional version is the blessings of household, livestock, silver, and gold that come into his possession. The discourse in this epistle has its eye on the poor as well as the rich. This evokes an image of synagogues in the diaspora creating special seats of honor for wealthy patrons and using practices that humiliate poor people who come into the assembly. Through an emphasis on impartiality between rich and poor, this epistle introduces a discourse that can create a new culture in two ways. First, by focusing on the poor, it addresses the needs of people who may have been experiencing significant practices of humiliation in certain synagogues. Second, certain wealthy people who know of Abraham's tithe to Melchizedek and restraint with the king of Sodom may experience a more fulfulling activity of patronage in a setting where poor people are treated with honor and respect. Especially if any circumstances are arising during the first century that are causing an influx of poor people into villages, towns, and cities in the Mediterranean world (see Rohrbaugh 1991), this approach might prove to be quite successful within synagogues throughout the Mediterranean world. It is important for us to observe at the end of this essay that the manner in which the epistle of James creates Christian culture is only one of many ways exhibited to us by literature both inside and outside the New Testament. A task lies before us of describing all the ways the culture-building proceeded. If we remain attentive in each instance to the kind of discourse a text is modifying (see Robbins 1996c), both in subtle and not so subtle ways, we can, over a period of time, begin to see the full range of moves early Christians made to create the wide-reaching and complex phenomenon we recognize today as second and third century Christian discourse. |