The Absurdity Of Setting James' Gospel Against Paul's

We've been addressing the doctrine of justification in Paul and James in some recent posts. The subject usually comes up in discussions between Protestants and Catholics or Protestants and Orthodox. But it's also occasionally brought up as an alleged contradiction in the Bible. I'm not going to repeat all of the arguments for reconciling Paul and James. A lot of that ground has been covered many times, by many people. What I want to do here is address some of the issues involved that aren't discussed as often.

Paul thought highly of James. He describes him as an apostle (Galatians 1:19), wanted to meet with him (Galatians 1:19) and coordinate his efforts with him (Galatians 2:2, 2:9-10), placed him in the same category as Peter and John (Galatians 2:9), named him first among those three (Galatians 2:9), and said that he had James' right hand of fellowship (Galatians 2:9). James was communicating the same gospel Paul was (1 Corinthians 15:1-11, Galatians 2:9). Paul repeatedly groups himself with James (1 Corinthians 9:5, 15:1-11, Galatians 1:19, 2:9-10). That sort of relationship with James went on for years. It's seen in 1 Corinthians, Galatians, and elsewhere. If James held to another gospel, Paul probably would have treated him the way he treats supporters of other gospels in 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and other places. Instead, James is treated the way I've described above.

Luke corroborates what Paul reports in his letters. He repeatedly portrays James as in good fellowship with Paul, including in the justification-related contexts of Acts 15:1-30 and 21:18-26.

The same sort of relationship between Paul and James is further corroborated by the sources of the patristic era. A heretical source will occasionally set Paul and James against each other, but there's no good reason to trust those sources on this subject, and they're far outnumbered by other sources who contradict them. (Remember, since Paul's letters affirm his good relationship with James, the patristic sources who endorse documents like 1 Corinthians and Galatians are accordingly implying agreement with what's said about Paul and James in those documents. High views of documents like 1 Corinthians and Galatians are found as early as the first century: e.g., in the New Testament in 2 Peter 3:15-16 and in the patristic literature in First Clement 47.) The consensus of the patristic sources is that Paul and James had the sort of good relationship that's affirmed repeatedly in the New Testament.

It's easy to reconcile Paul and James. There are many indications that James is expanding upon Paul's gospel, a gospel he also accepts. One of the most important aspects of James 2 is James' use of the same Old Testament figure Paul focuses on (Abraham) and his agreement with Paul in citing Genesis 15:6 (James 2:23). In all likelihood, James 2:24 is intended as a further unfolding of Paul's gospel, the gospel James had just affirmed in 2:23 (and had supported in other ways, such as in his view of our guilt and dependence on grace in 2:10-13, by distinguishing between different types of faith in 2:14 and 2:19, etc.).

Notice, also, the lack of any direct reference to Paul or his letters in James 2. And note how the arguments James responds to, such as the demonic faith of 2:19, aren't found in Paul. He's responding to non-Pauline (and anti-Pauline) views. If James 2 was meant as a case against Paul, it's a remarkably incompetent, weak, and ineffective one.

But set aside Paul and James' texts on justification for a moment. Even without looking at how easily the texts can be reconciled, the notion that the two men believed in such contradictory views of justification is highly dubious. Multiple early sources, including Paul himself, as well as a wide number and diversity of later sources, tell us that Paul and James were in good fellowship. It's unlikely that they contradicted each other in their view of justification in the manner people sometimes suggest.

And I don't see how it helps the critic's case much to deny James' authorship of the letter attributed to him. The letter still would seem to come from some circle, a school of James or whatever you want to call it, that thought highly of him. If James himself agreed with Paul on the gospel, how likely is it that James' early disciples would be contradicting Paul in the way critics suggest? The idea that an early follower of James or group of followers contradicted Paul, instead of James himself doing it, is more defensible, but that isn't saying much. It's still a highly problematic position to take. Or if the author of James is supposed to be somebody who didn't even think highly of James, then why was he writing in James' name, why was his letter so widely accepted among Christians who held a positive view of both Paul and James, etc.?

The most sensible explanation of the totality of the evidence is that Paul's letters and the letter of James aren't contradicting each other on justification. They're expounding on the same gospel from different angles.