Prophecy

In my first blog on the book of James, I included Mary's Song of Praise, delivered when she was told she was to be mother to “Son of the Highest.”

Last Friday, in our Reading Room on the Gold Coast, I read all of Thomas Leishman's articles which were printed in the 1943 volume of The Christian Science Journal. Each of the articles was about women in the Bible, and each woman is referred to as a prophetess. [Correction from Joyce: There are other titles such as, The Great Woman of Shunem, Deborah the Judge, Rahab the Innkeeper.]

Hannah is one of them: Hannah the Prophetess. Leishman points out that Hannah's prayer, after her conception of Samuel, was prophetic. Because I have never taken note of this prayer before, I would like to include it here – in full. I Sam 2: 1-10 --

And Hannah prayed, and said,

My heart rejoiceth in the LORD,

mine horn is exalted in the LORD,

my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies;

because I rejoice in thy salvation.

There is none holy as the LORD:

for there is none beside thee;

neither is there any rock like our God.

Talk no more so exceeding proudly;

let not arrogancy come out of your mouth:

for the LORD is a God of knowledge,

and by him actions are weighed.

The bows of the mighty men are broken,

and they that stumbled are girded with strength.

They that were full have hired out themselves for bread;

and they that were hungry ceased:

so that the barren hath born seven;

and she that hath many children is waxed feeble.

The LORD killeth, and maketh alive:

he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.

The LORD maketh poor, and he maketh rich:

he bringeth low, and lifteth up.

He raiseth up the poor out of the dust,

and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill,

to set them among princes,

and to make them inherit the throne of glory:

for the pillars of the earth are the LORD'S.

And he hath set the world upon them.

He will keep the feet of his saints,

and the wicked shall be silent in darkness;

for by strength shall no man prevail.

The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces;

out of heaven shall he thunder upon them:

the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth;

and he shall give strength unto his king,

and exalt the horn of his anointed.

That word “anointed” is of special interest, for Leishman tells us that the word translated as “anointed”, is elsewhere in the Scriptures translated as "Messiah". Leishman says, “Many feel that Hannah's intuition enabled her to be one of the first to foresee the advent of the true Messianic king, whose mother Mary appears to have echoed in her own song of thanksgiving several phrases which were used by Hannah (see Luke 1:46-55).”

James was a beneficiary of this prophecy, as are we all.

Joyce Voysey

Action

James counsels action. He writes that “faith without works is dead” (James 2:26). The Discoverer of Christian Science also commends action. She writes: “We must look where we would walk, and we must act as possessing all power from Him in whom we have our being” (Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures p. 264: 10)*. In the chapter on Marriage in that same book, Mary Baker Eddy quotes the "Apostle James" (James 1: 27) when she refers to the benevolent acts of "our forefathers":

64:

2

Our forefathers exercised their faith in the direction taught by the Apostle James, when he said: “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father, is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”

Interestingly, elsewhere in Science and Health, Eddy describes these “forefathers” as having “independence and industry” (ibid, p. 175: 17-19), declaring that they “never indulged in the refinement of inflamed bronchial tubes” despite “damp atmosphere and freezing snow” (175: 26). Additionally, in the Dedicatory Sermon given by Mrs. Eddy January 6, 1895 (see Pulpit and Press, pp. 1-11), she counsels her students: “If you are less appreciated to-day than your forefathers, wait – for if you are as devout as they, and more scientific, as progress certainly demands, your plant is immortal” (Pul. 10: 20-23).

By reference to the Appendixes in the Concordance to the Writings of Mary Baker Eddy – available for borrowing, research, or purchase in Christian Science Reading Rooms worldwide – we see that she directly quotes James 10 times in Science and Health and 20 times in her other writings. For instance in her chapter Creation in Science and Health, she cites James 3:11:

287: 11

Did God, Truth, create error? No! “Doth a fountain send forth at the same time sweet water and bitter?”

Here, the Greek word translated as ‘fountain’ is pēgē, a term found also in Jn. 4:6 (a well), Mk. 5:29 (an issue, flux, flow), and Jn. 4:14 (a well). (Reference: www.BibleGateway.com. Try referencing the Mounce Reverse-Interlinear New Testament version of the Bible [New Testament only] and clicking on the English word you wish to investigate. This will take you to the Strong’s Concordance listing, which gives the original Greek. This is such a wonderful tool as many of our readers already know!)

And we may find some insight into a difficult passage like James 3: 9, 10 (“…bless we God, even the Father; and …curse we men…” by looking at Unity of Good p. 60: 13 which affirms that “Mortals are free moral agents…”. We can choose our thoughts and actions. James offers some good clues to follow.

Julie Swannell

*Subscribers to jsh-online.com might enjoy listening to Karen James, as she describes how this passage gave her fresh inspiration and led to her attending to her driving test and passing with no problems. (See 'Blessed are your eyes, for they see' by Karen James, January 21, 2013 News of Healing podcast.)

Prayer gets the thumbs up.

I first read through the opening chapter of James' letter and wondered if all his allusions were taken from the New Testament. No. In that first chapter my New King James Version (with the centre column containing page cross-references) lists the Old Testament books of: I Kings, Jeremiah, Job, Numbers, Proverbs and Isaiah, and New Testament books: Acts, II Peter, Romans, Matthew, Mark James, I Corinthians, John, Ephesians, Colossians and Luke. This man knew the whole Bible and was able to put his own imprint upon it. How beautifully the translators from the Greek have given it to us in English.

Now I have read it all. James is telling us in every verse how to be a Christian; not to have faith without works. “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:20).

Patience is a prominent theme for James. We are also told to watch what we say. And, at last we are told of the effectiveness of prayer. “Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray; Is any merry? Let him sing psalms” (James 5:13). Ask the elders of the church to pray for us when we are sick. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (5:16).

Let us pray!

Joyce Voysey

James - "I like him!"

Book Club January, 2019 – JAMES

I have had to get to know James before I even start on his epistle.  I like him! The NRSV says that James is "traditionally identified" as the brother of Jesus.* And I like that the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) says, “The author writes in Greek with grammatical accuracy and some elegance.”  My first thought on reading that was, “O Jesus too would have been well educated and elegant.” (I love grammatical accuracy!) What a family it was! What a mother! We know of Mary's strength of thought from her Song of Praise.

Mary's Song of Praise: "The Magnificat" (Luke 1: 46-55)

And Mary said,

My soul magnifies the Lord,

And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour,

For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden:

for behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

For he that is mighty has done to me great things;

and holy is his name.

And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

He hath showed strength with his arm;

he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

He hath brought down the mighty from their seats,

and exalted those of low degree;

He hath filled the hungry with good things,

and the rich he has sent empty away.

He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,

As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.

Not only Jesus benefited from such refinement and spiritual strength.

Now to Joseph. Some commentators (including Bible scholar Thomas L. Leishman (1900-1978) who wrote a series called "The Continuity of the Bible" among other works) suggest that Joseph possibly already had children from a previous marriage when he married Mary. These “brethren” would perhaps then have been grown men by the time Jesus was born. Didn't Joseph take Mary and the babe into Egypt (no mention of other children), and to the temple when Jesus was 12 years old (no mention of other children making that pilgrimage)? And is that the last mention of Joseph? Perhaps he died before Jesus reached 30.

Biblical references to "James" or "brethren [of the Lord]"(excluding reference in his epistle):

• I Cor 9:5 Have we not the power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?
• Matt. 13:55, 56 Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas: And his  sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things? [i.e. wisdom and mighty works (verse 54)]
• Mark 6:3, Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon and are not his sisters with us? [JV: Error would put Jesus on a totally human plane, only capable of ordinary things.]
• Acts 1:14 All the apostles were named, then, These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
• Galatians 1:19. Paul went to Jerusalem to see Peter, “But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother.”
• Matt.12:46-50. While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? And who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.  [See also Mark 3:31-35 and Luke 8:19-21.]
• John 7:3-5. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judaea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest. For there is no man that doeth any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh be known openly. If thou do these things, shew thyself to the world. For neither did his brethren believe in him. 
• See also Acts 15:13 and on. 

There is much to learn about James from the Introduction to James in Dummelow's The One Volume Bible Commentary, pp. 1031-1034. Rev. J.R. Dummelow indicates that “The unbelief of the brethren was removed after the resurrection by the appearance [of Jesus] to James." (See I Cor 15:7 "After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.". Also Acts 1:14, above.) James had not believed that Jesus was the Messiah until that point.

Dummelow also says, "James, the Lord's brother, presided at the Council, doubtless in the capacity of chief ruler of the local Church of Jerusalem. We should have expected Peter to preside. St. James' speech proves him as decided an adherent of Gentile liberty as St. Peter. He approves St. Peter's conduct in baptising Cornelius, and quotes prophecies showing that the Messianic Church will embrace all nations."

• Paul writes in Gal. 2:9 And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision. 

And I like what Dummelow says about a good Jew. (We do not hear a lot about good Jews, it seems to me, in the New Testament.) "We must picture him [James] to ourselves, not as one of those false Jews whose observations were merely formal and external, but as one of those true and earnest Jews whose obedience to the Law as a joy and an inspiration – whose life was lived in the spirit of Ps. 119." Having just recently read through the Psalms and found a special gentleness (which I hadn't expected) in Psalm 119, I appreciate that spirit.

We are told that James was brought before the Sanhedrin and put to death by stoning a few years before the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70. Dummelow again: "A Sadducean high priest, Ananus, brought him before the Sanhedrin, and caused him to be put to death by stoning, spite the remonstrances of all the better sort of Jews." Gleaned from Josephus and Hegesippus, it says.

Joyce Voysey 

*Dummelow concludes that James was "the brother of the Lord and head of the Church at Jerusalem". Thomas L. Leishman, in "The letters of James and Jude" (see The Christian Science Journal July 1942) refers to Matt. 13:55, "Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?"

We are God's garden

James 1: 21 from the translation by Eugene Peterson in The Message:

 ...throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.

Ask boldly

According to Noah Webster's 1828 dictionary, an epistle is "a writing, directed or sent, communicating intelligence to a distant person; a letter; a letter missive. It is rarely used in familiar conversation or writings, but chiefly in solemn or formal transactions. It is used particularly in speaking of the letters of the Apostles...and of other letters written by the ancients, as the epistles of Pliny."

A glance at the epistle of James reveals language that is straightforward and plainly spoken. Perhaps his readers needed this directness. Perhaps it was the method to which James was accustomed. It still packs a punch for today's reader. Take, for example, his admonition about being double-minded (James 1: 8), which echoes Psalm 119: 113. (Isn't it instructive that the New Testament writers knew their Scriptures so well?)

Psalm 119: 113 -

I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love. (KJV)

I hate disloyal [or double-minded] people, 
but I love your teachings [instructions; laws]. (Expanded Bible EXP)

I hate the two-faced,
    but I love your clear-cut revelation. (The Message by Eugene Peterson)

I hate those who are undecided whether or not to obey you; but my choice is clear—I love your law. (The Living Bible - TLB)


James 1: 6-8

But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. (KJV)

If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open. (The Message)

But when you ask him, be sure that you really expect him to tell you, for a doubtful mind will be as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind; 7-8 and every decision you then make will be uncertain, as you turn first this way and then that. If you don’t ask with faith, don’t expect the Lord to give you any solid answer. (TLB)

How good it is that this epistle was included in the Canon.

Julie Swannell