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Luther and the book of James

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Tertiumquid

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littleapologist said:
What was Luther's real view of this book in the Bible?
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I did a full article on it:

http://www.ntrmin.org/Luther%20and%20the%20canon%202.htm

to summarize, Luther appears to have held lifelong doubts about the canonicity of James. In 1520 he wrote, “…I will say nothing of the fact that many assert with much probability that this epistle is not by James the apostle, and that it is not worthy of an apostolic spirit; although, whoever was its author, it has come to be regarded as authoritative.”

Toward the end of his life in 1542, a Table Talk recorded similar sentiments:

“We should throw the Epistle of James out of this school (Wittenberg), for it doesn’t amount to much. It contains not a syllable about Christ. Not once does it mention Christ, except at the beginning (Jas. 1:1; 2:1). I maintain that some Jew wrote it who probably heard about Christian people but never encountered any. Since he heard that Christians place great weight on faith in Christ, he thought, ‘Wait a moment! I’ll oppose them and urge works alone.’ This he did. He wrote not a word about the suffering and resurrection of Christ, although this is what all the apostles preached about. Besides, there’s no order or method in the epistle. Now he discusses clothing and then he writes about wrath and is constantly shifting from one to the other. He presents a comparison: ‘As the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead’ (Jas. 2:26). O Mary, mother of God! What a terrible comparison that is! James compares faith with the body when he should rather have compared faith with the soul! The ancients recognized this, too, and therefore they didn’t acknowledge this letter as one of the catholic epistles” [LW 54:424].

His view is a little more complicated than simply denying its canonicity. I refer you to the link above rather than compose a 5 page post.

Regards,
James Swan
 
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