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James - Overview

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James asks one searching question from beginning to end: has the word received in faith made the person and the Church whole? The answer is not found in religious claims alone. Living faith endures trial without calling evil good, receives wisdom from the generous Father, honors the poor, restrains the tongue, resists the passions, repents of pride, pays what justice requires, waits for the coming Lord, calls the elders in sickness, confesses, intercedes, and seeks the wanderer’s return.

This is why James must not be reduced to a collection of moral commands. His burden is the healing of fragmentation. Belief and action, worship and speech, mercy and holiness, body and soul, rich and poor, suffering and prayer, confession and communion are not allowed to split apart. The implanted word is able to save, and its saving life becomes visible in a people gathered under the lordship of Jesus Christ.

Author, Setting, and Apostolic Voice

The Church receives this letter as the apostolic voice of St. James, the Brother of the Lord and Bishop of Jerusalem, who speaks at the council in Acts 15 and is named among the pillars in Galatians 2:9. James identifies himself more simply as “a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ” (James 1:1). His authority is expressed first as belonging. The one who addresses the Church stands beneath the Lord whom he serves.

Hegesippus, as quoted by Eusebius, remembers James as a man whose knees were hardened by long intercession for the people.1 The pastor who ends his letter with the prayer of the righteous person is remembered not only for what he commanded, but for those he carried before God. His searching questions come from a life bent in prayer.

The Coptic Synaxarium commemorates him on Abib 18 as St. James the Apostle, Bishop of Jerusalem, and identifies him with James the son of Alphaeus, one of the Twelve. It names his mother as Mary, wife of Cleophas and sister of the Virgin.2 In this received Coptic identification, “brother of the Lord” means kinsman, not another son of the Ever-Virgin Theotokos. Scripture can use brother-language for wider kinship, as when Abraham addresses his nephew Lot in Genesis 13:8. Byzantine churches distinguish the Brother of the Lord from the son of Alphaeus and commemorate them separately.3 The difference in identification does not change the Church’s confession of Mary’s perpetual virginity.

James writes to Jewish Christians scattered beyond the Holy Land, addressing them within Israel’s story as “the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad.” St. Athanasius lists James first among the seven Catholic Epistles in his thirty-ninth Festal Letter. He calls the canonical books “fountains of salvation.”4 Catholic here means addressed to the wider Church, not a reference to a later denominational division.

James speaks as an apostolic wisdom teacher and a prophetic pastor. He repeatedly calls his readers “brethren” and “beloved brethren,” even when his rebuke is severe. His commands are direct: ask, receive, do, bridle, submit, resist, draw near, cleanse, humble yourselves, be patient, pray, call the elders, confess, and turn back. His questions examine the conscience: Can faith save the person who withholds mercy? Who is wise? Where do conflicts come from? What is your life? Who are you to judge another?

His images are brief enough to remember and sharp enough to expose the heart: a wave, a withering flower, a mirror, a bridle, a rudder, a forest fire, a poisoned spring, a vapor, corroded treasure, a farmer waiting for rain, and a Judge standing at the door. His severest words aim not at exclusion for its own sake, but at repentance, wholeness, mercy, and restoration.

The Literary Shape: Four Movements in a Spiral

James does not unfold one uninterrupted linear argument. He teaches by recurrence, intensification, and application. Themes return, but they return with greater weight. Trial becomes endurance. Hearing becomes doing. Speech moves from slowness, to fire and poison, to slander, grumbling, truthful simplicity, confession, prayer, and restoration. The poor move from social reversal, to humiliation in the assembly, to bodily need, to unpaid wages crying before God.

The epistle can be read in four major movements:

  1. James 1:1-18, the tested and undivided heart. The scattered Church receives trials without pretending pain is good, asks the generous God for wisdom, resists double-mindedness, distinguishes testing from temptation, and receives new life from the Father through the word of truth.
  2. James 1:19-2:26, the implanted word embodied. Hearing becomes doing. Visible devotion is tested by speech, care for vulnerable people, unstained holiness, freedom from partiality, and concrete mercy. Faith is shown alive as it cooperates with obedience and reaches maturity in love.
  3. James 3:1-4:17, the tongue, the passions, and humble wisdom. Teacher accountability leads to the destructive power of speech, the contrast between wisdom from above and false wisdom, the inner war of disordered desire, distorted prayer, divided allegiance, slander, presumptuous planning, and sins of omission.
  4. James 5:1-20, judgment, patience, ecclesial healing, and restoration. Prophetic indictment of oppressive wealth gives way to patient hope before the coming Judge. The suffering pray, the cheerful sing psalms, the sick call the elders, the Church anoints and intercedes, sins are confessed, and the wanderer is sought in restorative love.

The epistle’s unity is therefore pastoral and theological, not merely topical. James traces what happens when the word planted in the heart reaches the tongue, the hands, the parish assembly, economic life, suffering, sickness, and responsibility for another person’s salvation.

The God Who Gives More Grace

James’s commands stand inside a theology of divine generosity. God gives wisdom “liberally and without reproach” (James 1:5). He is not the author of evil and does not tempt anyone to sin. Every good and perfect gift comes from the unchanging Father of lights, who brings His children forth by the word of truth (1:13-18). The implanted word is able to save the soul (1:21). God gives “more grace” to the humble and draws near to those who draw near to Him (4:6-8).

The Lord also hears the exploited worker, judges injustice, remains “very compassionate and merciful,” answers prayer, saves, raises, forgives, and restores (5:4, 11, 15-20). James therefore does not preach self-salvation by moral effort. Grace initiates, sustains, corrects, heals, and completes. Human beings truly receive, obey, repent, pray, show mercy, and act. This is synergy: our real cooperation made possible and sustained by God, never a partnership between independent equals. Grace does not make obedience unnecessary, and obedience does not make grace unnecessary.

Wholeness is one of the book’s deepest theological movements. James wants endurance to have its full work so the believer may become mature and whole (1:4). He opposes the double-minded person, literally the divided or “two-souled” person, in 1:8 and again in 4:8. Faith is brought to completion through obedient works (2:22). Hands and hearts are cleansed together (4:8). Hearts are established before the Lord’s coming (5:8). Body, soul, sickness, sin, prayer, and forgiveness are gathered into one ecclesial act of care (5:13-18). The final movement turns the wanderer back toward life (5:19-20).

Christology: The Lord at the Center

James names Jesus less frequently than some New Testament writers, but the references are concentrated and decisive. The letter opens with James as servant of God and “of the Lord Jesus Christ” (1:1). In the assembly, believers hold “the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory” (2:1). Paul names the One who was crucified as “the Lord of glory” too (1 Corinthians 2:8). The Lord of glory and the Crucified are one and the same incarnate Lord. Worldly rank cannot govern a community gathered under His glory.

The Lord promises the crown of life to those who love Him (1:12). His coming governs patience, economic justice, communal speech, and truthful living (5:7-12). The Judge stands at the door, both comforting the oppressed and warning the careless. The name of the Lord is invoked when the elders pray over and anoint the sick, and the Lord saves and raises (5:14-15). His compassion and mercy are the horizon of endurance (5:11).

The Christology is not decorative. Jesus is Lord at the opening, Lord of glory in the assembly, the coming Judge before whom injustice and speech are exposed, and the Lord whose name centers ecclesial prayer and healing. In James 5:6, “the righteous one” first keeps the exploited sufferer visible. The righteous poor person and Christ the Righteous One are not rivals in our reading: the Lord receives what is done to the least as done to Himself (Matthew 25:40). To see Christ in the wounded neighbor is to become more attentive to that neighbor, not less.

The Church as a Truthful Social Body

James’s ecclesiology is concrete. The Church is a scattered people gathered in Christ, repeatedly addressed as brothers and sisters. The gathering in James 2:2 is called a synagōgē, an assembly or synagogue, preserving the Jewish-Christian texture of the letter. This assembly is tested by how it receives a rich visitor and a poor visitor. Confession of the Lord of glory is contradicted when worldly glory determines seating, attention, dignity, or influence.

Teachers stand under stricter judgment because words form souls (3:1). The poor must not be made invisible. Employers and landowners answer to the Lord of Sabaoth for withheld wages (5:4). Suffering believers must guard against turning pressure into grumbling against one another (5:9). The sick may call for the elders of the Church, who pray and anoint in the Lord’s name (5:14). Members confess and pray for one another (5:16). The final “brethren” includes the wandering member whom the community must seek without coercion or concealment of harm (5:19-20).

The Church in James is therefore not only an institution or a gathering of individuals. She is meant to become a truthful social body. Social honor is reordered, teachers are accountable, vulnerable people are visible, the sick are not abandoned, confession is joined to intercession, and correction aims at restoration.

Living Faith, Mercy, and Works

James 2:14-26 must be taught without creating a false conflict with St. Paul. James is not attacking faith or teaching that human achievement purchases salvation. He attacks a claim to faith that remains alone, refusing mercy and obedience. Paul rejects boasting and self-justifying works apart from grace. James rejects barren profession apart from love. Paul himself says that those saved by grace are created in Christ Jesus for good works (Ephesians 2:8-10), and that faith works through love (Galatians 5:6).

James keeps the issue concrete. A brother or sister lacks clothing and daily food. Religious words are offered, but bodily help is withheld. Such faith is dead because it is severed from love. Abraham’s faith works together with his works and reaches maturity through obedience. Rahab’s faith becomes costly hospitality and protection. “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (James 2:26). Works do not merely tell an observer that faith was already there. Through grace-enabled obedience, faith itself is exercised and brought to its intended end.

A charitable comparison begins by hearing what other Christians actually mean. Classical Reformed and Lutheran teaching does not commend an idle profession. It distinguishes God’s justifying verdict from the believer’s renewal: faith receives Christ’s righteousness, while good works necessarily follow rather than constitute the ground or instrument of that verdict. Its concern is to keep the sinner’s hope in Christ rather than in the adequacy of personal achievement.5

Orthodoxy shares the refusal of self-salvation and empty profession. It does not accept that distinction as a sufficient account of the whole saving life: forgiveness, healing, communion with Christ, sacramental grace, persevering faith and enacted love belong together. Roman Catholic teaching must not be placed under a Protestant slogan; it too teaches the priority of grace, inward renewal and real human cooperation.6 James 2:14-26, Faith Made Complete by Works follows the passage closely, including the relation of faith, grace and enacted love.

Pope Shenouda III reads Paul’s faith working through love beside James’s warning about dead faith. His concern is a life actually surrendered to God, not a merit added to Christ’s saving work.7 This teaching should awaken empty profession, not terrorize a tender conscience. Weak faith that cries for grace, repents, and takes a small obedient step is not the same as dead faith content to remain unmerciful. Living faith may be wounded and incomplete, but it turns toward God and neighbor.

Ascetical Medicine for the Passions

James is a deeply ascetical letter because he traces outward conflict back to the divided heart. Temptation moves through disordered desire, consent, sin, and death (1:13-15). Human wrath does not produce God’s righteousness (1:19-20). Envy and selfish ambition masquerade as wisdom but yield confusion (3:13-16). Pleasures wage war within the members and distort prayer itself (4:1-3). Pride, worldliness, double-mindedness, slander, presumptuous planning, grumbling, and self-indulgence all reveal loves that require healing.

The body is not the enemy. Desire, material goods, work, rest, joy, and planning can be received faithfully. The problem is gift separated from communion with God and turned into a master. James’s remedy is equally concrete: receive the word with meekness, become a doer, bridle the tongue, show mercy, submit to God, resist the devil, draw near, cleanse the hands, purify the heart, mourn sin truthfully, humble yourself, establish the heart, pray, sing psalms, confess, intercede, make restitution, and restore the wanderer.

These commands align naturally with Orthodox ascetical life. Prayer heals self-enclosed suffering. Fasting weakens the tyranny of appetite and restores perception of the neighbor. Almsgiving breaks possessiveness. Confession exposes sin to mercy. Simplicity resists boastful self-sufficiency. Patience refuses revenge without blessing injustice. None of these practices earns grace. They are ways the whole person receives and cooperates with the grace God gives.

Sacramental Implications and the Healing of the Sick

James 5:13-18 is the epistle’s sacramental and ecclesial climax. Suffering turns to prayer, gladness to psalmody, sickness to a summons for the elders, and sin to confession and intercession. The elders pray over the sick person and anoint with oil in the name of the Lord. Saving, raising, forgiveness, confession, mutual prayer, and healing are held together.

The Coptic Orthodox Church receives this apostolic pattern within the Rite of the Unction of the Sick. James 5:10-20 is appointed as the Catholic Epistle in the first prayer of the rite, beside John 5:1-17, the healing at Bethesda.8 St. John Chrysostom quotes James 5:14-15 in On the Priesthood III.6 while speaking about ecclesial prayer and forgiveness after baptism.9

Oil is neither magic nor a detached material remedy. The prayer of faith is trust in the Lord, not a technique. James says “if he has committed sins,” not that every illness proves guilt. The Church brings the whole person to Christ and asks boldly while refusing to control the form or timing of His mercy.

Greek Vocabulary: From Dividedness to Return

James’s Greek vocabulary reinforces the movement from fragmentation toward wholeness. A few terms carry the book’s whole burden:

  • Dipsychos, “double-minded” or divided in allegiance, appears in 1:8 and returns in 4:8. James is not condemning honest questions or emotional distress. He confronts the heart that asks God for life while reserving loyalty for another master. Lexical reference.
  • Emphyton, “implanted,” describes the saving word received with meekness in 1:21. Obedience begins with God’s word planted in the heart, not with self-generated moral energy. Lexical reference.
  • Poiētēs, “doer,” joins hearing to embodied obedience in 1:22-25. The word is not received fully when it is merely heard, admired, or discussed. Lexical reference.
  • Synergeō and teleioō describe Abraham’s faith working together with his works and being brought to completion in 2:22. The terms resist both self-salvation and barren belief. Synergeō; teleioō.
  • Epistrephō, “turn back” or “return,” names the restorative goal in 5:19-20. Correction seeks the path home, not victory over the sinner. Lexical reference.

Israel’s Scriptures, Wisdom, and Gospel Resonance

James speaks from within Israel’s Scriptures. The “twelve tribes” keep Israel’s story before the reader. The grass and flower of Isaiah 40:6-8 expose the fragility of splendor. Abraham is read through Genesis 15 and 22, Rahab through Joshua 2 and 6, and the Lord of Sabaoth hears the worker’s cry as He hears the prophets’ appeal for justice.

Leviticus 19 gives James’s teaching about neighbor-love its concrete shape. Brenton’s Septuagint reads, “thou shalt not accept the person of the poor, nor admire the person of the mighty” (19:15), then commands love of neighbor (19:18). The same chapter forbids keeping a worker’s wages overnight (19:13).10 The law James brings into the assembly also follows the employer into the field. Welcome and wages answer to the same God.

James 4:6 gives the proud heart a promise from Proverbs 3:34: “The Lord resists the proud; but he gives grace to the humble.”11 The warning is medicinal. Pride is not merely an unpleasant manner; it is the posture that refuses the grace needed for healing. The answer is not to make ourselves impressive enough for God, but to draw near with empty hands.

Sirach, received as Scripture in the Coptic Church, belongs within this wisdom conversation. “Prepare thy soul for temptation” (Sirach 2:1) prepares the ear for James’s tested faith. “Say not thou, It is through the Lord that I fell away” (15:11) rejects the lie that God causes our sin. “Be swift to hear” (5:11) leads toward the listening, patient speech James requires.12 These close correspondences help us hear James as an apostolic teacher speaking in Scripture’s own wisdom language.

His teaching about mercy, judgment, speech, oaths, treasure and prayer also resonates with the Sermon on the Mount. The Lord who blesses the merciful and commands love of enemies is not absent from James’s stern questions. His claim is reaching the habits by which a parish lives.

James in the Fathers

Gems from the Fathers 💎

St. Athanasius, in Life of Antony 21, presents Antony joining James 1:20 and 1:15 as he teaches watchfulness over anger and desire.13 The desert does not put James behind it in search of a higher spirituality. It receives his commands as medicine for the heart. Guarding the tongue and refusing a passion room to grow belong to the struggle for communion with God.

St. John Chrysostom’s use of James reaches from visible love to priestly intercession. In Homilies on John LXXII.5, he brings forward James 2:18 against Christian lives that drive neighbors away from the faith. In On the Priesthood III.6, he invokes the elders’ prayer, anointing and forgiveness.14 9 The Church cannot choose between mercy at the door and prayer at the bedside.

St. Clement of Rome joins love, communion and restoration: “Love unites us to God.”15 In the same chapter he speaks of love covering sins, refusing division and keeping Christ’s commandments. That is a fitting doorway into James’s final concern: bringing back the wanderer. Love does not make truth disappear. It makes another person’s return more desirable than our victory.

The Church’s Voice in Worship ⛪

Great Lent gives James a sustained place in the Church’s formation. On the first Saturday, James 1:1-12 is heard with Matthew 5:38-48: endurance and the Father’s call to perfection belong together. On Treasures Sunday, the Sunday of the first week, James 1:13-21 is heard with Matthew 6:19-30: the Father of lights and the heart’s treasure search our divided desires. The second Saturday joins James 1:22-27 to Matthew 7:13-21, where doing the Father’s will tests the cry of “Lord, Lord.”16 These pairings invite us to receive the fast as healing of the whole person, not an isolated feat of endurance. See James 1:12-18 and James 1:19-27.

The Sunday of the Temptation, the Sunday of the second week, places James 2:1-13 beside Matthew 4:1-11. Christ refuses the world’s glory; the assembly in James must learn not to bow before it. On the third Saturday, James 2:14-26 is heard with the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18:23-35. Received mercy must become mercy given. On the Prodigal Son Sunday, the Sunday of the third week, James 3:1-12 brings the tongue before the Gospel of the Father’s welcome in Luke 15:11-32.17 The fasting mouth must become a merciful mouth. These readings illuminate mercy without partiality, faith made complete and the tongue’s power.

The fixed-day cycle also places James beside witnesses who lived such faith. On Hatour 27, the commemoration of St. James the Persian, James 1:1-12 ends with the crown of life, while Mark 10:35-45 speaks of sharing Christ’s cup. On Mesra 28, the Commemoration of the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, James 2:14-23 is heard with Hebrews 11:1-10, where Abraham obeys by faith.18 19 James and Hebrews are heard as complementary witnesses, not contestants. Sunday and seasonal precedence can replace fixed-day readings; these pairings belong to their appointed cycle rather than a promise about every calendar year.

The closing chapter accompanies both witness and waiting: James 5:9-20 is appointed on Tout 2, the Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist, with Mark 6:14-29, and on Hatour 16, the beginning of the Nativity Fast. Kiahk 23, the Departure of David the Prophet and King, appoints James 5:7-13, ending in the call to sing psalms.20 The epistle’s patience is not passive. It keeps the heart and tongue faithful while the Lord’s promise is awaited.

In the first prayer of the Unction of the Sick, James 5:10-20 is heard with John 5:1-17.8 Patient endurance, elders, oil, forgiveness, confession, intercession and restoration gather around the Lord who raises the sick. The bedside is not outside the letter’s concern with wholeness. It is where a person too weak to carry everything alone is carried by the Church’s prayer.

Jerusalem and the Scattered Church

Jerusalem, where James served as bishop, and the scattered communities beyond the Holy Land give the letter its human horizon. A pastor rooted in the mother Church addresses believers who must live their faith at a distance, in ordinary encounters over words, work, money and need.

Hard Texts and Pastoral Guardrails

James is direct about suffering, judgment, money, speech, sickness, and correction. These texts must not be softened, but they must not be weaponized.

  • Trials and doubt: “Count it all joy” does not praise pain, deny grief, excuse abuse, or reject medical and practical help. James 1:6-8 confronts divided allegiance, not honest lament, trauma, anxiety, depression, or sincere questions.
  • Temptation and desire: God is not the author of evil. Temptation is not identical with consent, and the body is not evil. Intrusive thoughts, addiction, trauma responses, and unwanted desires require mercy, truth, and appropriate help.
  • Faith and works: James attacks dead profession, not weak faith seeking grace. The passage must not be turned into anti-Paul polemic, works-righteousness, or panic-driven religious performance.
  • Speech and judgment: Bridling speech never means silencing victims, safeguarding reports, whistleblowers, truthful correction, or protection of the vulnerable. James condemns slanderous superiority and hellish speech, not responsible truth-telling.
  • Covenant adultery and James 4:5: The adultery language of 4:4 is prophetic language for divided covenant loyalty, not sexual shaming. James 4:5 is a hard verse; James 3:13-4:10 explains its readings.
  • Wealth, wages, and patience: James’s indictment of withheld wages must remain concrete. Almsgiving cannot replace justice or restitution. Patience under oppression is active hope, not permission for exploitation, danger, abuse, or neglect.
  • Healing, confession, and restoration: The prayer of faith is not a guarantee of a chosen physical outcome. Sickness is not automatic proof of personal sin. Confession must not become unsafe exposure or control. “Covering sins” never means hiding abuse, danger, exploitation, or injustice. True covering seeks repentance, protection, forgiveness, accountability, and restored communion.

The Reading Path

StudyScriptureFocus
Joy Under Trial Wisdom for the Scattered ChurchJames 1:1-11Joy under trial, wisdom, the undivided heart, and the reversal of status
Desire Temptation and the Good GiverJames 1:12-18Testing, temptation, desire, the Father of lights, and the word of truth
Receiving the Word and Visiting the VulnerableJames 1:19-27Receiving the implanted word, becoming a doer, vulnerable care, and holiness
Mercy Triumphs Over PartialityJames 2:1-13The Lord of glory, partiality in the assembly, the royal law, and mercy
Faith Made Complete by WorksJames 2:14-26Living faith, Abraham, Rahab, synergy, and faith brought to maturity
The Tongue as Fire Rudder and FountainJames 3:1-12Teacher accountability, the tongue, human dignity, source, and fruit
Wisdom from Above War WithinJames 3:13-4:10Wisdom from above, the passions, distorted prayer, repentance, and more grace
If the Lord Wills Judgment Plans and Life as VaporJames 4:11-17Slander, the one Lawgiver, providence, life as vapor, and sins of omission
The Cry of Unpaid WagesJames 5:1-6Prophetic judgment, hoarding, unpaid wages, the Lord of Sabaoth, and the righteous sufferer
Patience Before the Judge at the DoorJames 5:7-12Patient hope, the coming Judge, the prophets, Job, and truthful speech
The Prayer of Faith Oil Confession and HealingJames 5:13-18Prayer, psalmody, elders, oil, healing, confession, intercession, and Elijah
Turning a Wanderer Back Restoration as the Fruit of Living FaithJames 5:19-20Wandering, restorative correction, rescue from death, and love that covers sins truthfully

The Controlling Spiritual Burden

James asks whether the implanted word has made the Church whole. Living faith is single-hearted trust in the Lord Jesus Christ that becomes endurance under trial, mercy toward the poor, truthful and restrained speech, repentance from the passions, justice in economic life, patient hope before the Judge, prayer with the elders, confession, healing, and restorative love.

The final word is not self-congratulation. It is the wandering brother or sister. The person formed by James does not use truth to stand above another person. He receives grace, does the word, guards the tongue, practices mercy, waits for the Lord, prays, confesses, and then goes after the one in danger with humility. Faith has reached maturity when it becomes love that tells the truth, protects the wounded, seeks repentance, and rejoices in return.

Footnotes

  1. Hegesippus, quoted by Eusebius, Church History II.23.4-6, newadvent.org. ↩

  2. Coptic Synaxarium, Abib 18, “The Martyrdom of St. James the Apostle, Bishop of Jerusalem,” copticchurch.net. ↩

  3. Orthodox Church in America, “Apostle James, the Brother of the Lord,” October 23, and “Apostle James, the son of Alphaeus,” October 9, oca.org; oca.org. ↩

  4. St. Athanasius, Festal Letter 39.5-6, newadvent.org. ↩

  5. Westminster Confession of Faith XI.1-2, opc.org; Augsburg Confession IV and VI, bookofconcord.org; bookofconcord.org. ↩

  6. Catechism of the Catholic Church 1989-1993 and 1996-2002, vatican.va; vatican.va. ↩

  7. Pope Shenouda III, Life of Faith, chapter 3, subsection 14, “Faith Working In With Love,” and chapter 7, “Obedience of faith or a life of submission,” st-takla.org; st-takla.org. ↩

  8. Coptic Rite of the Unction of the Sick, first prayer, Catholic Epistle James 5:10-20 and Gospel John 5:1-17. ↩ ↩2

  9. St. John Chrysostom, On the Priesthood III.6, newadvent.org. ↩ ↩2

  10. Leviticus 19:13-18, Brenton Septuagint, biblehub.com. ↩

  11. Proverbs 3:34, Brenton Septuagint, biblehub.com. ↩

  12. Sirach 2:1-5; 15:11-12; 5:11, Brenton Septuagint, ebible.org; ebible.org; ebible.org. ↩

  13. St. Athanasius, Life of Antony 21, newadvent.org. ↩

  14. St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on John LXXII.5, beginning with John 13:20, newadvent.org. ↩

  15. St. Clement of Rome, First Epistle to the Corinthians 49, newadvent.org. ↩

  16. Coptic Katameros, Saturday of the first week of Great Lent, Liturgy, Catholic Epistle James 1:1-12 and Gospel Matthew 5:38-48; Treasures Sunday, Liturgy, Catholic Epistle James 1:13-21 and Gospel Matthew 6:19-30; Saturday of the second week, Liturgy, Catholic Epistle James 1:22-27 and Gospel Matthew 7:13-21. Dated readings: copticchurch.net; copticchurch.net; copticchurch.net. ↩

  17. Coptic Katameros, Sunday of the Temptation, Liturgy, Catholic Epistle James 2:1-13 and Gospel Matthew 4:1-11; Saturday of the third week of Great Lent, Liturgy, Catholic Epistle James 2:14-26 and Gospel Matthew 18:23-35; Prodigal Son Sunday, Liturgy, Catholic Epistle James 3:1-12 and Gospel Luke 15:11-32. Dated readings: copticchurch.net; copticchurch.net; copticchurch.net. ↩

  18. Coptic Katameros, Hatour 27, Liturgy, Catholic Epistle James 1:1-12 and Gospel Mark 10:35-45; Coptic Synaxarium, Hatour 27, St. James the Persian. ↩

  19. Coptic Katameros, Mesra 28, Liturgy, Catholic Epistle James 2:14-23, Pauline Epistle Hebrews 11:1-10; Coptic Synaxarium, Mesra 28, Commemoration of the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Dated readings: copticchurch.net. ↩

  20. Coptic Katameros, Tout 2 and Hatour 16, Liturgy, Catholic Epistle James 5:9-20; Kiahk 23, Liturgy, Catholic Epistle James 5:7-13. Coptic Synaxarium, Tout 2, Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist; Kiahk 23, Departure of David the Prophet and King. Dated readings: copticchurch.net; copticchurch.net; copticchurch.net. ↩

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