Further, the use of phoneuete in Jas. 4:2 (“kill” in RSV, “commit murder” in NRSV) indicates warlike action within the community. According to Willard Swartley, the RSV translation of en tois melesin hymon at the end of Jas. 4:1, as “within your members” is a better translation than NIV’s “within you”. The Greco-Roman moralist tradition of envy was contentious within this Jewish Christian community. Socrates regards envy as the “ulcer of the soul.”
Ultimately, envy leads people to murder. Due to the evil experienced in the social structure within the church, James wanted the listeners to consider the diseased human freedom to desire an uprising; however, he uses language against such actions. According to Enrique Nardoni, “Anger and violence do not produce justice; they cannot establish the right social, political, and economic order on earth in accordance with the creator’s design (1:20).” The alternative vision for community life is peace. This kind of lifestyle in Jas. 3:17 will lead to a harvest of righteousness-justice. The two opposing paradigms of wisdom are against each other: the fruits of peace or the fruits of the evil one.
Shalom in the Old Testament Scripture
The mainstream ethical consensus among Jews was the affirmation of shalom. The reconstruction of this social ethic derived its guidance from a peaceful God. Jesus’ own message proclaimed peace on earth. He had positive respect for the institutions of society, even the Roman government, yet he constructed a shalom message to his followers.
Shalom is an iridescent word, with different levels of meaning in Hebrew Scripture. The basic meaning is wholeness or completeness. Understanding its meaning in the Hebrew Bible is a prerequisite for the study of peace in James. Shalom occurs well over 200 times in the Hebrew Bible and has many dimensions of meaning in context: wholeness, completeness, well-being, peace, justice, salvation, and even prosperity.
Perry Yoder proposes that the word shalom contains a moral quality, therefore shalom is the opposite of violence considered in James. James writes that bitter envy and selfish ambition in the heart are actions that violate shalom. Early Rabbis reflected on the relationship of peace to justice, truth, and mercy. The rabbinic tradition provides a rich resource that complements Christian understanding of peace. Swartley says:
In the early medieval period, Jewish reflection spiritualized biblical war imagery, while Christian theologians, notably Augustine, spiritualized or internalized the pacifist teachings of the New Testament. Christian thought began to take OT war imagery literally to develop “just war” doctrine and justify imperial extension, leading in subsequent stages to theological justification of the Crusades.
Reflections on the relationship between shalom to justice and truth to mercy are harmonized in the right kind of wisdom.
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