JAMES
JAMES
from the famine foretold by Agabus (Acts, xi, 2S-30),
and usually identified with one mentioned in Josephus
(Antiq., XX. ii, 5), a. d. 45. B. Place of Com position.
— The Epistle was probably written by St. James in
Jerusalem: this we raa.v conclude from the study of
the life of the author "(see James the Less, Saint),
and this opinion finds favour with nearly all its critics.
Consult Introductions to the New Testament. It will suffice
to indicate some recent commentaries and special studies in
which the earlier bibliography is mentioned. Catholic
Works: — ErmoJ^i in Vigouroux, Diet, de Ut Bible, s. w.
Jacques (Saint) le Majeur, Jacques (Saint) le Mineur, Jacques
(Epitre de Saint); Jacquier, Histoire des livres du Nouveau
Testament (Paris, 1909); Meinertz, Der Jacobusbrief und sein
Verfaaser in Schrift und Veberlieferung (Freiburg im Br., 1905);
Calmes, Epitres calholiques. Apocalypse (Paris, 1905)- Van
Steenkiste-Camerltnck, Commentarius in Epistolas Catholi-
cas (Bruges. 1909). Non-Catholic Works: — Lipsins. Die
apocryphen .\postelgeschichten und Apostellegenden (Braun-
schweig, 1883-1890); SpiTTA, Der Brief des Jacobus (Gottingen.
1896); Mayor, The Epistle of St. James (London, 1892); Idem
in Hastings, Diet, of the Bible, s. w. James and James, The
General Epistle of; Plumptre, The General Epistle of St. James
(Cambridge. 1901); Emmett in H.istings-Selbie, Diet, of the
Bible, 8. V. James, Epistle of.
A. Camerlynck.
James of Brescia, theologian of the fifteenth cen- tury. He entered tlie Dominican Order at Brescia, his native city, and in 1450 was appointed to the office of inquisitor. He aided the papal auditor, Bernardo da Bosco, in putting an end to the teach- ing of impious doctrines at Bergamo. He also took a prominent part in the controversy between the Dominicans and the Minorites with regard to the Precious Blood. During Easter Week, 1462, St. James of the .Marches, a celebrated Minorite preacher, maintained in a sermon at Brescia that the Blood separated from the Body of Christ during His Pas- sion was thereby separated from His Divinity, and consequently was not entitled to adoration during the time that Christ remained in the sepulchre. As this doctrine had been proscribed by Clement VI in 1351, James of Brescia cited James of the Marches to appear before his tribunal in case he should not retract. A dispute at once arose between the Dominicans and Friars Minor. Shortly before, in a Bull written at Tivoli, Pius II had declared that it was not contrary to Christian Faith to hold that Christ did not reassume a part of the Blood He shed in His Passion. This declaration narrowed down the controversy to the question: Whether the Blood which Christ shed in His Passion and re- assumed at His Resurrection was adorable as the Blood of the Son of God during the three days that it was separated from His Body. The affirmative was maintained by the Dominicans, the negative by the Minorites. The pope ordered a solemn disputa- tion to be held before the pontifical court at Christ- mas, 1462 (1463, according to many). James of Brescia was one of the three theologians who repre- sented the Dominicans. Among the Mmorite cham- pions was Francesco della Roverc, later Pope Sixtus IV. After a debate of three days, a consultation was held by the pope and the cardinals, but no defin- itive decision was pronounced. In a Constitution dated 1 August, 1464, two weeks before his death, Pius for- bade all further disputation on the subject. A full presentation of the Dominican side of this contro- versy is preserved in an unpublished treatise written by James of Brescia and his two colleagues. Other theo- logical works attributed to James are no longer extant.
ECHARD AND QuETlF. Scriplores Ord. Pra:,l., I, 822 and 824; Natalis Alexander. Hist. Eccl.. VIII (Paris, 1714), 17; Pas- tor. History of the Popes, III (London, 1894), 286; Mortier, Histoire des Maitres Generaux Ord. Prad., IV (Paris, 1909), 413.
J. A. McHuGH.
James of Edessa, a celebrated Syrian writer, b. most likely in a. d. 633: d. 5 June, 708. He was a native of the village of 'En-debha, in the district of Gumyah, in the province of Antioch. During several years he studied Greek and Holy Writ at the famous
convent of Kennesrhe, on the left bank of the Eu-
phrates, opposite Europus (Carchemish). After his
return to Syria he was appointed Bishop of Edes.si,
aliout A. D. 6S4, by the Patriarch Athanasius II, his
former fellow-stuttent. Equally unable to enforce
canonical rules and to connive at their infringement,
he resigned his see after a four years' episcopate, and
withdrew to the cotivent of Kaisum (near .Samosata),
while the more lenient Habhilih succeeded liim as
Bishop of Edessa. Shortly afterwards he accepted
the invitation of the monks of Eusebhona (in the Dio-
cese of Antioch) to reside at their convent, and there
he commented for eleven years on the Sacred Scrip-
tures in the Greek text, doing his utmost to promote
the study of the Greek tongue. Owing to the oppo-
sition which he met on the part of some of the monks
who did not like the Greeks, be betook himself to the
great convent of Tell-' Adda (the moilem Tell-'Addi),
where, for nine years more, he worked at his revision
of the Old Testament. Upon Habhibh's death he
took possession again of the episcopal See of Edessa,
resided in that city for four months, and then went to
Tell-' Adda to fetch his library and his pupils, but died
there. James of Edessa was a Monophysite, as is
proved by the prominent part he took in the synod
which the Jacobite patriarch Julian convened in 706,
and by one of his letters in which he speaks of the
orthodox Fathers of Chalcedon as "the Chalcedonian
heretics". In the literature of his country he holds
much the same place as St. Jerome does among the
Latins (Wright). For his time, his erudition was ex-
tensive. He was not only familiar with Greek and
with older Syriac writers, but he also had some knowl-
edge of Hebrew, and willingly availed himself of the
aid of Jewish scholars, whose views he often records.
His writings, which are not all extant, were very va-
ried and numerous, -^moug them may be noticed,
first, his important revision of the Old Testament.
This work was essentially Massoretic. James divided
the Sacred Books into chapters, prefi.xing to each chap-
ter a summary of its contents. He supplied the text
with numerous marginal notes, of which one part
gives readings from the Greek and the Syrian ver-
sions at his disposal, and the other part indicates the
exact pronunciation of the words of the text. Some
of the notes contain extracts from Severus of An-
tioch; while, at times, glosses are inserted in the text
it.self. Unfortunately, only portions of this revision
have come down to us. These are: practically the
whole Pentateuch and the Book of Daniel, preserved
in the BibUotheque Nationale at Paris (Syr. nos. 26,
27) ; the two Books of Samuel with the beginning of
Kings, and the prophecy of Isaias, found in the
British Museum (Add. 14429, 14441). The other prin-
cipal writings of James of Edessa on Biblical topics are :
(1) his unfuiished " Hexaemeron ", or work on the six days of creation, which is divided into seven treatises, and which opens with a dialogue between the author and Constantine, one of his disciples. James's "Hexaemeron" is preserved in two JISS., one of which is found in Leyden, and the other in Lyons;
(2) commentaries and scholia on the Sacred Writings of both Testaments, which are cited by later authors, such as Dionysius bar-Salibi, Bar-Hebra?us, and Severus. Some of his scholia have been pubhshed in the Roman edition of the works of St. Ephraem, and, at different times, by Phillips, Wright, Schroter, and Nestle; (3) letters treating of questions relative to Holy Writ, and mostly yet unpublished. As a htur- gical author, James of Edessa drew up an anaphora, or liturgy, revised the Liturgy of St. James, wrote the celebrated "Book of Treasures", composed orders of baptism, of the blessing of water on the eve of the Epiphany, and of the celebration of matrimony, to which may be added his translation of Severus's order of Baptism, etc. He is also the author of numerous canons; of important homilies, a few of
