(04-19-2024, 10:43 PM)quintessentone Wrote: "We walk by faith, not by sight." Paul the Apostle
I'm wondering Disraeli, just how many people during that time could understand what was being preached?
Jesus repeatedly said that even his disciples did not understand him/his teachings even when he spoke simply and plainly, so those apostles or others going forth to spread the word, why should we believe they understood any better? So, it could well have been Paul perhaps wrestling with understanding the meaning of the word thereby perhaps filling in gaps, editing, reinterpreting, etc.
You're right on the first point, because it is so hard for humans to banish the idea that they need to DO something. I think James is arguing with some of disciples of Paul who have managed to twist "relying on faith" into "relying on saying we have faith" and made that into a kind of dogmatic law. In fact they've turned into early Calvinists. So James is the one who is doing what your last sentence suggests.
But this letter's exhortations are addressed to Christians, presumably converted Jews, who have been waiting for Jesus to return for a long time, and are in danger of giving up and lapsing back into trusting in the laws of Moses alone. Probably addressed to the church in Jerusalem. I can't see Paul talking to James like that, but I can see a disciple of Paul (Barnabas has been suggested) talking in this way to the disciples of James.