The Letter of James

This is Moo's second commentary on the epistle of James. He wrote his first one in 1985 as part of the Tyndale series. This commentary is the result of fifteen years of reflection on that work. The content of this commentary makes it evident that this is the mature thought of a noted scholar on the letter of James. Those fifteen years left him more convinced "that the heart of the letter is a call to wholehearted commitment to Christ" (x). Moo provides a lengthy introduction to this epistle (46 pages worth). This introduction includes the history of James in the church, nature and genre, authorship, theology, occasion and date, and structure of James. Concerning authorship, Moo holds that James, the bother of Christ, is the author. He presents arguments against this traditional view and then answers them. The section on the theology of the book is a feature more commentaries would do well to include. He dates the writing of the letter around the middle of the 40s AD. This is important because the date of writing has great implication on the relationship of the letter to Paul's teachings. Moo does not place a ridge structure on the letter. Instead, he finds "several key motifs" which "are often mixed together with other themes in paragraphs that cannot be labeled as neatly as we might like" (45). Denying the assertion of some commentators that the letter has no unifying purpose, Moo argues that the central concern of the letter is spiritual wholeness of the readers (47). Moo's analysis of the text is insightful. His word studies are well done. He presents a wide range of possible meanings but uses the context to determine which meaning is James's meaning. Moo also does a good job in showing James's relationship with Paul. James is not writing against Paul. James means something different by faith than does Paul. They are addressing different problems. The format of the commentary is user friendly for the most part. One helpful aspect is that Moo's introductory notes precede the verse by verse exposition of major points and most sub-points. Moo transliterates Greek words making the commentary usable to those who do not have the advantage of knowing Greek. One slight critique concerns the chapter divisions. The chapter divisions of the commentary are based on the chapters of James. This is fine, but the table of contents is broken down by his outline. One would whish the editors would choose a method of division and stay with it. The only other criticism is that Moo's writing style can be difficult at times. These two minor criticisms in no way change the fact that this is a masterpiece. It is short at only 251 pages not counting indexes. Anyone from a layperson to a scholar will benefit from this commentary. This reviewer would recommend it without hesitation (something he does not do often).

This is my favorite commentary on James, and I have read many (see some of my other reviews). Moo has the most accessible, thorough, and easy-to-use commentary that I have read. This Pillar commentary is longer than the same author's commentary written for Tyndale's New Testament Commentary Series. You would do well to buy either one of these.Moo works very hard to be exegetical. He hesitates--no, he refrains--from saying anything that he cannot demonstrate exegetically from the text. He humbly alerts the reader when his view is in the minority or contested and even humbly admits when his view is not the only defendable one (see, specifically James 4:5). To a degree matched by few, Moo not only seeks to technically (without belaboring issues so as to make them inaccessibly technical) defend his points exposing salient points of interest in the text, but he also is a carefully writes his sentences, not wasting words. The student of the Letter of James would be amiss not to invest in the Pillar Commentary by Moo. For those who would like it a little shorter and a little easier to digest, his Tyndale Commentary on James will suffice as well. Two other James commentaries that I would highly recommend are Kistemaker's and MacArthur's.

Doug Moo has written two seperate commentaries on the book of James. One is for the Tyndale New Testment series, while the other is for the Pillar New Testament Commentary. The Tyndale one is much simpler, shorter, and most accessable for the average layperson. The Pillar (a blue cover) has much more depth, including usage of the original greek. Some of the reviewers below are talking about the TYNDALE commentary and not the PILLAR commentary.Capiche?

Basically I use this book as my resource of the Sunday schoolclass. The more I read it, the more I like it. Moo is very careful in tracing the meaning of the texts by examining theOld Testament, extra-biblical literatures and the context. If some texts are controversial, he is very even-handed in handling different solutions and comes up with a reasonable conclusion. The even more important thing is he does not only render goodexegesis but also provide some good applications in christian life. I feel very impressed by his insightful prospectives. Great book!!

This is the only commentary I have read on James, so I can't fairly compare it to others. But I can't imagine reading a more lucid, informed, intriguing, and just all around Godly understanding of what can be one of the most difficult books of the NT to understand. Moo handles each passage with clarity, being fair to different views and presenting his own conclusions. The book also has a well articulated introduction and discussion of time, place, and authorship.I would have wished Moo had included Greek words in their original letters as well as their transliteration. I also wish he had interacted a bit more with the Greek text. Moo, however, was only staying true to the general format of the Pillar series, which assumes no previous Greek study on the part of the reader.Both the hard cover as well as its dusk jacket are well manufactured and good looking. The pages are nice and the small size of the book makes it fairly easy to handle.Overall, one of the best commentaries on any book that I have read.