05_Biblica_Aletti_Layout 1 01/04/14 12:04 Pagina 100 100 JEAN-NOËL ALETTI author? James, the brother of the Lord, whose name is not Greek in origin and who lived in Palestine at that time? The answer will surely be no. But could not James, the brother of the Lord, have dictated his ideas to a Hellenized amanuensis and given to the latter the care of writing and composing them according to the rules then in place? This is possible on the condition that the amanuensis had read the Scriptures like a Jew of the time. And only recently, an- other hypothesis has been suggested 23, that of pseudepigraphy. The study of the arrangement of Jas 2,14-26 is not sufficient for pro- nouncing with certainty on these two positions, both of which are completely plausible. * * * This essay has had as its main goal to demonstrate that the choice of a pattern of arrangement has a real impact on the meaning of a passage and the understanding that one must have of it. The choice of a chreia allowed James to repeat an opinion that had be- come common in some Christian communities and to criticize it, showing that it was erroneous. By presenting the common opinion as a maxim (gnw,mh), he did not need to cite Paul and thereby avoided attributing to him what was only an erroneous recapitula- tion of his doctrine of justification. It may be useful to recall that other passages in the Letter of James follow the same argumentative pattern 24. And as these are not the letter’s only rhetorical units that follow Greek rhetorical models, the reader is invited to verify that the author of this letter knew how to reason according to the rules of arrangement then in place in the schools and elsewhere, rules that he uses with originality. The au- thor’s rhetoric is not Semitic: for him, Greek is not only a language or a style but also what structures the development of his thought. Pontifical Biblical Institute Jean-Noël ALETTI Via della Pilotta, 25 00187 Rome 23 Cf. ASSAËL-CUVILLIER, Jacques. 24 See the articles of D.F. Watson cited above.