Lange’s Commentary on the Holy Scriptures has served as a standard reference for more than a century. The subtitle “Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical” aptly describes the three-pronged approach to the biblical text. This translated version of the German text is often considered by many to be superior to the original.
“ you must become wholly consistent Christians, if Christianity is to effect your salvation.” (Page 64)
“The question comes up why here again James calls the New Testament the law of liberty as in ch. 1:25 and not, as above, the royal law? The law of liberty is the New Testament principle of the new life in the Gospel of Christ, which frees us from the restraint of the law.” (Page 77)
“The Jewish Christians were then tempted, on the one hand by the hatred of the pagans, on the other by the national fanaticism of the Jews (an alternate odium generis humani), and their ever-rising chiliastic desire of rebellion; they were tempted to participate in the antipathy to the pagans and to transfer it to the Gentile-Christians, to sympathize with the visionary Jewish national sentiment and thus to be again surprised by the old legal service. They were tempted to Ebionitism, which was already germinating (ch. 2), and beyond it to zealotry (ch. 3), to insurrection, (ch. 4), and to apostasy (ch. 5).” (Page 37)
“The fruitless struggling however is only an appearance and a judgment of this fighting. It is described in four gradations: 1, desiring; 2, murdering and envying; 3, fighting and warring; 4, praying and not receiving. To the first corresponds not having, to the second not obtaining, to the third an increased not having, to the fourth an increased not receiving.” (Page 110)
“James, who describes himself as Author of this Epistle, must be either the Apostle James the Less (Mark 15:40), or the son of Alphæus, Jacobus Alphæi (Matth 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13), or also ‘the Lord’s brother’ (Gal. 1:19; ch. 2:9), who is altogether identical with Jacobus Alphæi (Acts 1:13; 12:17; 15:13; 21:18).” (Page 9)