f Moo's commentary on the Epistle of James is his contention that it is not organized. In fact, a comparison of the first chapter with Jesus' Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew 5-7 reveals that James first selected the "high points" that were relevant to his audience. Thus, James relies heavily on Matt. 5:10-12, which speaks of Jesus' command to rejoice at trials, because Christians at the time were experiencing many trials and persecutions. Secondly, James' organization is the oriental circular method of drawing a few points from the source, then returning to pick up some more, and repeating this process throughout the argument. Moo does allude to the Sermon on the Mount (54) but doesn't develop its relevance.
That Moo misses this works against the usefulness of his book. However, despite statements such as chapter one having "no single theme" (59) he does explain much in the Epistle of James that otherwise would have been unclear or covered. Instead,
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