Joseph Allen: The λόγος as a Creative Word in James 1:18

Joseph G. Allen, “God’s λόγος in James and Early Judaism,” NovT 67 (2025), 368.

[I]t is difficult to read James 1:18 independently of its allusions to God’s creation of the world. James’s allusions to Genesis 1 in chapter 3 indicate that he is familiar with this portion of Scripture, and James has a penchant for grounding his ethical exhortation in the nature of the created order and humanity’s responsibility as creatures. It is not surprising, then, that James 1:18 uses creation language. There are several indications of this: (1) the use of the phrase “Father of Lights” to evoke God’s creation of the stars; (2) the use of the verb ἀποκυέω, which is used by Philo (Ebr. 30, ἀπεκύησε) and Poimandres 9 (ἀπεκύησε λόγῳ), with the latter using this term to describe God’s creative speech; (3) the use of the noun κτίσμα, which describes what has been created by God; (4) the use of the phrase “creation-face” (τὸ πρόσωπον τῆς γενέσεως) in 1:23, in what appears to be a reference back to these verses; and (5) the use of the instrumental dative, which configures the λόγος as a means of God’s creative action. The creational overtones in this chapter, then, are strong, and warrant reading the λόγος ἀληθείας as an allusion to God’s creation by his word.