The Fruit of Righteousness in James: A Study in Discourse Analysis 89 the Christian7 — Christians have not become immune to desire through conversion. Rather, temptations remain a constant potential danger. Believers are only guarded through the implanted word from their driving impulses. And Christians who allow themselves to fall prey to these impulses distance themselves from the word and become sinners8. In summary, our discourse analysis will examine James with several goals in mind: (1) we will examine James with the assumption that the letter incorporates typical epistolary features. We will thus identify these epistolary units throughout the course of our analysis. (2) We will seek to isolate the basic units by which the material is organized (i.e., we will seek to clearly identify the letter’s paragraphs and larger sections). (3) We will examine how the individual paragraphs relate to the letter’s overall macrostructure. With this in mind, the proper place to begin our discourse analysis is by identifying the features one would expect to find in an epistle, which include the letter opening, the letter body, and the letter closing. 2. The Primary Text-Sequences of James 2.1 The Letter as a Whole (1,1 – 5,20) James conforms to the typical structure of the Greek letter in the first century C.E., which included the letter prescript, letter body, and letter closing. 1,1 serves as the letter’s opening, making mention of the writer and recipients. 1,2 – 5,20 functions as the letter body. The letter lacks an epistolary closing9. Thus, while many letters contained three sections, James contains two — the letter prescript and the letter body. 2.1.1 Letter Prescript (1,1) This verse conforms to the typical pattern of the first century, establishing the communication by identifying the letter’s addressor (Ἰάκωβος) and addressees (ταῖς δώδεκα φυλαῖς). Also present is the expected infinitive χαίρειν10. The boundaries of the opening are 7 M. Konradt, Christliche Existenz nach dem Jakobusbrief: Eine Studie zu seiner soteriologischen und ethischen Konzeption (Studien zur Umwelt des Neuen Testaments 22; Göttingen 1998) 304. 8 Ibid., 305-06. 9 Space forbids an investigation into the absence of a letter-closing in James. For an overview of what one would expect to see in such a closing, see Weima, Neglected Endings, S.E. Porter (ed.) (JSNT Supp 101; Sheffield 1994) 29, 38. 10 On the typical pattern of the Greek letter, which follows the formula A — B — χαίρειν, see F.X.J. Exler, The Form of the Ancient Greek Letter: A Study in Greek Epistolography (Washington 1923) 23.