Heeding the Voices of Ὀρφανοί καὶ Xῆραι (Fatherless Households) in James 1:27: Utilising the Greimassian Semiotic Square

Abstract:James 1:27 contains the only exhortation concerning the care of fatherless children and widowed mothers ("ὀρφανοί καὶ χῆραι") in the New Testament. By intentionally reading James 1:27 against the grain, the authors anticipate resisting the dominant voices enunciated with regard to the ὀρφανοί καὶ χῆραι. Traditionally, researchers view this reference as a cliché, signifying the "poor," consequently turning real people whose distress is real, into abstract concepts. The reference to orphans and widows (ὀρφανοί καὶ χῆραι) implies fatherless households. This observation presents the impetus to further explore the role this reference plays in comprehending the Letter of James's storied world. In order to investigate the underlying values in the Letter of James's storied world, the heuristic value of the Greimassian semiotic square is assessed. Contingent on the outcome of evaluating the data of the text (the surface structure and the structure of manifestation), the fundamental values underlying James 1:27, which account for the generation of this text, are presented with the Greimassian semiotic square.