The Pulpit Commentary — James — Section 78

form of e.n inference from the preceding. was shut up three years and six months." The form of the expression, "one to another," And as the SE\lllC reriod ie so.id to be given e.nd the perfectly general term, "a righteous in the Yalkut Slumeoui on 1 Kings xvi., it rn11.n," forbid us to see in it a direct injunc- was probn.bly the time hn.nded down by tion to c-onfess to the oler~, and to the tradition, being taken by the Jews as a c-lercy only. But on the other hand, it is symbol of times of tribulation (cf. Dan. vii. uure.ir to lose sight of the faot that it is 25; xii. 7; Rev. :lli. 2). directly connected with the charge to send Ver, 19.-Final ~horta!i'on; introduced, for the elders of the Church. Me.rshall, in as was the opening one (oh. i. 2), by the his' Penitential Discipline,' is perfectly justi- emphatic "my brethren." The Received fied in saying that St. Ja.mes "hath plainly Text omits µ.ov, but it is found in 111 A, B, K, supposed the presence of the elders of the Vulgate. Church, and their intercession to God for Ver. 20.-Let him know. So N, A, K, L, the sick penitent, and then recommended Latt., Syriac. B ha.s -ywtl,""'"'• "know ye." the confession of his faults in that presence, After ,j,ux¾/v, 111 A, and Vulgate add a.uToiJ. T,here two or three usembled together in B has it after 6a.11,frov. And sha.11 oover a the Na.me of Christ might constitute a. multitude of Bins (Ka.ll.01/m ,rlt.,j6os &µa.pnwv). Church for that purpose" (' Pen it. Dis- The so.me expreesion occurs in 1 Pet. iv. 8, cipline,' p. 80). We may, perhaps, be con- "Charity covereth a multitude of sins." tent with saying, with Bishop Jeremy Taylor, It is founded on Prov. x.. 12, c•v.tti;i-,? 'ii) "When St. Jo.mes exhort.a e.11 Christians to ;i?i"\~ i1!)l:II\ "Love covereth e.11 sins," confess their sins one to another, certainly it is more agreeable to e.11 spiritual ends where the LXX. goes entirely astray: n&.v'Tas B~ .,.oOs µ¾, cf,uAoveucoiivTas KaA01rTE& that this be done rather to the curate of souls than to the ordinary brethren" (' Dis- <1>11t.la: but cf. Ps. xxxi. 1 ; lxxxiv. 3, in the sua.si ve from Popery,' IL i. 11; cf. Hooker, LXX. It is difficult to believe that St. • Eccl Pol,' VL iv. 5, 7). The eff'ectu.e.J. fer- Peter and St. Jo.mes independently hit upon vent prayer, etc. ; rather, the petition of a the rendering ,rl\,j6os &µ.apT1wv for the ri,ghteou man af!aiJ.eth much in iuJ working. Hebrew c•vr,c--';,::i, e.1 there was nothing to On the distinction between SE711nr the nar- suggest it, ·the LXX. never rendering ,.:.i rower, and ,rpou,vx-fi the wider word, see by ,rl\,j6os. Probably the one we.e consciously Trench on ' Synm1yms,' p. I 79. or unconsciously influenced by the other. Vere. 17, 18.-illustration of the last The striking position which the words statement of ver. 16, from the case of Elijah, occupy here, e.s those with which the Epistle " a righteons man " under the old covenant, closes, would make them linger in the but one " of like pe.ssions with ns," and memory; and there is nothing to militate therefore one from whose case it is lawful a.go.inst the conclusion, which appeared pro- to argue to our own. Subject to like passions bable on the occasion of previous coincidences as we are. 'Oµ.ounra.6'1/s 71,..:i11 : simply " of between the two writers, that St. Jamee is like passions with us;" cf. Acts ld.v. 15, the earlier of the two (comp. on eh. iv. 6). where it is used in just the ea.me way. In The expression used by the apostle leaves the LXX. only in Wisd. vii. 3. Ee prayed it undetermined whose sine are thus earnestly. Opouwxp ,rpou71u~a..,.o: a Hebre.im1. "covered," whether (1) those of the man not unfrequent in the New Testament (see who is ""converted from the error of his we.v," Luke x.xii. 15 ; John iii. 29 ; Acts iv. 17 ; or (2) those of the man who wine him ba~k, v. 28; xxiii 14), in imitation of the and through this good action obtains, by Hebrew absolute infinitive (cf. Winer, p. the grace of God, pardon for his own " mul- 584). For the incident alluded to by St. titude of sins." It has been well noticed Jamee, see 1 Kings x.vii. 1; x.viii. 1; but that " there is e. studied generality in the note (I) that we are never told that the form of the teaching which seems to empha- fa.mine was in consequence of Elijah's size the wide blessedness of love. In the prayer; and (2) nothing is said of the dlJ!a- very act of seeking to convert one for whom tion of time (three years and a he.If) dlll".ng we co.re we must turn to God ourselves, and which it rained not upon the earth. All in covering the past sins of another our we read is that" after many days the word own also are covered. In such e.n act love of the Lord came to Elijah in the thixd roaches its highest point, and that love in- year ; " but there is no clear indication from cludes the faith in God which is the con- what period this " third year" is dated. dition of forgiveness" (Plumptre). With regard to (1), it may have been _St. The Epistle ends abruptly, with no salu- Jamee's own inference from the narrative, tation and no doxology. In this it stands or may have been due to trad~tion.. With almost by itself in the New Testament; the regard to (2), the very so.me tlllle 18 men- Fixst Epistle of St. John alone o.pproe.ching tioned by our Lord in lJ.i;; allusion to the it in the abruptness of its concluaion. 1&111e incident (Luke iv. 25), "the heaven Ott. V. 1-20.) 'l'IIE GENERAL EPISTLE OF JAMES.