James 5:7-11

The section 7 11 is a Christian adaptation of the earlier Jewish conception of the Messianic Era; in place of αἱ ἐσχάται ἡμέραι there is ἡ παρουσία τοῦ Κυρίου, the one a specifically Jewish, the other a specifically Christian expression; the two expressions, which represent, as it were, the titles of Jewish and Christian Eschatology respectively, are sufficient to show the difference of venue regarding these two sections. It is characteristic of one type of apocalyptic literature that the central figure of the Messiah is not mentioned, while another type lays great emphasis on the Messianic Personality; James 5:1-6 represents the former of these; that it contains no trace of Christian interpolation is the more remarkable in that it is utilised by a Jewish-Christian writer and is incorporated in Christian literature. The fact is additional evidence in favour of its being a quotation, one of several which our Epistle contains. It is christianised by the addition to it of James 5:7-11, which, though interspersed with O.T. reminiscences, is specifically Christian. A similar christianising of Jewish material by adding to it is found, though on a much smaller scale, in Revelation 22:20, Ἀμήν ἔρχου κύριε Ἰησοῦ, which forms a response to the preceding ναί, ἔρχομαι ταχύ. Dr. Schiller-Szinessy (in Encycl. Brit., art. “Midrash”) discovered that the Hebrew equivalent of the words Ἀμήν ἔρχου (= אמן בא) indicated acrostically a primitive hymn, which still appears in all the Jewish prayer books, and is known from its opening words as En Kelohenu (“There is none like our God”; see Singer's The Authorised Daily Prayer Book, p. 167). This hymn consists of five verses of four lines each; the first word of each line in the first verse begins with [60], of the second verse with מ, of the third with נ, of the fourth with ב, and of the fifth with [61], thus making a four-fold repetition of the formula אמן בא (= “Amen, Come”). This formula is the short title of the hymn referred to and “is actually written instead of the hymn in the place where it is to be used after the Additional Service for the New Year, and again towards the conclusion of the additional service for the eighth day of Solemn Assembly …, at the end of the Feast of Tabernacles” (Taylor, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, pp. 78 ff., and see Box in Church and Synagogue, iii., pp. 41 ff.). The formula “Amen Bo” belonged to Jewish Eschatology, and possibly took its origin from the phrase עולם הבא (= “The age to come,” a common expression for the Messianic Era); it is christianised by the Jewish-Christian writer in the Apocalypse by the addition of κύριε Ἰησοῦ, just as in the passage before us the second, obviously Christian, section James 5:7-11, is added on to the former, quite as obviously Jewish, in order to make the whole Christian.

[60] Codex Sinaiticus (sæc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.

[61] Codex Sinaiticus (sæc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.