Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

James 2:15

ἀδελφὸς ἢ�, a recurring reminder of the relationship of the disciples to one another.

γυμνοὶ ὑπάρχωσιν κ.τ.λ., comp. Matthew 25:35-36. In later Judaism the duty of almsgiving was vividly realised. This is one of the post-exile religious ideas which strongly influenced thought at this period. See Tob 4:8 ff. where the Hebr. text has: ‘Every one who occupieth himself in alms shall behold the face of God, as it is written, I will behold thy face by almsgiving,’ Psalms 17:15, almsgiving being as elsewhere substituted for righteousness. So Khasidim, the pious, are those who exercise Khesed, mercy.

St James’s one injunction to St Paul when he recognised his mission to the Gentiles was ‘to remember the poor’: μόνον τῶν πτωχῶν ἵνα μνημονεύωμεν, Galatians 2:9, and the Church over which he presided proved its first enthusiasm by acts of charity.

With the Stoics ἔλεος was reckoned among the defects or vices: it was a disturbing element that broke in on the philosophic calm: ὁ�, ἔστω δοῦλος λυπείσθω, φθονείτου, ἐλεείτω, Epict. Diss. III. 24. 43. Comp. Virgil’s picture of the happy man; among his blessings is the absence of pity: neqne ille | aut doluit miserans inopem, Georg. II. 498.

τῆς ἐφημέρου τροφῆς, of the day’s supply of food, as distinguished from τῆς καθʼ ἡμέραν τροφῆς. Field, Otium Norv., ἀπῆλθεν ἐκ τῆς οἰκίας μόνος … ἄδουλος, ἄπορος, οὐδὲ τὴν ἐφήμερον ὁ δύστηνος ἐκ τῶν ἑαυτοῦ χρημάτων τροφὴν (ne unius quidem diet viaticum) ἐπαγόμενος, Dion. Hal. Ant. VIII. 41 (Wetstein).

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

James 2:15

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