James 2:1

μὴ … ἔχετε : the imperative, which is also found in all the versions, seems more natural and more in accordance with the style of the Epistle than the interrogative form adopted by WH. ἐν προσωπολημψίαις : the plural form is due to Semitic usage, like ἐξ αἱμάτων in John 1:13; cf. Romans 2:11; Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 3:25. τὴν πίστιν τοῦ Κυρίου …: the mention of the “faith of Christ” is brought in in a way which shows that this was a matter with which the readers were well acquainted. The phrase must evidently mean the new religion which Christ gave to the world, i.e., the Christian faith. τῆς δόξης : the intensely Jewish character of this Epistle makes it reasonably certain that the familiar Jewish conception of the Shekinah is what the writer is here referring to. The Shekinah (from the root שׁכן “to dwell”) denoted the visible presence of God dwelling among men. There are several references to it in the N.T. other than in this passage, Matthew 9:7; Luke 2:9; Acts 7:2; Romans 9:4; cf. Hebrews 9:5; so, too, in the Targums, e.g., in Targ. Onkelos to Numbers 6:25 ff. the “face (in the sense of appearance or presence) of the Lord” is spoken of as the Shekinah. A more materialistic conception is found in the Talmud, where the Shekinah appears in its relationship with men as one person dealing with another; e.g., in Sola, 3 b, it is said that before Israel sinned the Shekinah dwelt with every man severally, but that after they sinned it was taken away; cf. Sota, 17 a, where it is said: “Man and wife, if they be deserving, have the Shekinah between them”; so, too, Pirqe Aboth., iii. 3: “Rabbi Chananiah ben Teradyon [he lived in the second century, A.D.] said, Two that sit together and are occupied in words of Torah have the Shekinah among them” (cf. Matthew 18:20); see further Oesterley and Box, Op. cit., pp. 191 194. The Shekinah was thus used by Jews as an indirect expression in place of God, the localised presence of the Deity. “In the identification of the Shekinah and cognate conceptions with the incarnate Christ, ‘a use is made of these ideas,' as Dalman says, ‘which is at variance with their primary application'. It marks a specifically Christian development, though the way had certainly been prepared by hypostatising tendencies” (Box, in Hastings' DC [55]., ii. 622 a). That Christ was often identified with the Divine Shekinah may be seen from the examples given by Friedländer, Patristische und Talmudische Studien, pp. 62 ff. If our interpretation of δόξα here is correct, it will follow, in the first place, that the meaning of the phrase … Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τῆς δόξης is free from ambiguity, viz., “… Have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Shekinah ” (literally “the glory”); this is precisely the same thought that is contained in the words, “… who being the effulgence of his glory … (Hebrews 1:2-3). And, in the second place, this rendering shows that the words are an expression of the Divinity of our Lord; cf. Bengel's note: “ τῆς δόξης : est appositio, ut ipse Christus dicatur ἡ δόξα ”. [Since writing the above the present writer finds that Mayor, p. 78, refers to Mr. Bassett's comment on this verse, where the same interpretation is given, together with a number of O.T. quotations; it seems scarcely possible to doubt that this interpretation is the correct one.]

[55]CG Hastings' Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels (1907 1908)