Pesher - James 2
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James is a book of contrasts, (Faith/doubting, quick to hear / slow to listen, doers / hearers, etc. ) and verses 14-26
Faith/doubting, quick to hear / slow to listen, doers / hearers, etc.
14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?
14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
James opens up this section with the rhetorical question, “What is the profit, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?”. The Rhetorical question operates as a hook from which the rest of the passage hangs. James opening contains the main themes, mainly faith, works, and their results, that carry throughout the section as he provides an answer to his question. James continues to use interrogatives throughout this passage, which work to demonstrate his polemical tone throughout.
14a
Rhetorical Q.
What is the profit, my brothers and sisters
14a - What is the profit…?
14d - is such a faith able to save him?
16c - what good (ὄφελος/profit) is that?
19a - you believe that God is one(?)
20a - Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?
This last interrogative introduces the second movement in this passage, the examples of Abraham and Rahab.
ὄφελος is not speaking of a moral good, but rather he is speaking of advantage or profit.
What good ὄφελος is it...
ὄφελος is not speaking of a moral good, but rather James is speaking of advantage or profit. The question has to do with whether or not faith is of any benefit if works are absent.
Faith - πίστις (11x)
BDAG - trust, reliability, fidelity, commitment, allegiance.
faithfulness, reliability, fidelity, commitment
Fait
demands that we not see faith as merely trusting, but that a true biblical faith is is holistic commitment and allegiance to Christ. The understanding of faith is crucial as we look at the rest of the section. James view of faith is one that cannot be bifurcated in to ‘belief’ and ‘works’.
emphasizes seeing faith as being the unification of belief and works when he says, “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe -- and shudder.” The affirmation of the Shema, without works to accompany, is to be in a worse state than demons. Even the demons believe in the Shema, and at least they φρίσσω, shake with fear.
Works - ἔργον (12x)
displays itself in activity of any kind, deed, action
ἔργον is a general word used of pretty much anything that displays itself in an activity of any kind, deed, action. James is using ἔργον to describe what faith does. True faith reveals itself through ἔργον. When faith looks in the mirror, ἔργον is its reflection.
James says in verses 17 and 26 that if ἔργον is not fused together with faith, than that faith is dead. Thus, ἔργον is the pulse of true biblical faith.
Paul mentions the
Justified - δικαιόω
James introduces justification in verse 21 with reference to Abraham. In verse 22 James connects both faith and works to Abraham’s justification. James refuses to allow his reader to believe that one can be vindicated, declared legally righteous, before God by a faith lacking the pulse of works. A dead faith, one without works, cannot justify anyone. This point is made clearly in verse 24, “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.” Verse 24 is sandwiched between two OT examples, Abraham and Rahab. In both cases James says that they were justified by works. The only faith that justifies is a living, working, faith.
Typology
Elijah
James writes with a Elijah like tone throughout this passage. Elijah is in close proximity as James references his Elijah in 4:17 in the context of the prayer of faith.
James polemical tone echos back to Elijah’s tone with virtually everyone he spoke too.
Elijah embodied true biblical faith (4.17), and the examples given in may have echos in Elijah’s story.
Ahab was a man who had ‘faith’ without works, and that ‘faith’ was unable to save him (1 k. 21-22)
The widow and her son were lacking daily food (and presumably poorly clothed), and Elijah entered into their need and gave them what they needed.
Elijah questions Israel in saying, “how long will you go on limping between two different opinions?” - This can be connected to , “a double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”
James makes mention of Demons in verse 19, and much of Elijah’s story is around the demonic powers of Baal through his prophets, Jezebel, and Ahab.
Abraham and Rahab
James uses two extremes, two ends of the spectrum to argue his point that faith and works always go together. Abraham was their father, a righteous man, a man of great faith, a man who was given the covenant promises. Rahab was a prostitute, a gentile, she knew nothing of correct doctrine, yet her faith, belief and action were placed in God. For Rahab and Abraham, their faith was not an idea. It was an allegiance to God.
Abraham was there father, a righteous man, a man of great faith, a man who was given the covenant promises
Rahab was a prostitute, a gentile, she knew nothing of correct doctrine, yet her faith, belief and action were placed in God.
Abraham
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?
James begins to use Abraham as an example in verse 21, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?” This reference speak of the story of Abraham and Isaac found in .
The story of Abraham and Isaac has many parallels with the God the Father and Jesus
Isaac had to carry the wood for the alter as Christ carried the cross
Abraham brought with him the fire and the knife, these represent the wrath and justice of the father that were poured out on Jesus.
Like the gospel, the story of Abraham and Isaac is one of death and resurrection.
Rahab
The story of Rahab emphasizes the importance of true biblical faith. Rahab was justified through by her works, if her faith had not worked she would not be justified. And she would never have hid the messengers. If this was the case, than Rahab and all those who were with her would have been part of the (חֵ֫רֶם) judgment of YHWH (Josh 6:17).
9 When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.
12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”
23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.
6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
7 Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?
8 But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend;
25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. And she said, “True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from.
15 Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall, so that she lived in the wall.
17 And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent.
and Rahab
James uses
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