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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - James 2:1 - 2:1
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
My brethren (adelphoi mou). Transition to a new topic as in Jam 1:19; Jam 2:5, Jam 2:14; Jam 3:1; Jam 5:7.
Hold not (mē echete). Present active imperative of echō with negative mē, exhortation to stop holding or not to have the habit of holding in the fashion condemned.
The faith of our Lord Jesus Christ (tēn pistin tou kuriou hēmōn Iēsou Christou). Clearly objective genitive, not subjective (faith of), but “faith in our Lord Jesus Christ,” like echete pistin theou (Mar 11:22), “have faith in God.” See the same objective genitive with pistis in Act 3:6; Gal 2:16; Rom 3:22; Rev 14:12. Note also the same combination as in Jam 1:1 “our Lord Jesus Christ” (there on a par with God).
The Lord of Glory (tēs doxēs). Simply “the Glory.” No word for “Lord” (kuriou) in the Greek text. Tēs doxēs clearly in apposition with tou kuriou Iēsou Christou. James thus terms “our Lord Jesus Christ” the Shekinah Glory of God. See Heb 9:5 for “the cherubim of Glory.” Other New Testament passages where Jesus is pictured as the Glory are Rom 9:4; 2Co 4:6; Eph 1:17; Heb 1:3. Cf. 2Co 8:9; Phi 2:5-11.
With respect of persons (en prosōpolēmpsiais). A Christian word, like prosōpolēmptēs (Act 10:34) and prosōpolēmpteite (Jam 2:9), not in lxx or any previous Greek, but made from prosōpon lambanein (Luk 20:21; Gal 2:6), which is a Hebrew idiom for panim nasa, “to lift up the face on a person,” to be favorable and so partial to him. See prosōpolēmpsia in this sense of partiality (respect of persons) in Rom 2:11; Col 3:25; Eph 6:9 (nowhere else in N.T.). Do not show partiality.