Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - James 5:12 - 5:12
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Above all things (pro pantōn). No connection with what immediately precedes. Probably an allusion to the words of Jesus (Mat 5:34-37). It is not out of place here. See the same phrase in 1Pe 4:8. Robinson (Ephesians, p. 279) cites like examples from the papyri at the close of letters. Here it means “But especially” (Ropes).
Swear not (mē omnuete). Prohibition of the habit (or to quit doing it if guilty) with mē and the present active imperative of omnuō. The various oaths (profanity) forbidden (mēte, thrice) are in the accusative case after omnuete, according to rule (ouranon, gēn, horkon). The Jews were wont to split hairs in their use of profanity, and by avoiding God’s name imagine that they were not really guilty of this sin, just as professing Christians today use “pious oaths” which violate the prohibition of Jesus.
Let be (ētō). Imperative active third singular of eimi, late form (1Co 16:22) for estō. “Your yea be yea” (and no more). A different form from that in Mat 5:37.
That ye fall not under judgment (hina mē hupo krisin pesēte). Negative purpose with hina mē and the second aorist active subjunctive of piptō, to fall. See hina mē krithēte in Jam 5:9. Krisis (from krinō) is the act of judging rather than the judgment rendered (krima Jam 3:1).