Heinrich Meyer Commentary - James 2:16 - 2:16

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Heinrich Meyer Commentary - James 2:16 - 2:16


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Jam_2:16 describes the conduct towards those requiring help.

τις ἐξ ὑμῶν ] is to be taken generally, and is not, with Grotius, to be limited to those qui fidem creditis sufficere ad salutem.

The address: ὑπάγετε ἐν εἰρήνῃ ] expresses a friendly wish at departure; similar to πορεύεσθε ἐν εἰρήνῃ , Act_16:36; Jdg_18:6. ὑπάγειν εἰς εἰρήνην (Mar_5:34; Luk_7:50, and other places) is somewhat different, where εἰρήνη and ὑπάγειν are not yet conceived as united.

With θερμαίνεσθε with reference to γυμνοί , warming by clothing is specially to be thought of (see Job_31:30; Hag_1:6); but it is inaccurate to explain the verb itself as equivalent to vestiri (Laurentius, Baumgarten, Pott, Bengel, Gebser, Hottinger, Theile).

θερμαίνεσθε and χορτάζεσθε are not imperatives of the passive, and to be taken in an optative sense (Hottinger: utinam aliquis beneficens vobis vestimenta largiatur; similarly Grotius, Morus, Theile), but imperatives of the middle: Warm yourselves, satisfy yourselves; only thus does the contrast appear pointed and definite; that they are not properly to be considered as commanding, but as exhorting, is of itself evident. The plural μὴ δῶτε δέ is explained from ἐξ ὑμῶν ; τὰ ἐπιδήδεια ( ἅπ . λεγ .) = τὰ ἀναγκαῖα (Gloss.: τὰ πρὸς τροφὴν ἁρμόδια ; Suidas: ἀφορμαὶ εἰς τὸν βίον ; see Herod. ii. 174; Thuc. ii. 23; Cicero, Off. i. 8: necessaria vitae praesidia); the things necessary for the support of the body, namely, clothing and food. The question τί τὸ ὄφελος ; brings forward that such a sympathy which is χωρὶς ἔργων profits nothing, has no efficacy; to this neither egentibus (Hottinger) nor dicentibus (Gomar, Baumgarten, Semler) is to be supplied.