Texts in Conversation
James describes the prayer of the righteous person being especially effective, echoing the language of 1 Enoch 83 where Enoch is asked to pray for a remnant to be left because he is a believer.
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1 Enoch 83:8
Pseudepigrapha
7 I told him the entire vision I had seen, and he said to me: 'You have seen a terrifying thing, my son, and your dream-vision reveals serious matters regarding the sins of the world: it must sink into the abyss and be utterly destroyed.' 8 And now, my son, get up and pray to the Lord of glory, for you are a believer, that a remnant may remain on the earth, and that He may not destroy the entire earth. 9 My son, all of this will come upon the earth from heaven, and there will be great destruction on earth.
James 5:16
New Testament
15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up—and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness. 17 Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and there was no rain on the land for three years and six months!
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Notes and References
"... In view of this terrible prospect, Mahalalel counsels Enoch, in the second unit (verse 8), to pray that a remnant may survive the catastrophe. The motif is drawn from the biblical story of Noah (Genesis 7:23) and is central in Enochic materials about Noah. Mahalalel believes that Enoch’s prayer will be effective because he is “faithful.” Although Enoch is perceived to be righteous, this particular term is nowhere else applied to him in 1 Enoch and is rare in the corpus ..."
Nickelsburg, George W. E.
A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 1-36, 81-108
(p. 350) Fortress Press, 2001
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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