4 Maccabees 9:8

Pseudepigrapha

5 You are trying to terrify us by threatening us with death by torture, as though a short time ago you learned nothing from Eleazar. 6 And if the aged men of the Hebrews because of their religion lived piously while enduring torture, it would be even more fitting that we young men should die despising your coercive tortures, which our aged instructor also overcame. 7 Therefore, tyrant, put us to the test; and if you take our lives because of our religion, do not suppose that you can injure us by torturing us. 8 For we, through this severe suffering and endurance, shall have the prize of virtue and shall be with God, on whose account we suffer; 9 but you, because of your bloodthirstiness toward us, will deservedly undergo from the divine justice eternal torment by fire."

James 1:3

New Testament

2 My brothers and sisters, consider it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you will be perfect and complete, not deficient in anything. 5 But if anyone is deficient in wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without reprimand, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith without doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed around by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 since he is a double-minded individual, unstable in all his ways.

 Notes and References

"... it is clear that James means: 'an example of suffering with patience' (or: 'patience in hardship,'). The term makrothymia ("long-suffering/patience") was discussed in the note on 5:7. James' presentation of the model rounds off the exhortation that began with that verse. The noun kakopothia (or kakopatheia) is found only here in the New Testament. It means literally distress or misery (Aristotle, Politics 1278B; Thucydides, Peloponnesian War VII, 77, I; Ep. Arist. 208; Philo, On Joseph 223). It is used sometimes actively for expending a strenuous effort (see 2 Maccabees 2:26), but the meaning here is clearly that of passive suffering accompanied by endurance (compare 4 Maccabees 9:8: dia tesde kakopatheias kai hypomones), as the use of kakopothein in 5:13 also shows (compare 2 Timothy 2:9; 4:5) ..."

Johnson, Luke Timothy The Letter of James: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (p. 318) Doubleday, 1995

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