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James

About this book
Chapter 5

1 Come now, you rich! Weep and cry aloud over the miseries that are coming on you.⁠ 2 Your riches have rotted and your clothing has become moth-eaten.⁠ 3 Your gold and silver have rusted and their rust will be a witness against you.⁠ It will consume your flesh like fire.⁠ It is in the last days that you have hoarded treasure! 4 Look, the pay you have held back from the workers who mowed your fields cries out against you, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.⁠ 5 You have lived indulgently and luxuriously on the earth. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.⁠ 6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous person, although he does not resist you. 7 So be patient, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s return. Think of how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the ground and is patient for it until it receives the early and late rains. 8 You also be patient and strengthen your hearts, for the Lord’s return is near. 9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be judged.⁠ See, the judge stands before the gates! 10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers and sisters, take the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name. 11 Think of how we regard as blessed those who have endured. You have heard of Job’s endurance and you have seen the Lord’s purpose, that the Lord is full of compassion and mercy. 12 And above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath. But let your “Yes” be yes and your “No” be no, so that you may not fall into judgment.⁠ 13 Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone in good spirits? He should sing praises. 14 Is anyone among you ill? He should summon the elders of the church, and they should pray for him and anoint him with olive oil in the name of the Lord.⁠ 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!⁠ 18 Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land sprouted with a harvest. 19 My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back,⁠ 20 he should know that the one who turns a sinner back from his wandering path will save that person’s soul from death⁠ and will cover a multitude of sins.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 83:8 and James 5:16

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · New Testament

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Summary

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.

Passages

1 Enoch 83:8

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
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.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

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!
80–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in James

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 ..."
George W. E. Nickelsburg, A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 1-36, 81-108 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001), 350.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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1 Enoch 83:8 and James 5:16

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