James 5:8

Jas 5:8. Ἡ παρουσία, the coming) which will also bear precious fruit.—ἤγγικε, is come nigh) The apostles said this with truth: although those times intervene which are spoken of, 2 Thessalonians 2 and in the Apocalypse. Comp. the note, Act 2:39.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jam_5:8. Resumption and completion of the exhortation. The καί after μακροθυμήσατε is explained from the reference to ὁ γεωργός.

By the asyndeton addition στηρίξατε τὰς καρδίας ὑμῶν, the conduct which is the condition of μακροθυμία is emphasized. Not weak, but strong hearts are able to cherish μακροθυμίαν; on this expression, comp. 1Th_3:13; 1Pe_5:10. The strengthening is indeed, on the one hand, an affair of God; but, on the other hand, it depends on the man himself, just like everything else that is obtained by the man surrendering himself to the love of God working in him.

ὅτι ἡ παρουσία κ.τ.λ.] Calvin: Ne quis objiceret, nimium differri liberationis tempus, occurrit dicens, prope instare Dominum, vel (quod idem est) ejus adventum appropinquasse.

On the expression, comp. especially 1Pe_4:7.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jas 5:8 . στηρίξατε τὰς καρδίας : a Hebrew idiom, סעד לב ; in the O.T. mostly of strengthening the body with food. ἡ παρουσία τοῦ Κυρίου ἤγγικεν : see above; cf. Mat 3:2 ; Luk 21:28 ; Phi 4:6 ; 1Pe 4:7 ; 1Co 15:52 ; 1Th 4:15 ; 1Th 1 John 1:18.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

coming . . . draweth nigh--The Greek expresses present time and a settled state. Pe1 4:7, "is at hand." We are to live in a continued state of expectancy of the Lord's coming, as an event always nigh. Nothing can more "stablish the heart" amidst present troubles than the realized expectation of His speedy coming.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 8. Be ye also patient] Wait for God's deliverance, as ye wait for his bounty in providence.

Stablish your hearts] Take courage; do not sink under your trials.

The coming of the Lord draweth nigh.] ηγγικε. Is at hand. He is already on his way to destroy this wicked people, to raze their city and temple, and to destroy their polity for ever; and this judgment will soon take place.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8 Stablish your hearts. Lest any should object and say, that the time of deliverance was too long delayed, he obviates this objection and says, that the Lord was at hand, or (which is the same thing) that his coming was drawing nigh. In the meantime, he bids us to correct the softness of the heart, which weakens us, so as not to persevere in hope. And doubtless the time appears long, because we are too tender and delicate. We ought, then, to gather strength that we may become hardened and this cannot be better attained than by hope, and as it were by a realizing view of the near approach of our Lord.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(8) The coming of the Lord draweth nigh.—Read thus, The presence of the Lord is nigh. For the ancient belief in the nearness of Christ’s second advent, see Note above, in Jas_5:3. The word used by the Apostle to describe its closeness is the same as that used in Mat_3:2, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” The afflicted are therefore to establish, or rather strengthen, their hearts. If “comfort” retained its older sense, such would express the true idea. Comp. the great prophecy of Israel’s consolation (Isaiah 40, et seq.).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. Be ye also patient] Better, long-suffering; as before.

stablish your hearts] Better, strengthen. The strength is to come from the thought that the great Advent has come near, that there will be a great Court of Appeal from all man’s injustice. Here, as before, we note a hope which was not fulfilled as men expected its fulfilment, and yet was not frustrated. The promise of the second Advent has been to believers in Christ what the promise of the first Advent was to Abraham and the patriarchs. They saw the far-off fulfilment, knowing not the times and seasons, and it made them feel that they were strangers and pilgrims (Heb_11:13), and so purified and strengthened them.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Be ye also patient,.... As well as the husbandman, and like him; and wait for the rains and dews of divine grace to fall, and make fruitful, and for the ripe fruit of eternal life; and in the mean while cheerfully and patiently bear all injuries, and oppressions:

stablish your hearts; though the state of the saints is stable, they being fixed in the everlasting love of God, in the covenant of grace, in the hands of Christ, and on the rock of ages; yet their hearts are very unstable, and so are their frames, and the exercise of grace in them, and need establishing, which God's work; which is often done by the means of the word and ordinances; and these the saints should make use of, for the establishing of their hearts: the sense may be, take heart, be of good cheer, do not be dismayed, or faint, or sink under your pressures, but be of good courage, pluck up your spirits, lift up your heads: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh; when he will render tribulation to them that trouble them, free them from all their sorrows and afflictions, and enter them into the joy of their Lord; which will be either at death, which was not very far off, or at the last day, which was drawing nearer and nearer, and which with God was near; with whom a thousand years are as one day.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

Ver. 8. For the coming] See Jas 5:7. And he when he comes shall set all to rights. We shall see so much reason in his proceedings, which now we comprehend not, that we shall yield him the "only wise God."

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Be ye also patient - As the farmer is. In due time, as he expects the return of the rain, so you may anticipate deliverance from your trials.

Stablish your hearts - Let your purposes and your faith be firm and unwavering. Do not become weary and fretful; but bear with constancy all that is laid upon you, until the time of your deliverance shall come.

For the coming of the Lord draweth nigh - Compare Rev 22:10, Rev 22:12, Rev 22:20; the notes at 1Co 15:51. It is clear, I think, from this place, that the apostle expected that that which he understood by “the coming of the Lord” was soon to occur; for it was to be that by which they would obtain deliverance from the trials which they then endured. See Jam 5:7. Whether it means that he was soon to come to judgment, or to bring to an end the Jewish policy and to set up his kingdom on the earth, or that they would soon be removed by death, cannot be determined from the mere use of the language. The most natural interpretation of the passage, and one which will accord well with the time when the Epistle was written, is, that the predicted time of the destruction of Jerusalem Matt. 24 was at hand; that there were already indications that that would soon occur; and that there was a prevalent expectation among Christians that that event would be a release from many trials of persecution, and would be followed by the setting up of the Redeemer’s kingdom.

Perhaps many expected that the judgment would occur at that time, and that the Saviour would set up a personal reign on the earth. But the expectation of others might have been merely - what is indeed all that is necessarily implied in the predictions on the subject - that there would be after that a rapid and extensive spread of the principles of the Christian religion in the world. The destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple would contribute to that by bringing to an end the whole system of Jewish types and sacrifices; by convincing Christians that there was not to be one central rallying-point, thus destroying their lingering prejudices in favor of the Jewish mode of worship; and by scattering them abroad through the world to propagate the new religion. The Epistle was written, it is supposed, some ten or twelve years before the destruction of Jerusalem, (Introduction, Section 3,) and it is not improbable that there were already some indications of that approaching event.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Be ye also patient; viz. in expectation of your harvest, and the fruit of your labours, as the husbandman is in looking for his.

Stablish your hearts; let your hearts be stedfast in faith and constant in holiness, encouraging yourselves to both by the coming of the Lord.

For the coming of the Lord draweth nigh; as before, his coming to the general judgment, which is said to be nigh, because of the certainty of its coming, and the uncertainty of the time when it will come, and because it is continually drawing on, and the whole time of the world’s duration till then is but short in comparison of the eternity following; and likewise because the particular judgment of every man is nigh at hand. See Phi 4:5; Heb 10:37.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8. Emphasis on ye, as imitators of the husbandman.

Draweth nigh— Note on 2Pe_3:8.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Application of illustration, repeating the exhortation of ver. 7, and supporting it by the assurance that "the coming of the Lord," till which they are to endure, "is at hand." Stablish your hearts (comp. 1Th_3:13, "To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints The coming of the Lord draweth nigh. So Isaiah had announced, (Isa_13:6) "The day of the Lord is near (ejggura Kuriou)."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Stablish your hearts - In faith and patience. For the coming of the Lord - To destroy Jerusalem. Is nigh - And so is his last coming to the eye of a believer.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

8. Be ye also patient. Wait, like the husbandmen, for your harvest of joy. The coming. The relief which the Lord's coming will bring is near. See note on verse 7.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

8. ἡ παρουσία τοῦ κυρίου ἤγγικεν, a Christian watchword, cited in its Aramaic form Μαρὰν ἀθά, 1Co 16:22, and Php 4:5 τὸ ἐπιεικὲς ὑμῶν γνωσθήτω πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις· ὁ κύριος ἐγγύς: where as here the παρουσία is a motive for forbearance and fairness of judgment; see below.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8.] be ye also patient (as well as, after the example of, the husbandman): establish (confirm, strengthen, both which are required for patience) your hearts, because the coming of the Lord is nigh (perf.: ‘hath (already) drawn near, and is therefore at hand,’ as the perfects ἕστηκα, ἔγνωκα, &c. Calvin says, “Colligendum robur ad durandum: colligi autem melius non potest, quam ex spe et quasi intuitu propinqui adventus Domini”).

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. καί, as often in comparisons. Cf. Joh 6:57, Mat 6:10, 1Co 15:49, Php 1:20; οὕτως καί, Jas 1:11, Jas 3:5.

στηρίξατε τὰς καρδίας ὑμῶν, “make your courage and purpose firm.” Cf. 1Th 3:13, Psa 112:8, Ecclus. 6:37, 22:16, Jdg 19:5, Jdg 19:8. στηρίζειν is common in N. T., cf. 1Pe 5:10, 2Th 2:17, Luk 22:32, Act 18:23, Rom 1:11, etc.

ἤγγικεν, cf. 1Pe 4:7, Mar 1:15, Mat 3:2.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.