James 5:20 - Exposition

Let him know. So א , A, K, L, Latt., Syriac, B has γινώσκετε , "know ye." After ψυχὴν , א , A, and Vulgate add αὐτοῦ . B has it after θανάτου . And shall cover a multitude of sins ( καλύψει πλῆθος ἁμαρτιῶν ). The same expression occurs in 1 Peter 4:8 , "Charity covereth a multitude of sins. " It is founded on Proverbs 10:12 , מיעִשָׁףְ־לךָּ לעַוְ הבָהֲאַ הסֶּכַתְּ , "Love covereth all sins ," where the LXX . goes entirely astray: πάντας δὲ τοὺς μὴ φιλονεικοῦντας καλύπτει φιλία : but cf. Psalms 31:1 ; Psalms 84:3 , in the LXX . It is difficult to believe that St. Peter and St. James independently hit upon the rendering πλῆθος ἁμαρτιῶν for the Hebrew מיעִשָׂףְ־לךָּ , as there was nothing to suggest it, the LXX . never rendering לךֹּ by πλῆθος . Probably the one was consciously or unconsciously influenced by the other. The striking position which the words occupy here, as those with which the Epistle closes, would make them linger in the memory; and there is nothing to militate against the conclusion, which appeared probable on the occasion of previous coincidences between the two writers, that St. James is the earlier of the two (comp. on James 4:6 ). The expression used by the apostle leaves it undetermined whose sins are thus "covered," whether

The Epistle ends abruptly, with no salutation and no doxology. In this it stands almost by itself in the New Testament; the First Epistle of St. John alone approaching it in the abruptness of its conclusion.