_PATIENCE IN WAITING. THE ENDURANCE OF JOB.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MENTION OF JOB BY ST. JAMES._
"Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.
Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth,
being patient over it, until it receive the early and latter rain. Be
ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord is
at hand. Murmur not, brethren, one against another, that ye be not
judged; behold, the Judge standeth before the doors. Take, brethren,
for an example of suffering and of patience, the prophets who spake
in the Name of the Lord. Behold, we call them blessed which endured:
ye have heard of the endurance of Job, and have seen the end of the
Lord, how that the Lord is full of pity, and
merciful."--ST. JAMES v. 7-11.
"Be patient, therefore, brethren." The storm of indignation is past,
and from this point to the end of the Epistle St. James writes in
tones of tenderness and affection. In the paragraph before us he, as
it were, rounds off his letter, bringing it back to the point from
which he started; so that what follows (vv. 12-20) is of the nature of
a postscript or appendix. He began his letter with the exhortation,
"Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into manifold trials;
knowing that the proof of your faith worketh patience. And let
patience have its perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire,
lacking in nothing" (i. 2-4). He draws to a close with the charge, "Be
patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord".
The "therefore" shows that this sympathetic exhortation of the
brethren is closely connected with the stern denunciation of the rich
in the preceding paragraph. The connexion is obvious. These brethren
are in the main identical with the righteous poor who are so cruelly
oppressed by the rich; and St. James offers them consolation mainly on
two grounds: First, their sufferings will not last for ever; on the
contrary, the end of them is near at hand. Secondly, the end of them
will bring not only relief, but reward.
As has been already pointed out (p. 279), St. James evidently shared
the belief, which prevailed in the Apostolic age, that Jesus Christ
would very speedily return in glory to punish the wicked and reward
the righteous. This belief, as Neander observes, was very natural:
"Christ Himself had not chosen to give any information respecting the
time of his coming. Nay, He had expressly said that the Father had
reserved the decision to Himself alone (Mark xiii. 32); that even the
Son could determine nothing respecting it. But still, the longing
desire of the Apostolic Church was directed with eager haste to the
appearing of the Lord. The whole Christian period seemed only as the
transition-point to the eternal, and thus as something that must soon
be passed. As the traveller, beholding from afar the object of all his
wanderings, overlooks the windings of the intervening way, and
believes himself already near his goal, so it seemed to them, as their
eye was fixed on that consummation of the whole course of events on
earth."
Thus, by a strange but unperceived incongruity, St. James makes the
unconscious impatience of primitive Christianity a basis for his
exhortation to conscious patience. Early Christians, in their
eagerness for the return of their Lord, impatiently believed that His
return was imminent; and St. James uses this belief as an argument for
patient waiting and patient endurance. It is only for a short time
that they will have to wait and endure, and then the rich reward will
be reaped. Ploughing and harrowing are toilsome and painful, but they
have to be gone through, and then, after no intolerable waiting, the
harvest comes.
Above, when St. James was rebuking his readers for their presumptuous
confidence respecting their future plans, he reminded them of the
shortness of life. "What is your life? For ye are a vapour, that
appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away" (iv. 14). Here
the shortness of the interval between the present moment and the end
of all things is urged as a reason both for circumspection and for
patience. In both cases, with his characteristic fondness for
illustrations drawn from nature, he employs physical phenomena to
enforce his lesson. In the one case life is a vapour, not substantial
at any time, and soon dispersed;[86] in the other case life is the
work and the waiting which must precede the harvest.
The key-note of the whole passage is _patience_, which in one form or
another occurs six times in five verses In the original two different
words are used--one (μακροθμεῖν and μακροθμία) four times in the first
four verses; and the other (ὑπομένειν and ὑπομενή) twice in the last
verse, where we certainly need "the _endurance_ of Job" rather than
"the _patience_ of Job," in order to preserve the transition from the
one word to the other. "Take, brethren, for an example of suffering
and of _patience_ (μακροθυμίας) the prophets who spake in the Name of
the Lord. Behold, we call them blessed which _endured_ (τοὺς
ὑπομείναντας): ye have heard of the _endurance_ (ὑπομενήν) of Job." It
was perhaps because "the _patience_ of Job" has become a proverbial
formula that the Revisers banished "endurance" to the margin, instead
of placing it in the text.[87] The two words are not infrequently
found together (2 Cor. vi. 4-6; Col. i. 11; 2 Tim. iii. 10; Clement of
Rome, lviii.; Ignatius, _Ephes._ iii.). The difference between the two
is, on the whole, this, that the first is the long-suffering which
does not retaliate upon oppressive persons, the second the endurance
which does not succumb under oppressive things. The persecuted
prophets exhibited the one; the afflicted Job exhibited the other. The
oppressed and poor Christians whom St. James addresses are able to
practise both these forms of patience, which Chrysostom extols as the
"queen of the virtues."
There is a remarkable diversity of readings in the illustration about
the husbandman's waiting. Some authorities make him wait for the early
and latter _rain_, others for the early and latter _fruit_. The best
witnesses leave the substantive to be understood, and this is
doubtless the original reading; it accounts for the other two. Some
copyists thought that rain was to be understood, and therefore
inserted it; while others for a similar reason inserted fruit. No
doubt it is rain that is intended, in accordance with several passages
in the Old Testament (Deut. xi. 14; Jer. v. 24; Joel ii. 23; Zech.
x. 1). The rains of autumn and of spring are meant, not "morning rain
and evening rain" as Luther renders it in his version; and no moral or
spiritual facts are symbolized by these natural phenomena, such as the
penitential tears of youth and of old age, which would not fit the
context. The point of the simile lies in the patient waiting, not in
that which is waited for.
"Murmur not, brethren, one against another." The literal meaning of
the Greek is "_Groan_ not;" that is, "Grumble not." Earlier English
versions have "Grudge not;" and "grudge" once had the meaning of
"murmur," as in "They will run here and there for meat, and _grudge_
if they be not satisfied" (Ps. lix. 15). It is altogether a mistake to
suppose that "one against another" includes the wealthy oppressors
spoken of in the preceding section. It is the common experience of
every one that men who are irritated and exasperated by trying persons
or circumstances are liable to vent their vexation on those who are in
no way responsible for what tries them. St. James is well aware of
this danger, and puts his readers on their guard against it. "Be
long-suffering," he says, "and do not retaliate on those who maltreat
you; and do not let the smart of your troubles betray you into
impatience towards one another. He who is to judge your oppressors
will judge you also, and He is close at hand." We can hardly doubt
that Christ's saying, "Judge not, _that ye be not judged_" (Matt.
vii. 1), is in his mind. The way to lighten one's burden is not to
groan over it, still less to murmur against those who are in the same
case, but to try to console and help them. "Bear ye one another's
burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." It is a good thing to take
as an example of patience the prophets and others among God's
suffering saints; but it is a still better thing to give such an
example ourselves.
By the prophets St. James no doubt means the prophets of the Old
Testament--Elijah, Jeremiah, and others. It is not likely that he
includes any of the persecuted disciples of the New Testament, such as
James the son of Zebedee, and Stephen. Here again we seem to have an
echo of Christ's words: "_Blessed_ are ye when men shall reproach you,
and persecute you" (comp. "We call them _blessed_ which endured"):
"for so persecuted they the _prophets_ which were before you" (Matt.
v. 11, 12). It is the ceaseless reproach against the Jews that they
boasted that theirs were the prophets, and yet were the persecutors of
the prophets. "The children of Israel ... have slain Thy prophets with
the sword," says Elijah (1 Kings xix. 10, 14). "That I may avenge the
blood of My servants the prophets," says God to Elisha (2 Kings
ix. 7). They "slew Thy prophets which testified against them to turn
them again to Thee," says Nehemiah, in his prayer (Neh. ix. 26). "Your
own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion," is the
accusation of Jeremiah (ii. 30). "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which
killeth the prophets, and stoneth them that are sent unto her!" is the
lamentation of Christ (Matt. xxiii. 37). And Stephen, just before he
was himself added to the number of the slain, asks, "Which of the
prophets did not your fathers persecute? and they killed them which
showed before of the coming of the Righteous One" (Acts vii. 52).
Certainly those who try to do God's work in the world have no lack of
examples of patient suffering for such work. The reasonable question
would seem to be, not, "Why should I be made to suffer for
endeavouring to do good?" but, "Why should I _not_ be made to suffer?
Seeing what others have had to endure, why should I be spared?"
"Ye have heard of the endurance of Job." It is possible that this
refers specially to the reading of the Book of Job in public service;
but there is no need to restrict the hearing to such occasions. We
need not doubt that the endurance of Job was a familiar topic among
the Jews long before this Epistle was written, and independently of
the book being read in the synagogues. Yet, in spite of this
familiarity, the passage before us is the only reference in the whole
of the New Testament to the story of Job, and there is only one
quotation from the Book: "He taketh the wise in their own craftiness"
(Job v. 13) is quoted by St. Paul (1 Cor. iii. 19). There are several
loose quotations from it in the Epistle of Clement of Rome (xvii.,
xx., xxvi., xxxix., lvi.); and the remarkable insertion in the Vulgate
Version of Tobit ii. 12-15 is worthy of quotation: "This trial the
Lord _therefore_ permitted to happen to him, that an example might be
given to posterity of his patience, as also of holy Job. For whereas
he had always feared God from his infancy, and kept His commandments,
he repined not against God because the evil of blindness had befallen
him, but continued immovable in the fear of God, giving thanks to God
all the days of his life. For as the kings[88] insulted over holy Job,
so his relations and kinsmen mocked at his life, saying, Where is thy
hope, for which thou gavest alms, and buriedest the dead? But Tobias
rebuked them, saying, Speak not so; for we are the children of saints,
and look for that life which God will give to them that never change
their faith from Him."
"Ye have heard of the endurance of Job, and have seen the end of the
Lord, how that the Lord is full of pity, and merciful." A
well-supported, but, on the whole, less probable reading, gives us the
imperative, "_see_ the end of the Lord," instead of the indicative,
"ye have seen" (ἴδετε, instead of εἴδετε). If it be correct, it may be
taken either with what precedes or with what follows: either, "Ye have
heard of the endurance of Job: see also the end of the Lord, how that
the Lord is full of pity, and merciful;" or, "Ye have heard of the
endurance of Job and the end of the Lord: see that the Lord is full of
pity, and merciful."
But a more important question than either the reading or the division
of the clauses is the meaning of the expression "the end of the Lord."
Bede follows Augustine in understanding it of the death of Christ, which
no doubt many of the readers of the Epistle had witnessed--"_Exitum
quoque Domini in cruce quem longanimiter suscepit, adstantes ipsi
vidistis_": and in this interpretation Bede is followed by Wetstein,
Lange, and some other modern writers. It cannot be considered as
probable. St. James would hardly couple the endurance of Job with the
death of Christ in this abrupt way; and the words which follow--"that
the Lord is full of pity, and merciful"--do not fit on to this
interpretation. "The end of the Lord" much more probably means the end
to which the Lord brought the sufferings of Job. It may have special
reference to the concluding portion of the Book of Job, in which
Jehovah is represented as bringing the argument to a close: "Then the
Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that
darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?" etc., etc.
(xxxviii.-xlii.). This appearance of Jehovah to end the trials of Job
would then be analogous to the appearance of Christ to end the trials
of the persecuted Christians; and it is possible that the combination
"ye have heard ... and have seen" was suggested by the last words of
Job: "_I have heard of_ Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine
eye _seeth_ Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and
ashes" (xlii. 5, 6).
Stier remarks that the mention of Job in Ezekiel (xiv. 14, 16, 20),
and here by St. James, shows us "that the man Job actually lived, like
Noah, Daniel, and all the prophets; that the narrative of his life is
not a didactic poem, but a real history." But is that a necessary
conclusion? Let us leave on one side the question whether or no there
really was such a person as Job, who experienced what is recorded in
the book which bears his name, and let us consider whether the mention
of him by Ezekiel and by St. James proves that there was such a
person. It proves nothing of the sort. It shows no more than this,
that the story of Job was well known, and was employed for moral and
spiritual instruction. Let us suppose that the Book of Job is a
parable, like that of Dives and Lazarus. Would the fact that its
contents are not historical prevent Ezekiel or St. James from speaking
of Job as a well-known person of exemplary life? There would be
nothing unnatural in coupling together Dives, who is probably an
imaginary person, and the rich young man, who is certainly a real
person, as examples of men to whom great wealth has proved disastrous,
nor, again, in speaking of Lazarus and the penitent thief as instances
of souls that had passed from great earthly suffering to the rest of
Paradise. Such combinations would not commit the writer or speaker who
made use of them to the belief that Dives and Lazarus were historical
persons. Why, then, should the fact that an inspired writer couples
Job with Noah and Daniel commit _us_ to the belief that Job is a real
person? He may have been so, just as Lazarus may have been so, but the
mention of him by Ezekiel and by St. James does not prove that he was.
We know too little about the effects of inspiration to be justified in
saying dogmatically that an inspired writer would never speak of an
unhistorical person as an example to be imitated. Is the merchant who
sold all that he had in order to buy one pearl of great price an
historical person? and is he not put before us as an example to be
imitated? It is quite possible that the story of Job is in the main a
narrative of facts, and not an inspired fiction; but the mention of
him by Ezekiel and by St. James is no proof of it. It is neither fair
nor prudent to cite either of them as witnesses to the historical
character of the Book of Job. It is not fair, because we are ignorant
of their opinion on the subject, and are also ignorant as to whether
their opinion on the subject would be under the direct inspiration of
the Holy Spirit. And it is not prudent, because it may be demonstrated
hereafter that the story of Job is not historical; and then we shall
have pledged the testimony of inspired persons to the truth of a
narrative which is, after all, fictitious. If St. Paul may cite Jannes
and Jambres as instances of malignant opposition to the truth, without
compelling us to believe that those names are historical,[89]
St. James may quote Job as an example of patient endurance, without
obliging us to believe that Job is an historical personage. In each
case the historical character of the illustrations must be decided on
other grounds than the fact that they are employed by writers who were
inspired.[90]
Questions of this kind are among the many spheres in which we need
that virtue on which St. James here insists with such simple
earnestness--patience. When certainty has not been attained, and
perhaps is not attainable, let us learn to wait patiently in
uncertainty. Was there ever such a person as Job? Who wrote the Book
of Job? What is its date? Does inspiration produce infallibility? and
if so, what are the limits to such infallibility? There are men to
whom uncertainty on such questions as these seems intolerable. They
cannot "learn to labour and to wait;" they cannot work patiently, and
wait patiently, until a complete solution is found. And hence they
hurry to a definite conclusion, support it by evidence that is not
relevant, and affirm that it is demonstrated by what is perhaps
relevant, but is far short of proof. Intellectual probation is part of
our moral probation in this life, and it is a discipline much needed
in an age of great mental activity. Impatience of the intellect is a
common blemish, and it is disastrous both to him who allows himself to
be conquered by it and to the cause of truth. He does good service
both to himself and to others, who cultivates a dread of jumping to
unproved conclusions, and who in speaking and writing watchfully
distinguishes what is certain from what is only probable, and what is
probable from what is only not known to be untrue.
_The_ great example of patience is not given by St. James, although we
can read it into his words. In a sense not meant by him there is the
Husbandman, who waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, until it
receive the early and the latter rain. There is that precious harvest
of human souls which must receive and welcome the dew of God's grace
before it is ready for His garner. On some it has never yet fallen; on
some it has fallen, but as yet in vain; and meanwhile the Husbandman
waiteth, "being patient over it," until it receive the one thing
needful. Through long, long centuries He has been waiting, and He
continues so doing. St. Augustine tells us why. God is "patient,
because He is eternal" (_patiens quia æternus_). He who is "from
everlasting to everlasting" can afford to wait. He waits patiently for
us, generation after generation. Can we not wait for Him one hour? Let
us patiently abide until "the end of the Lord" comes, the end which He
has prepared for us, and towards which all things under His guiding
hand are working. When we have seen it we shall once more see "that
the Lord is full of pity, and merciful."[91]
[86] As already pointed out, this metaphor is perhaps a reminiscence
of the Book of Job, to which St. James alludes in the passage before
us. He was evidently fond of the sapiential writings, to which Job
is akin. "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent
without hope. As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away, so he
that goeth down to Sheol shall come up no more" (Job vii. 6, 9).
See [footnote 84].
[87] The Rhemish Version distinguishes the words--"be patient" and
"patience" for the one, "suffer" and "sufferance" for the other, the
Vulgate having _patientia_ and _sufferentia_.
[88] _Reges._ "So Job's friends are here called, because they were
princes in their respective territories." Note in the Douay Version,
from which the translation of the passage is taken.
[89] See _The Pastoral Epistles_, in this series, pp. 379-84 (Hodder and
Stoughton, 1888).
[90] That the Book of Job is not pure history is plain from (1) the
dialogue between Jehovah and Satan, and the addresses ascribed to the
Almighty in the body of the poem; (2) the dramatic character of Job's
calamities, man and nature alternately inflicting blows at him, and in
each case just one messenger escaping; (3) the dramatic character of
his compensation, his goods being exactly doubled, and his family
being made exactly what it was before; (4) the elaboration of the
dialogue between Job and his friends. On the other hand, it is not
likely that it is pure invention. We have no evidence of literary
power equal to such invention at the early date to which the Book of
Job must be assigned, viz. before the Return from the Captivity; and
the writer's object would be better attained if he took an historical
person, than if he invented one, as his centre.
[91] The word for "full of pity" (πολύσπλανχνος) was possibly coined
by St. James himself; it occurs nowhere else. It might be rendered
"large-hearted." A few inferior MSS. have πολυεύσπλανχνος, a word
which is found in ecclesiastical and Byzantine writers. The simpler
εὔσπλανχνος occurs 1 Pet. iii. 8; Eph. iv. 32; and in the Prayer of
Manasses; ὅτι σὺ εἶ κύριοσ ὕψιστος, εὔσπλανχνος, μακρόθυμος, καὶ
πολυέλεος. The unique πολύσπλανχνος looks like a combination of
πολυέλεοσ and εὔσπλανχνος. Comp. Joel ii. 13; Jonah iv. 2. The word
for "merciful" occurs Luke vi. 36 (comp. Col. iii. 12) and frequently
in the Septuagint; _e.g._ Ecclus. ii. 11; οἰκτίρμων καὶ ἐλεήμων ὁ
κύριος.