Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. 2 Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. 4 Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. 5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.[a] 6 You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.
7 Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. 8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. 9 Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! 10 Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. 12 Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. All you need to say is a simple “Yes” or “No.” Otherwise you will be condemned.
this is interesting. seems to be a bit of liberalism and a bit of anti-scabbing
1 My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. 3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong? 8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. 9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 11 For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker. 12 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
basically: fucking with poor people is as bad as murder
Make sense in the context of very early Christianity - which was a cult of the apocalypse, of leaving your family, giving up your property, and joining roving disciples. It was driven by Jesus's promise to return (and bring the Kingdom of God with liberty and justice for all) before his listeners are all dead (which prompted the later Christian myth that one of the listeners was made immortal to fulfill the prophecy). In that case, urging patience was excusable - all shall be made right by God destroying the world and bringing heaven to Earth - why bother overthrowing the unjust state now?
imo christianity was a protosocialist movement that formed in reaction to plague, income inequality, and incursions into the farmland of the roman empire. this of course was coopted by the elites
There were also immaterial bases for it. Roman ideology had no explanation for life in the empire in general, not just its negative/cataclysmic turns. Republican Rome was martial, democratic, austere, industrious, superstitious, blindly traditional, blindly patriotic - the Mos Maiorum. Imperial Rome's elites were bathed in luxuries without needing to work for them - they had no use for war (even conquest only upset stability and the military was guarding borders, far away), no use for hard work, no use for democracy, no use for civic duty. Roman traditional polytheism lost all authority. Roman philosophical traditions - stoicism and epicurianism - had no appeal to the non-elites, because even though they rejected useless luxury and unjust inequality - they dictated acquiescence to the status quo. Christianity and other Eastern mystery cults promised explanation, change, active rebellion against existing life under the empire. Once the Empire began to collapse under waves of crises - conversion to Christianity skyrocketed, and the elites had to co-opt it to stay in power.
...But the reasons behind the immaterial worldviews shifting were the material changes from tiny soldier-farmer republic to massive slave-plantation/mercenary army empire.
My fav quote to use against conservatives. They avoid this entire epistle like the plague. It's wild to read evangelical explanations of this condemnation of the rich which usually read like "it's not about all rich people, it's about these specific heathens who didn't pay their workers, don't worry"
It's doubly funny because the book of James is one of the main sources of the tension between the question of whether "works" (i.e. good deeds) have any bearing on salvation. The Protestant animosity towards the book goes back to Martin Luther who famously called it an "epistle of straw" and wanted it removed from the Bible
smh didnt post the whole thing
Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. 2 Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. 4 Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. 5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.[a] 6 You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.
here's the next verse for context
7 Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. 8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. 9 Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! 10 Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. 12 Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. All you need to say is a simple “Yes” or “No.” Otherwise you will be condemned.
this is interesting. seems to be a bit of liberalism and a bit of anti-scabbing
and here's james 2 - 1-13 for more context
1 My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. 3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong? 8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. 9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 11 For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker. 12 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
basically: fucking with poor people is as bad as murder
Make sense in the context of very early Christianity - which was a cult of the apocalypse, of leaving your family, giving up your property, and joining roving disciples. It was driven by Jesus's promise to return (and bring the Kingdom of God with liberty and justice for all) before his listeners are all dead (which prompted the later Christian myth that one of the listeners was made immortal to fulfill the prophecy). In that case, urging patience was excusable - all shall be made right by God destroying the world and bringing heaven to Earth - why bother overthrowing the unjust state now?
imo christianity was a protosocialist movement that formed in reaction to plague, income inequality, and incursions into the farmland of the roman empire. this of course was coopted by the elites
There were also immaterial bases for it. Roman ideology had no explanation for life in the empire in general, not just its negative/cataclysmic turns. Republican Rome was martial, democratic, austere, industrious, superstitious, blindly traditional, blindly patriotic - the Mos Maiorum. Imperial Rome's elites were bathed in luxuries without needing to work for them - they had no use for war (even conquest only upset stability and the military was guarding borders, far away), no use for hard work, no use for democracy, no use for civic duty. Roman traditional polytheism lost all authority. Roman philosophical traditions - stoicism and epicurianism - had no appeal to the non-elites, because even though they rejected useless luxury and unjust inequality - they dictated acquiescence to the status quo. Christianity and other Eastern mystery cults promised explanation, change, active rebellion against existing life under the empire. Once the Empire began to collapse under waves of crises - conversion to Christianity skyrocketed, and the elites had to co-opt it to stay in power.
...But the reasons behind the immaterial worldviews shifting were the material changes from tiny soldier-farmer republic to massive slave-plantation/mercenary army empire.
My fav quote to use against conservatives. They avoid this entire epistle like the plague. It's wild to read evangelical explanations of this condemnation of the rich which usually read like "it's not about all rich people, it's about these specific heathens who didn't pay their workers, don't worry"
It's doubly funny because the book of James is one of the main sources of the tension between the question of whether "works" (i.e. good deeds) have any bearing on salvation. The Protestant animosity towards the book goes back to Martin Luther who famously called it an "epistle of straw" and wanted it removed from the Bible
mlk > ml
Marxist-Leninist-Kropotkinist Thought