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kuriou). In 5.4, the discourse had referred to the Lord of hosts. Now the discourse uses the phrase "parousia tou kyriou" in a manner that makes it unclear whether it is a reference to the Lord God of hosts or the Lord Jesus Messiah. In no case is the term "parousia" (coming) applied to God in the LXX, nor is "the expression parousia tou kyriou ("coming of the Lord")" ever attested in the LXX. The term parousia with reference to God does appear, however, in T. Jud. 22.2; T. Levi 8.11; T. Abr. 13.4; 2 Baruch 55.6; Josephus, Ant. 3.80; 9.55, although in some instances the text has been disputed (Johnson 1995: 313). The two occurrences in Josephus are especially interesting. Antiquities 3.80 is a reference to God's coming to the people on the morning of the third day after Moses has gone up to God (Exodus 19.16). As Josephus says: "while all the rest of heaven remained serene, blustering winds, bringing tempestuous rain, came sweeping down, lightning terrified the beholders, and the thunderbolts hurled from aloft signified the advent of God (parousian tou theou) propitious to the desires of Moses" (Ant. 3.80). Antiquities 9.55, accordingly, is a discussion of the attempt of Adados (Ben-hadad) of Syria to capture Elisha. When Elisha's servant brought Elisha the news that Adados was in pursuit, Elisha besought God to reveal (emphainisai) his power and presence (dynamin kai parousian) as far as possible to his servant, that he may have hope and take courage (Josephus, Ant. 9.55; 2 Kings 6.16-17). The discourse of James not only uses the phrase "parousia of the Lord," but it contains the assertion that "parousia tou kyriou enggiken" (the coming of the Lord is at hand). In the LXX of Exodus 19.20-21, the present tense of engizo is used to refer to the people's "drawing near" to God, but it does not use the verb for God's drawing near to the people. Reference to "the drawing near of the coming of the Lord" appears to be another dialectical feature of the Messianite discourse in James, complemented by the subsequent assertion that "the Judge is standing at the doors" (James 5.9). A major issue is whether this discourse is referring to the Lord God or to the Lord Jesus Messiah as the one whose coming is near at hand. It is characteristic of this Messianite rhetorolect (Robbins 1996c) that the term "Lord" with reference to the Lord Jesus Messiah is being absorbed into references to "the Lord God of hosts." The result will be significant discomfort on behalf of Jews who consider the activities of God to be clearly distinct from the activities of Jesus of Nazareth. Messianite Jews who focus their attention on Jesus change the game. For them, the activities of Jesus are so fully embedded in the activities of God that Jesus as Lord Messiah performs many of the functions usually attributed to the Lord God. As this discourse refers to the coming of the Lord, then, it willingly blurs the boundaries between the coming of the Lord Jesus Messiah and the coming of the Lord God of hosts. As a result, it is hard to know if the Lord God of hosts might come in God's own epiphany separate from God's Messiah, if the Lord God of hosts comes near in the manifest presence of the Lord Jesus Messiah, or if the coming of the Lord Jesus Messiah replaces the coming of the Lord God of hosts in such a manner that the Messiah's activity allows God to stay in heaven. At this point the discourse recalls a major player in the past who met the test of suffering and patience when God actually "threw the ball directly at him to hurt him"--namely Job, one of "the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord" (5.10). As the discourse turns to Job, it returns firmly to the Lord God of hosts, asserting: you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful (Johnson 1995: 321). Thus, after a portion of discourse that exhibited highly Messianite ways of referring to the Lord, it modulates back into a traditional reference to speaking "in the name of the Lord" God and understanding the purpose of the Lord God, his compassion and his mercy. In 5.13, the discourse addresses the issue of people who are sick, another test in the venture of faith. How should people in the twelve tribes in the dispersion deal with illness? |