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James 2:1: μὴ ἔχετε, objective vs. subjective, τῆς δόξης

Posted: September 26th, 2011, 3:22 pm
by Jonathan Robie
James 2:1 wrote:Ἀδελφοί μου, μὴ ἐν προσωπολημψίαις ἔχετε τὴν πίστιν τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τῆς δόξης.
I'm chewing on this verse.

I had assumed μὴ ... ἔχετε should be taken as an imperative (Robertson and Zerwick each agree), Hort suggests it should be taken as an interrogative, and writes the verse thus, as an accusation against his recipients:

Ἀδελφοί μου, μὴ ἐν προσωπολημψίαις ἔχετε τὴν πίστιν τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τῆς δόξης;

I assume that ὴν πίστιν τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ is an objective genitive here, our faith in Jesus Christ. But I see there are people who see this as a subjective genitive, the faith of Jesus Christ. I can't get the context to make sense that way - can anyone help?

How does τῆς δόξης bind to the rest of the sentence?

Re: James 2:1: μὴ ἔχετε, objective vs. subjective, τῆς δόξης

Posted: September 27th, 2011, 1:27 am
by Iver Larsen
Hi, Jonathan,

If it was a question, the inital μὴ would suggest it to be a rhetorical question stating what is obvious and expecting a negative answer: Surely not. On the other hand, the following verses suggest that they were actually treating people according to outward status and appearance, so there is an implied rebuke in verse 1. You should not live out your faith in Jesus as you are doing! This is why the NLT translates it as a rhetorical question, and that is fine for an idiomatic translation.

I agree that the genitive is objective.

The final genitive τῆς δόξης is probably a semitic way of indicating a description: our glorious Lord, Jesus Christ.