"are Any Among You Sick?" the Health Care System in the Letter of James‪.‬

Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. (Jas 5:14-16 NRSV) This passage from the Letter of James provides readers with a precious glimpse into the understanding of illness and healing in an early Jewish Christian community. (1) The author instructs anyone who is sick ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) in the community to call the elders, who will pray and anoint the individual with oil. The passage goes on to speak of the efficacy of prayer for healing and to develop links between sin and sickness, healing and confession of sin (vv. 15- 16). At first glance straightforward, these verses in fact raise a complex of questions for the modern interpreter. Who are the elders who are called to heal, and why does James assume that they have a special healing ability or authority? If the elders are singled out as healers, why does James impute a healing role also to the community as a whole (5:16)? Why is the sick person to be anointed, when prayer alone would seem to be effective for healing (5:15a)? Why does James presuppose connections between illness and sin (qualified in 5:15b) and between confessing of sin and healing (5:16)? In general, what does this passage reveal about James's view of the etiology of sickness: Is it sent from God as punishment or correction? Does it derive from the devil? Does it originate from "natural" causes? Finally, does this passage provide information about actual, everyday treatment of illness in James's community?