How to read this page

An Intertextuality Pair — one connection between two passages, shown as linked verse cards: the Later text and the Earlier text it quotes, alludes to or echoes. The Significance essay explains why the link matters and where it points in Christ.

Reference Type— how explicit the link is: Quotation, Allusion, or Echo
Connection Method(s)— how it carries meaning: e.g. Typology, Promise-Fulfillment, Analogy, Longitudinal Theme
Found via— where the connection was identified, e.g. the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge or an Anchor-Text Network

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Intertextuality Pair

James 5:20 → Proverbs 10:12

Allusion

Later text

James 5:20BSB

consider this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

Earlier text

Proverbs 10:12BSB

Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers all transgressions.

Walk the Square · a single-voice walk of this pair around the Clowney square7:52

Significance

James concludes his letter with the declaration that whoever turns a sinner from the error of his ways "will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins" (kalypsei plēthos hamartiōn). The phrase "cover a multitude of sins" echoes Proverbs 10:12, where "love covers all offenses" (kol-pesha'im tekasseh ahavah). Peter also quotes this proverbial tradition in 1 Peter 4:8 ("love covers a multitude of sins"). James applies the wisdom principle in the specific context of restoring an erring believer — the act of turning someone back from sin is an expression of love that "covers" sins in the sense of preventing their destructive consequences. The allusion connects James's pastoral instruction to the wisdom tradition's understanding of love as the antidote to the proliferation of sin's effects.

Found via: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Analogy