This verse continues the themes of prayer and healing. In verse 15 it is the elders who are to pray for the sick, and here in verse 16 it is the members of the community who are encouraged to pray for each other and confess to each other.

Therefore: the conjunction connects the thought of verse 16 with that of verse 15. It suggests that the discussion of the restoration of physical health and the forgiveness of sin that started in verse 15 is continued in verse 16. This particle may also be rendered “So then…” (Good News Translation). Its function is to provide a formal link between what the author has said and what he is going to say. This link may also be rendered as “Consequently….” As far as the theme is concerned, the link is in the power of prayer. If we wish to express this link, we may render the conjunction as “Since prayer has such power…” or “Because God answers prayer….” Following an inferior text, King James Version does not have this connective. The adopted text, which has the connective, makes better sense as it is drawing out an important consequence here.

Confess your sins to one another: the imperative confess is in the present tense, suggesting that continual or habitual practice may be meant. If so, it may be rendered “You should get into the habit of admitting your sins to each other” (Phillips). It is not exactly clear what kind of sins are to be confessed. It is equally unclear who the confession of sin is to be made to. The end of the sentence, where the reference is to healing, makes it probable that the sins may be related to those that have caused the sickness. The phrase to one another certainly does not suggest that the confession is to be addressed to the elders, as the role of the elders is not mentioned in this verse. It may be a confession made to the person against whom sin has been committed. It is perhaps best understood as a confession addressed to God in the presence of other Christians in the Christian community, as this is a practice known to the early church (compare Mark 1.5; Matt 3.6; Acts 19.18). In any case it is unlikely to affect the translation in any significant way if we stay close to the literal rendering.

James also encourages his readers to pray for one another. We note again that the church members, not only the elders, are encouraged to take part in the ministry of intercession. The object of mutual confession and intercession is that you may be healed. The verb “to heal” is most often used in the sense of physical healing, and that may be understood to be the primary meaning intended here. Yet in the present context, where confession of sins is encouraged, the sense of restoring the spiritual health of the Christian community cannot be ruled out. The one who does the healing is God, and it may be desirable to make this clear in some languages; for example, “so that God may heal you.”

The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effect: James emphasizes the power of prayer. This sentence can be taken as a final comment on the prayer of intercession in the first part of this verse. In this case we may wish to link it to the previous statement; for example, “… and pray for one another to be cured; the heartfelt prayer of someone upright works very powerfully” (New Jerusalem Bible). However, most other translations see this sentence as introducing a new line of thought about the power of prayer, as seen in the example of Elijah, and have therefore structured the relationship differently. They place a full stop at the end of the previous sentence, making a complete break. The new sentence then serves as a transition to what is to follow. The French Jerusalem Bible (La Bible de Jérusalem) and Phillips have in fact chosen to make the new sentence the beginning of a new paragraph. In any case it is desirable to show a break between verse 16a and the new sentence.

In Greek the word for prayer used here is from a different root than that of the verb “to pray” used in the previous sentence, but it is difficult to see if any difference in meaning is intended. A righteous man is not to be understood as a special type of person whose prayer is more effective than others. Rather, this person is someone who is faithful to God and living in harmony with God’s will, and therefore his prayer is indeed effective. See the discussion in 5.6. In this context the phrase may simply be rendered as “an upright person” (similarly Goodspeed, New Jerusalem Bible), “a good person” (Good News Translation; similarly Barclay, Revised English Bible), or “an innocent person” (Contemporary English Version).

To underline the power of prayer, James uses two qualifiers to modify the verb has … power, which is literally “is strong” or “is powerful.” The first qualifier is “much” and the second “working” or “being effective.” The second is a participle that can be taken as passive or as middle voice. If it is passive we can translate the sentence as “the prayer is powerful when it is put into effect.” Making it clear that God is the one who puts prayer into effect, Translator’s New Testament has rendered the sentence as “The good man’s prayer is very powerful because God is at work in it.” If the qualifier is a middle, the sentence is normally rendered as “the prayer is powerful when it is exercised” or “the prayer is powerful in its effect.” More scholars and translations appear to favor the second possibility. Yet another possibility is to take the participle as an adjective modifying prayer, resulting in renderings like “Tremendous power is made available through a good man’s earnest prayer” (Phillips) or “The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful” (New American Bible). On the whole it is probably best to follow the majority of scholars. The meaning of this sentence, then, may be most effectively brought out by rendering it as:
• The prayer of a good person is very [or, most] powerful and effective.
• The prayer of a good person has a [very] powerful effect (Good News Translation).
• The prayer of an innocent person is powerful, and it can help a lot (Contemporary English Version).

Quoted with permission from Loh, I-Jin and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Letter from James. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .