Elijah was …: as an example of the effectiveness of fervent prayer, James singles out Elijah (see 1 Kgs 17.1; 18.1, 42-45). The first thing he mentions about Elijah is that he was a man of like nature with ourselves. The phrase like nature with ourselves is literally “like feelings with us” or “similar suffering with us,” in the sense that he shared the “same limitations as us.” The word is used elsewhere in the New Testament only in Acts 14.15 in adjectival form. There Paul and Barnabas told the crowds at Lystra not to consider them as gods, but as fellow human beings like them. The phrase may be rendered, then, as “a man with human frailties like our own” (New English Bible), “a human being like us” (New Revised Standard Version), “a man every bit as human as we are” (Barclay), “was the same kind of person as we are” (Good News Translation), and “was just as human as we are” (Contemporary English Version); or we may translate “was just like we are; he was a human being.” James is here emphasizing the common nature and therefore the common bond between ordinary Christians and Elijah; Elijah was not superhuman but a man with limitations and weaknesses like all of us. The intended meaning is that any Christian can have the same power if he or she is that kind of “righteous person.”
He prayed fervently that it might not rain: this is what Elijah had done. The clause he prayed fervently is literally “in prayer he prayed.” This usage reflects the influence of the Hebrew idiom, and its function is to intensify the force of the statement. In addition to the Revised Standard Version rendering, the force of the clause may be rendered “He prayed earnestly” (Goodspeed, Good News Translation), “He prayed and prayed” (Laws), “he prayed constantly,” or “he prayed again and again.”
And for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth: God answered the fervent prayer of Elijah. The same length of time is mentioned in Luke 4.25, where the example of Elijah is cited. In 1 Kgs 18.1 it only says, “in the third year.” It is not known how this figure was calculated. It is quite possible that this is taken from a stock phrase that had symbolic associations with a period of judgment (Dan 7.25; 12.7; compare also Rev 11.2, 3). In any case the uncertainty of the origin and of the meaning of the phrase will not in any way affect the translation. The expression on the earth can mean “in the land of Israel.” But it does not seem necessary to give a location like this. It is quite possible that the expression is simply meant to fill up or to complete the idea of did not rain. If so, it is all right to leave the phrase on the earth untranslated in some languages, as it would sound awkward and redundant (so Japanese Franciscan Translation, Today’s Chinese Version). Even in English it is good style to omit it; Contemporary English Version has “kept the rain from falling.”
Alternative translation models for this verse are:
• Elijah was just like we are; he was a human being. He prayed constantly that no rain would fall. And so for three years and six months no rain fell at all.
• … For three and a half years his constant praying kept the rain from falling.
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 .