Of course, gold and silver are not
ferrous metals and do not trust, but this is not a case of James showing
ignorance. In the cultures of James’s time, the rusting of precious metals was
a proverbial image for the waste of precious resources, which were meant to be
used, not hoarded: “Lose your silver for the sake of a brother or a friend, and
do not let it rust under a stone and be lost” (Sir. 29:10). But that is not
all. The rusted, unused, wasted resources are evidence against the rich of
their heartless disregard for the poor, of their unwillingness to come to the
aid of the poor, to provide alms (see Sir. 29:9-12). Matthew 6:19-21 and Luke
12:33-34 (Q material) provide sayings about storing up treasures on earth,
where moth and rust consume, and a number of parables add their critique, such
as the parable of the rich fool, who built bigger barns to store up an
excessive harvest (Luke 12:13-21), and the parable of the rich man and Lazarus
(Luke 16:19-31). The first shows the folly of hoarding wealth and not using it
for a good purpose (“You fool! This night your life will be taken from you!”
Luke 12:20). Note also “Every work decays and ceases to exist, and the one who
made it will pass away with it” (Sir. 14:19). The second parable condemns the
rich man for willful disregard of the plight of the poor man, narrating their
reversal of fortunes in the “afterlife” beyond death. The fate of the rich man
is described in Luke 16:22-28. He is in torment, in agony in the flames, his
tongue hot and dry, while Lazarus is in paradise, in Abraham’s bosom. This
image of torment in the flames seems to be a variant on the notion of the rust
of wasted resources eating into the flesh like fire. For James, hoarded wealth
is wasted; it is evidence of the heartlessness of the rich, and the dissolution
(rust) will fuel the fire of their torment. (John Painter and David A. DeSilva,
James and Jude [Paideia: Commentaries on the New Testament; Grand
Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2012], 154)
