The Meaning of Widows and Orphans in James 1:27

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For years I’ve thought of the orphans and widows that James refers to in James 1:27 as unrelated individuals. But the other day it dawned on me that James is probably including single mothers and their fatherless children as a third category besides orphans and widows. Here’s the verse:

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after?orphans and widows?in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (NIV)

The reason I’m thinking the orphans and widows James is referring to includes single mothers and their fatherless children is because in biblical times, fatherless children were considered the same as orphans. For example, the?Hebrew word for “orphan” is yatom. But it can also be translated “fatherless,” as the New International Version does in Isaiah 1:17:

Take up the cause of the fatherless, plead the cause of the widow.

People in ancient times placed fatherless children in the same category as orphans because women had little independent means of support. Often, they had three bleak options: begging, prostitution, or starvation. In fact, single mothers fared worse than widows, since they had to care for both themselves and their children.

So the next time you read about widows and orphans in your Bible, don’t forget to include single moms and their fatherless children in your thinking.

Because God hasn’t.

This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.

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Learn how to form teams of men for every widow, single mom

and fatherless child in your church at NewCommandment.org.

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