The interpretation timeline

Jas 5:2

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

2 Patristic · 1 Orthodox · 1 Reformed

Jas 5:2 · Douay-Rheims
“Your riches are corrupted: and your garments are motheaten.”
Patristic before A.D. 750
542
A.D.
Caesarius of Arles Patristic
c. A.D. 470–542
“Riches cannot harm a good person, because he spends them kindly. Likewise they cannot help an evil person as long as he keeps them avariciously or wastes them in dissipation.”
584 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Scholastic c. 1100 – 1500
1126
A.D.
c. 1055–1107
“The rotting of wealth, he says, the eating of garments by moths, and the rust of silver and gold will testify against you, exposing you for having given nothing. Therefore in the last days, that is, at the coming of the Lord, your wealth will prove to be, as it were, fire gathered for your destruction, which the rich man mentioned in the Gospel also experienced. This must be joined with the words "your riches," so that the speech reads as follows: "your riches, which you have heaped up like fire, and on earth have spent on pleasures and squandered."”
Source
745 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Post-Reformation c. 1650 – 1900
1871
A.D.
1871
“corrupted--about to be destroyed through God's curse on your oppression, whereby your riches are accumulated (Jam 5:4). CALVIN thinks the sense is, Your riches perish without being of any use either to others or even to yourselves, for instance, your garments which are moth-eaten in your chests. garments . . . moth-eaten--referring to Mat 6:19-20.”
Source
Undated date unknown
Oecumenius Patristic
c. A.D. 550
“Your riches are corrupt: and your garments are eaten by moths. Your gold and silver is rusted: and their rust shall be for a testimony to you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. You have stored to yourselves wrath in the last days. "Your riches." Or your wealth. It must be understood, that is, what wealth, as the saying goes: Your riches, which you have hidden like fire as a treasure, will exceed your flesh. "Your garments are eaten by moths." The rotting, James says, of riches and the corrosion or consumption of garments by moths, and the rust of gold and silver will bear witness against you, arguing your greed. Because of this, in the last days (the Lord says of His coming), you will find your riches hidden for you like fire for destruction: which also happened to the rich man, of whom it is told in the Gospel. (Luke 15:24)”
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.