Passage

James 1.22

Book: James · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

20. for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. 21. Wherefore putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

22. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves.

For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror: 24. for he beholdeth himself, and goeth away, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. (James 1:20-24, ASV)

WEB

20. for the anger of man doesn’t produce the righteousness of God. 21. Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

22. But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror; 24. for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. (James 1:20-24, WEB)

KJV

20. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. 21. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

22. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 24. For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. (James 1:20-24, KJV)

YLT

20. for the wrath of a man the righteousness of God doth not work; 21. wherefore having put aside all filthiness and superabundance of evil, in meekness be receiving the engrafted word, that is able to save your souls;

22. and become ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves,

because, if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, this one hath been like to a man viewing his natural face in a mirror, 24. for he did view himself, and hath gone away, and immediately he did forget of what kind he was; (James 1:20-24, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: James (Iakōbos), identified by the great majority of interpreters as the brother of Jesus (Galatians 1:19; Mark 6:3), leader of the Jerusalem church (Acts 15:13; Acts 21:18). He introduces himself simply as "a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ" (James 1:1), never as a relative.
Audience: Jewish believers outside Palestine, addressed as "the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad" (James 1:1). The congregations meet in a synagōgē (James 2:2) and include both poor members and wealthy visitors.
Location: Jerusalem, from which James led the mother church.
Time period: Date disputed. An early date (c. AD 44-49) would make this the earliest surviving Christian writing; a later one places it before James's death, which Josephus dates to AD 62 (Antiquities 20.200). The letter shows no awareness of the Gentile-circumcision controversy settled in Acts 15, which many take as evidence for the early date.

Theological reading

"But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves."

The letter's thesis in one line. Everything else, faith and works, hearing and doing, religion and the care of widows, wisdom and its fruit, is an application of this sentence.

"Hearers." Akroatai, the audience at a lecture or recital. In a largely oral culture where Scripture was heard rather than privately read, the word describes the ordinary congregational experience, and James's warning is aimed precisely at the person who attends faithfully.

"Who delude themselves." Paralogizomenoi heautous, from a verb meaning to miscalculate or reason falsely, used of deceiving by fallacious argument. The self-deception is presented as a reasoning error: the hearer concludes from the hearing that something has happened.

The mirror illustration follows. Verses 23-24: a man looks at his face, goes away, and forgets what he looked like. The point is not that the mirror failed but that looking accomplished nothing on its own. See James 1.25.

Jesus behind the verse. Matthew 7:24-27 closes the Sermon on the Mount with exactly this contrast, the one who hears these words and acts on them against the one who hears and does not. James's letter is saturated with the Sermon, and this is among the clearest dependencies.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

G3056 - logos, logos, Strong's G3056
G1096 - ginomai, ginomai, Strong's G1096

Quoted in

Concepts:

Romans Road

Lexicon:

H8085 - shama

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.