ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

James 2.17

Book: James · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

15. If a brother or sister be naked and in lack of daily food, 16. and one of you say unto them, Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled; and yet ye give them not the things needful to the body; what doth it profit?

17. Even so faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself.

  1. Yea, a man will say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith apart from thy works, and I by my works will show thee my faith. 19. Thou believest that God is one; thou doest well: the demons also believe, and shudder. (James 2:15-19, ASV)
WEB

15. And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food, 16. and one of you tells them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled”; and yet you didn’t give them the things the body needs, what good is it?

17. Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself.

  1. Yes, a man will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I by my works will show you my faith. 19. You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe, and shudder. (James 2:15-19, WEB)
KJV

15. If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, 16. And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?

17. Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. alone: Gr. by itself

  1. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. without: some copies read, by 19. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. (James 2:15-19, KJV)
YLT

15. and if a brother or sister may be naked, and may be destitute of the daily food, 16. and any one of you may say to them, 'Depart ye in peace, be warmed, and be filled,' and may not give to them the things needful for the body, what [is] the profit?

17. so also the faith, if it may not have works, is dead by itself.

  1. But say may some one, Thou hast faith, and I have works, shew me thy faith out of thy works, and I will shew thee out of my works my faith: 19. thou, thou dost believe that God is one; thou dost well, and the demons believe, and they shudder! (James 2:15-19, 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

"Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself."

"Dead." Nekra, the ordinary word for a corpse. The metaphor is diagnostic rather than merely evaluative: James is not saying such faith is weak or immature but that it is the kind of thing that has stopped living, and a dead thing does not do what a living one does.

"Being by itself." Kath' heautēn, on its own, in isolation. The clause is easily skipped and it carries the argument: the problem is not the absence of a separate item called works but the isolation of a faith that, if alive, would not be alone. Verse 26 restates it with the body-and-spirit analogy: "as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead."

What has just been said. Verses 15-16 give the illustration: a brother or sister without clothing and daily food, and someone who says "go in peace, be warmed and be filled" without giving them what they need. That is the workless faith under discussion, and it is a failure of mercy rather than a failure of theology.

Not against Paul. The faith James calls dead is defined two verses later as the faith of demons who believe and shudder (verse 19). Paul never described saving faith that way, and he says the same thing James does when the issue is reality rather than ground: Galatians 5:6, faith working through love. See James 2.14-26 and Justification by Faith.

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.

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

People:

Lexicon:

Passages:

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.