James 2 is the second chapter of the Epistle of James in the New Testament of the

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

Bible. The author identifies himself as "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ" and the epistle is traditionally attributed to

James the brother of Jesus James the Just, or a variation of James, brother of the Lord ( la, Iacobus from he, יעקב, and grc-gre, Ἰάκωβος, , can also be Anglicized as "Jacob"), was "a brother of Jesus", according to the New Testament. He was an early lead ...

, written in Jerusalem between 48 and 61 CE. Alternatively, some scholars argue that it is a

pseudographical Pseudepigrapha (also anglicized as "pseudepigraph" or "pseudepigraphs") are falsely attributed works, texts whose claimed author is not the true author, or a work whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past.Bauckham, Richard; "Pseu ...

work written after 61 CE. This chapter contains an exposition about the

commandment Commandment may refer to: * The Ten Commandments * One of the 613 mitzvot of Judaism * The Great Commandment * The New Commandment * ''Commandment'' (album), a 2007 album by Six Feet Under * ''Commandments'' (film), a 1997 film starring Aidan Qui ...

, "You shall love your neighbour as yourself", and about dead faith.

Text

The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 26 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Greek are: *

Papyrus 20 Papyrus 20 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), designated by 𝔓20, is an early copy of the New Testament in Greek. It is a papyrus manuscript of the Epistle of James, but it only contains Chapter 2:19-3:9. The manuscript has been paleographica ...

(early 3rd century; extant verses 19–26) * Codex Vaticanus (325-350) * Codex Sinaiticus (330-360) * Codex Alexandrinus (400-440) *

Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus The Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (Paris, National Library of France, Greek 9) designated by the siglum C or 04 {in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 3 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a ma ...

(c. 450) *

Papyrus 54 Papyrus 54 (in the Gregory- Aland numbering), designated by siglum 𝔓54, is an early copy of the New Testament in Greek. The manuscript palaeographically has been assigned to the 5th century (or 6th century). It is a papyrus manuscript of the ...

(5th century; extant verses 16–18, 22–26) An ancient manuscript containing this chapter in the

Coptic language Coptic (Bohairic Coptic: , ) is a language family of closely related dialects, representing the most recent developments of the Egyptian language, and historically spoken by the Copts, starting from the third-century AD in Roman Egypt. Coptic ...

is: *

Papyrus 6 Papyrus 6 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), designated by or by ε 021 (in von Soden's numbering), is a fragmentary early copy of the New Testament in Greek and Coptic (Akhmimic). It is a papyrus manuscript of the Gospel of John that has been ...

(~AD 350; all verses).

No faith with favoritism (2:1–4)

Verse 1

: ''My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality.'' *"Lord of glory": closely parallels (''kyrios tēs doxes''), could be an allusion to the transfiguration of Jesus (; cf. John 1:14).

Poor and rich (2:5–7)

The form of address in verse 5a, ''Listen, my beloved brethren'', is found in James' speech at the

Council of Jerusalem The Council of Jerusalem or Apostolic Council was held in Jerusalem around AD 50. It is unique among the ancient pre-ecumenical councils in that it is considered by Catholics and Eastern Orthodox to be a prototype and forerunner of the later ...

() and nowhere else in the New Testament. Verse 5b recalls Jesus' blessings in the

Sermon on the Mount The Sermon on the Mount (anglicized from the Matthean Vulgate Latin section title: ) is a collection of sayings attributed to Jesus of Nazareth found in the Gospel of Matthew (chapters 5, 6, and 7). that emphasizes his moral teachings. It is ...

( Matthew 5:3 ,5; ) about the poor, in contrast to the rich who 'blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you' (verse 7).

Love as the royal law (2:8–13)

Verse 8

:''If you really fulfil the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself", you do well;'' Contains citation from . Jesus made "Love your neighbor" a 'foremost command' (; ). Because of its pre-eminence and because it is sanctioned by Jesus, the king of all that exists, James regards this citation as "the royal law".

Verse 9

:''If you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors''. To act against the poor is like

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

, and is judged by the law as such (compare and ).

Verse 10

: ''For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws.''

Verse 11

: ''For He who said, "Do not commit adultery", also said, "Do not murder". Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.'' Contains citation from ;

Faith alone without works is dead (2:14–17)

Verse 17

: ''Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.'' Faith without the grace of charity is nothing, and charity is lost if one does not follow God's commandments and cooperate with grace by works. Thus, faith without charity and good works is dead. The Church has held since the time of the apostles that dead faith is not life-giving or salvific. However, Protestant teaching holds that dead fiduciary faith is sufficient for salvation.

Even the demons believe (2:18–20)

Verse 19

: ''You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!''

Verse 20

:''You foolish person! Must you be shown that faith that does nothing is worth nothing?''

Abraham justified by faith and works (2:21–23)

Verses 21–23

: ''Was not Abraham our father justified by works, offering up Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou, that faith did co-operate with his works; and by works faith was made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled, saying: Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him to justice, and he was called the friend of God.'' Abraham is justified before God by a living faith accompanied by charity and good works, and it is only by this that he is called a friend of God.

Justified by works and not by faith alone (2:24–26)

Verse 24

: ''You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.'' The consensus of the church fathers is that faith can only give life to, justify and save a soul if it is itself alive with charity (love) and good works. As Augustine writes, "faith itself is only rendered profitable by love, since faith without love can indeed exist, but cannot profit."

Verse 25

: ''Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?'' NKJV * " Rahab the harlot": received the Israelite spies by faith (), protected them in her house and let them escape, instead of giving them up to the authority (). Therefore, she and her family were saved when Jericho was destroyed.

References

Sources

* * *

External links

* King James Bible - Wikisource
English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate

''Online Bible'' at GospelHall.org
(ESV, KJV, Darby, American Standard Version, Bible in Basic English)
Multiple bible versions at ''Bible Gateway''
(NKJV, NIV, NRSV etc.) {{Epistle of James 02