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OET (OET-RV) Don’t delude yourselves by just listening to the message, but put it into practice in your daily lives.
In this section, James emphasized the importance of obeying the word of God. There are three paragraphs: 1:19–21, 1:22–25, and 1:26–27.
Some other possible headings for this section are:
Hearing and Doing the Word (ESV)
Christians must listen to God’s message and obey it (UBS)
Believers must not forget the word of God that they had heard. They must do/obey it.
In 1:22, there are three clauses in Greek. The BSB follows the Greek order but some other English versions change the Greek order of these clauses. Compare the order of the clauses in the BSB and NIV below.
22aBe doers of the word, 22band not hearers only, 22c…deceiving yourselves. (BSB)
22bDo not merely listen to the word, 22cand so deceive yourselves. 22aDo what it says. (NIV)
You should arrange the clauses in 1:22 in a way that is natural in your language. See the General Comment at the end of 1:22c for more discussion on reordering these clauses.
In Greek, this verse begins with a conjunction that means “But” in some contexts. Some English versions have translated it as “But” here. However, in this context, it is not indicating a contrast. It simply introduces the next point about the “word.” So, in many languages, no conjunction is necessary here.
Be doers of the word,
Be(plur) doers of the word.
Do(plur) what the word says/commands.
You(plur) must also follow/obey it.
Be doers of the word: The clause Be doers of the word refers to those who always do what God’s word tells them to do. Such people put the word’s teaching into practice and regularly obey its commands.
Translate this clause in such a way that the action is habitual, repeated action.
Some other ways to translate this are:
Do what it says (NIV)
put it into practice (GNT)
obey God’s message (CEV)
the word: The Greek word that the BSB translates as the word refers to the gospel.
Some other ways to translate this word are:
God’s word (NLT)
God’s message
The same word occurs in 1:18a and 1:21c.
and not hearers only.
¶ Do not only be(plur) hearers of the word,
¶ Do not only hear(plur) the word of God
¶ Do not just listen(plur) to the good news
and not hearers only: The clause and not hearers only indicates that it is not enough to just listen to someone preaching or reading from the word of God.
Some other ways to translate this clause are:
Do not only be hearers of the word
don’t just listen to God’s word (NLT)
You must do more than just hear God’s word/message
Do not limit yourselves to just hearing the gospel
Be careful not to translate this in a way that implies that it is not good to listen to the word.
not hearers only: The phrase hearers only refers to those who only hear the gospel teaching. They never do what it tells them to do.
In many languages, the usual word for “hear” includes the idea of obeying. If this is so in your language, be careful here to use an expression that describes hearing without obeying.
Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves.
and deceive yourselves and think that just hearing is sufficient.
or you will fool yourselves. (GW)
Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves: The Greek phrase that the BSB translates as deceiving yourselves can also be translated as “fool yourselves.” It refers to wrong thinking that leads a person astray. Anyone who just listens to the message of the gospel but does not obey its commands is mistaken if he thinks that God is pleased.
Some other ways to translate this clause are:
or you will fool yourselves (GW)
and lie to yourselves
In Greek and the BSB, a clause with a positive command (“Be doers of the word”) comes first. This is followed by a clause with a negative command (“do not only be hearers”). The NIV reverses the order of the positive and negative commands. Use the order that is most natural in your language.
Another possible way to translate the verse is:
He who hears the word and does not do what it says is deceiving himself. Therefore you should be people who both hear and do, not people who only hear.
Note 1 topic: grammar-connect-logic-contrast
δὲ
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: γίνεσθε Δέ ποιηταί λόγου καί μή μόνον ἀκροαταί παραλογιζόμενοι ἑαυτούς)
But draws a contrast not with what James has just said, but with a potential misunderstanding of what he has just said. He wants to clarify that by “receive the implanted word” he does not mean simply to believe it, but to put it into practice. It may be appropriate in your language to translate the word but with an expression that introduces a clarification. Alternate translation: [Now]
Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / ellipsis
γίνεσθε δὲ ποιηταὶ λόγου, καὶ μὴ μόνον ἀκροαταὶ
˓be˒_becoming (Some words not found in SR-GNT: γίνεσθε Δέ ποιηταί λόγου καί μή μόνον ἀκροαταί παραλογιζόμενοι ἑαυτούς)
At the end of this clause, James is leaving out some of the words that it would need in many languages in order to be complete. These words can be supplied from earlier in the clause. Alternate translation: [be doers of the word and not only hearers of the word]
Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / metonymy
γίνεσθε & ποιηταὶ λόγου, καὶ μὴ μόνον ἀκροαταὶ
˓be˒_becoming & (Some words not found in SR-GNT: γίνεσθε Δέ ποιηταί λόγου καί μή μόνον ἀκροαταί παραλογιζόμενοι ἑαυτούς)
James is using the term word to describe the message about Jesus that was conveyed by using words. Alternate translation: [obey the message about Jesus, do not just listen to it]
Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / idiom
καὶ μὴ μόνον ἀκροαταὶ
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: γίνεσθε Δέ ποιηταί λόγου καί μή μόνον ἀκροαταί παραλογιζόμενοι ἑαυτούς)
In the Bible, the word “hear” often has the idiomatic sense of agreeing with what is heard. James may be using the word in that sense. Alternate translation: [and do not just decide that you agree with it]
1:22 don’t just listen to God’s word: Reading the scriptures was an important part of worship (Luke 4:16-17; Acts 13:13-16; Col 4:16; 1 Tim 4:13). Since most people could not read and copies were not readily available, they listened to the readings in public worship.
OET (OET-RV) Don’t delude yourselves by just listening to the message, but put it into practice in your daily lives.
Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.
Acknowledgements: The SR Greek text, lemmas, morphology, and VLT gloss are all thanks to the CNTR.