UTN uW Translation Notes:

James 2 Chapter Introduction

Structure and Formatting

1. A warning against favoring rich people (2:1–13)
2. Faith and works (2:14–26)

Religious and Cultural Concepts in This Chapter

Favoritism

Some of James’s readers treated rich and powerful people well and they treated poor people badly. Treating some people better than others is called favoritism. James tells his readers that this is wrong. God wants his people to treat everyone well.

Justification

Justification is what happens when God makes a person righteous, that is, when God puts a person in right standing with himself. James says in this chapter that God justifies people when they do good works along with having faith. But that is because the good works demonstrate the faith that a person has, as James says explicitly in 2:18. James is not saying that people need to add good works to their faith in order to be justified. (See: justice and righteous and faith)

Translation Issues in This Chapter

But someone may say, “You have faith, and I have works” (2:18)

When James says this, he seems to be raising an objection that someone might make to what he has been saying. Public speakers at this time commonly raised such objections in order to answer them, and James is probably using that device. However, if that is what he is doing, we would expect the objection to be, “You have works, and I have faith,” since James has been stressing the importance of works accompanying faith. So why does this hypothetical speaker say instead, “You have faith, and I have works”?

It appears that James actually has this speaker addressing these words to the same “you” whom he has been addressing himself since 2:16 as “one of you” and whom he then goes on to address in the rest of this chapter. In other words, James is raising this hypothetical objection so that he can address this same “you” in this verse as well. James is saying, “Someone might reassure you that you nevertheless have faith, while I (James) have works. He might argue that both are valid expressions of religion and that it is not necessary for a person to have both.” James then answers this argument by observing that he can show his faith through his works, while a person who claims to have faith but not works has no means of proving that.

In your translation, you may wish to express this implicit information, as UST does. Alternatively, you may wish to translate as ULT does and leave it to Bible teachers and preachers to explain the meaning. See the further discussion in the notes to 2:18. (See: figs-explicit)

Faith without works is “useless” or “dead” (2:20)

In James 2:20, some ancient manuscripts say that faith without works is “useless.” ULT and UST follow that reading. Some other ancient manuscripts say that it is “dead,” perhaps under the influence of 2:17 and 2:26, where James uses the term “dead” to describe faith that is not expressed in works. If a translation of the Bible already exists in your area, consider using the reading found in that translation. If not, we recommend that you follow the reading of ULT and UST. (See: translate-textvariants)