Yakobus 2:1-2

Prejudice and the Law of Love

2:1 My brothers and sisters, ¹  do not show prejudice ²  if you possess faith ³  in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. ⁴  2:2 For if someone ⁵  comes into your assembly ⁶  wearing a gold ring and fine clothing, and a poor person enters in filthy clothes,

Yakobus 2:13-14

2:13 For judgment is merciless for the one who has shown no mercy. But mercy triumphs over ⁷  judgment.

Faith and Works Together

2:14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, ⁸  if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can this kind of faith ⁹  save him? ¹⁰ 

Yakobus 3:17

3:17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, accommodating, ¹¹  full of mercy and good fruit, ¹²  impartial, and not hypocritical. ¹³ 

[2:1]  ¹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[2:1]  ² tn Or “partiality.”

[2:1]  ³ tn Grk “do not have faith with personal prejudice,” with emphasis on the last phrase.

[2:1]  ⁴ tn Grk “our Lord Jesus Christ of glory.” Here δόξης (doxhs) has been translated as an attributive genitive.

[2:2]  ⁵ tn The word for “man” or “individual” here is ἀνήρ (anhr), which often means “male” or “man (as opposed to woman).” But as BDAG 79 s.v. 2 says, “equivalent to τὶς someone.”

[2:2]  ⁶ tn Grk “synagogue.” Usually συναγωγή refers to Jewish places of worship (e.g., Matt 4:23, Mark 1:21, Luke 4:15, John 6:59). The word can be used generally to refer to a place of assembly, and here it refers specifically to a Christian assembly (BDAG 963 s.v. 2.b.).

[2:13]  ⁷ tn Grk “boasts against, exults over,” in victory.

[2:14]  ⁸ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[2:14]  ⁹ tn Grk “the faith,” referring to the kind of faith just described: faith without works. The article here is anaphoric, referring to the previous mention of the noun πίστις (pisti") in the verse. See ExSyn 219.

[2:14]  ¹⁰ sn The form of the question in Greek expects a negative answer.

[3:17]  ¹¹ tn Or “willing to yield,” “open to persuasion.”

[3:17]  ¹² tn Grk “fruits.” The plural Greek term καρπούς has been translated with the collective singular “fruit.”

[3:17]  ¹³ tn Or “sincere.”