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James Chapter 2

James Chapter 2

(Underlining marks a quotation/allusion. [Brackets] mark a textual variant.fnWhen two (or more) different copies of an original manuscript disagree on any given word or phrase — addition, omission, word order, etc. — the disagreement is called a "textual variant". ~99% of existing textual variants are either minor (like spelling), obviously not original (often appearing only in a few late manuscripts), or don't affect meaning (like "Jesus Christ" vs. "Christ Jesus"). The ~1% that remain do not affect any central doctrine of Christianity. The BOS Bible only marks significant textual variants that affect the meaning; smaller variants that do not affect meaning won't be marked for readability.  "Love" with a caret ("^love") is agapé.fn"agapé" The Greek words ἀγάπη (agapé, noun), and ἀγαπάω (agapaó; verb) are typically translated "love".  However, unlike our English word "love" – which primarily speaks of affection and feelings — agapé centers on choice and behavior.  It’s the "love" based on will, choice, behavior, and action; not feelings.  (Feelings-based love is the Greek word φιλέω (phileó), which properly means "brotherly love/affection".)  Thus, you could hate someone passionately and still treat him with "agapé".  Agapé "love" is best understood as the pursuit of what is most beneficial to someone or something, regardless of the cost to yourself or the type of response received from the person or thing.  It can also indicate a preference for someone or something over other things. An asterisk (*) indicates a verb in the Greek perfect tense.fnThe Greek perfect tense signifies a completed action in the past with a result and/or an ongoing state that extends into the present. For example, Hebrews 12:2 says in part: "He *sat down at the right hand of the throne of God"; the verb for "sat" is in the perfect tense, indicating that He sat down once (completed action in the past), and also that He remains seated until the present moment (ongoing state).)

Glossary

Note: this glossary is currently a work in progress; entries that do not expand will be added as time permits

Ages/of ages
“ages” and “of ages” are the Greek words “αἰών” (aión, noun form) and “αἰώνιος” (aiónios, adjective form) respectively.  The adjective form is typically translated “eternal”, as in “eternal life”. The noun form refers to a whole time period, (Keizer, “Life Time Entirety”) such as a person’s lifetime (an older Greek sense), an age/epoch (e.g., 2 Cor 4:4), or even time in its entirety, making its meaning similar to “forever” (e.g., John 14:16). The adjective form is similarly context-dependent, and the New Testament context often dictates a meaning similar to “forever” (but not always: e.g. 2 Tim 1:9).  Alternately or additionally, it can indicate the quality of a time period — indicating greatness/severity — like the English idiom “of ages” (e.g. “battle of the ages”). Thus, “of ages” was chosen for the adjective form so that both the time and quality senses remain visible.

Clean/unclean

Covenant

Faith

Flesh

Forgive/forgiveness

Grace
The Greek word is “χάρις” (charis), most often translated “grace”, “gift”, or “thanks”. It was a technical term in the 1st century, referring to the Patronage system in place. The Patron (from “pater” = “father”) would give gifts or do favors (both called a charis). A charis was always given/done freely to anyone who would be grateful for it, and this person then became a “client” of the patron. The clients were expected to reciprocate by telling everyone what the patron had done, and offering their services to the patron whenever the patron needed them. This reciprocal act was also called “charis”, and the ones who reciprocated were “being faithful” by giving thanks in this way. Both were done out of gratitude, not legal obligation. A client who wasn’t faithful and grateful probably wouldn’t receive any more charis from his patron, or any other patrons. The patron was responsible for taking care of all his clients, and making sure their needs were met. New Testament usage typically casts God the Father as a Heavenly Patron, to whom Christians should be grateful and faithful because of the gifts He has given us. (e.g. salvation, provision, protection, etc.)

Holy

Justification

Law (Torah)

Make purification

Pure/Impure

Purification offering
In the Old Testament, this is typically the Hebrew “חַטָּ֖את” (khat-tat); in the New Testament, it’s typically “περὶ ἁμαρτίας” (peri hamartias), which is what the Septuagint (an ancient translation of the Old Testament into Greek) used to translate the Hebrew. It’s traditionally translated “sin offering”, but that translation has less support in high-level scholarship. The Hebrew word can mean “sin”, but it can also mean “purification” (e.g. Numbers 8:7). This offering was used to purify uncleanness, whether or not a sin was committed. Thus, it was required even when no sin was committed, such as after childbirth (Leviticus 12:1-8), for certain diseases (Leviticus 14), etc. High-level, peer-reviewed scholarship dedicated to the field (e.g. Milgrom, Levine, Gane, Sklar, Wright, Gorman, etc.) is largely united on the “purification offering” understanding. The BOS Bible has aligned itself with that high-level, peer-reviewed scholarship in its translation.

Ransom

Redemption

Repent/repentance

Righteous/righteousness

Salvation/save

Soul
“soul” is the Greek word “ψυχή/psuché” and Hebrew word “נֶפֶשׁ/nephesh”. The BOS Bible translates these words as “soul” for consistency, and so the full meaning of “soul” isn’t obscured by different translations in different places. They closely overlap in meaning and are typically translated “soul” or “life”. They refer to the animating force of a living thing, and thus can also refer to its life, or to the whole of any person or creature, including animals (e.g. fish in Revelation 8:9 and Genesis 1). They are frequently used as an emphatic reference to a person’s whole self, including longings, deep emotions, and inner life. (e.g. Ps 42:11) Note: while “soul” has significant overlap in meaning with “spirit”, the words have distinct meanings and usages throughout scripture. For example, lions tear apart a soul in Psalm 7:2, and a “dead soul” is mentioned in Leviticus 21:11; “spirit” has no analogous usages, and it returns to God at death (Ecc 12:7; Acts 7:59). The adjective forms of soul and spirit are contrasted in 1 Corinthians 2:14-15; see also: Hebrews 4:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:23.

Sin

Click to Collapse the Glossary
Don’t show Partiality
  1. My brothers, hold to the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus the Anointed, but not with partiality.fnquotation/allusion to Leviticus 19:15, Deuteronomy 1:17, Deuteronomy 16:19, and Proverbs 24:23
  2. For if a man comes into your synagogue wearing a gold ring and magnificent clothes, and also a poor man in filthy clothes comes in,
  3. yet you’re attentive to the man wearing the magnificent apparel and say: “You sit here honorably” and to the poor man you say: “You, stand there or sit under my footstool”,
  4. didn’t you distinguish between yourselves and become judges with wicked thoughts?
  5. Listen my beloved brothers: didn’t God choose the poor of the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to the men ^loving Him?
  6. Yet you dishonored the poor.  Don’t the rich oppress you and don’t they drag you into the courts?
  7. Don’t they blaspheme the noble name by which you were called?
  8. Nevertheless, if you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture: “You shall ^love your neighbor as yourself“,fnquotation/allusion to Leviticus 19:18 you do well.
  9. But you commit a sin if you show partiality,fnquotation/allusion to Leviticus 19:15, Deuteronomy 1:17, Deuteronomy 16:19, and Proverbs 24:23 being convicted by the law as deliberate violators.
  10. For whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles at one point has become guilty of all of it.
  11. For the One who said you shouldn’t have sex with another man’s wifefnQuotation/allusion to Exodus 20:14;  “have sex with another man’s wife” is one word in the Greek, traditionally translated “commit adultery”. However, the Greek word (and Hebrew too) is more limited in scope than our English word adultery. In English, “adultery” means illicit sex between a married person – man or woman – and someone who isn’t their spouse. In Greek (and Hebrew also), it meant “a man having sex with another man’s wife”. A married man having sex with an unmarried woman was called fornication. also said you shouldn’t murder.fnQuotation/allusion to Exodus 20:13  Yet if you don’t have sex with another man’s wife but do murder, you have become a deliberate violator of the law.
  12. Speak this way and act this way, like someone about to be judged by the law of liberty,
  13. for judgement is merciless to the man who didn’t show mercy.  Mercy triumphs over judgement.
Faith and Works
  1. My brothers, what is the benefit if someone claims to have faith but has no works?  That faith isn’t able to save him, is it?
  2. If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacking daily food,
  3. and someone from among you says to them: “Depart in peace, warm and feed yourselves”,fn“warm and feed yourselves” could also be translated “be warmed and fed”.  Both Greek verbs here have the same inflections for the middle voice (warm and feed yourselves) and the passive voice (be warmed and fed), making either a legitimate translation. but didn’t give them the things necessary for the body, what’s the benefit?
  4. In this way also, faith by itself is dead if it doesn’t have works.
  5. But someone will say: “You have faith and I have works”.  Demonstrate your faith to me without works and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works.
  6. You believe that God is one.fnquotation/allusion to Deuteronomy 6:4 (the Shema)  You do well.  Even the demons believe and tremble.
  7. And do you want to realize, O empty-headed man, that faith without works is useless?
  8. Wasn’t our father Abraham proved righteous by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?
  9. You see that his faith was working together with his works, and by the works his faith was perfected.
  10. And the scripture was fulfilled, saying: “And Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.”fnquotation/allusion to Genesis 15:6 and he was called a friend of God.fnquotation/allusion to Isaiah 41:8 and 2 Chronicles 20:7
  11. You see that a man is proved righteous by works and not by faith alone.
  12. And likewise also, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute proved righteous by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another way?
  13. For just as the body without the spirit is dead, in this way also faith without works is dead.

 

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