James 4:5-6

4:5 Or do you think the scripture means nothing when it says, ¹  “The spirit that God ²  caused ³  to live within us has an envious yearning”? ⁴  4:6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.” ⁵ 

James 4:15

4:15 You ought to say instead, ⁶  “If the Lord is willing, then we will live and do this or that.”

James 1:13

1:13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted by evil, ⁷  and he himself tempts no one.

James 2:11

2:11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” ⁸  also said, “Do not murder.” ⁹  Now if you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a violator of the law.

James 2:14

Faith and Works Together

2:14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, ¹⁰  if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can this kind of faith ¹¹  save him? ¹² 

James 2:23

2:23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Now Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness,” ¹³  and he was called God’s friend. ¹⁴ 

James 4:13

4:13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that town ¹⁵  and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.”

[4:5]  ¹ tn Grk “vainly says.”

[4:5]  ² tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:5]  ³ tc The Byzantine text and a few other mss (P 33 Ï) have the intransitive κατῴκησεν (katwkhsen) here, which turns τὸ πνεῦμα (to pneuma) into the subject of the verb: “The spirit which lives within us.” But the more reliable and older witnesses (Ì⁷⁴ א B Ψ 049 1241 1739 al) have the causative verb, κατῴκισεν (katwkisen), which implies a different subject and τὸ πνεῦμα as the object: “The spirit that he causes to live within us.” Both because of the absence of an explicit subject and the relative scarcity of the causative κατοικίζω (katoikizw, “cause to dwell”) compared to the intransitive κατοικέω (katoikew, “live, dwell”) in biblical Greek (κατοικίζω does not occur in the NT at all, and occurs one twelfth as frequently as κατοικέω in the LXX), it is easy to see why scribes would replace κατῴκισεν with κατῴκησεν. Thus, on internal and external grounds, κατῴκισεν is the preferred reading.

[4:5]  ⁴ tn Interpreters debate the referent of the word “spirit” in this verse: (1) The translation takes “spirit” to be the lustful capacity within people that produces a divided mind (1:8, 14) and inward conflicts regarding God (4:1-4). God has allowed it to be in man since the fall, and he provides his grace (v. 6) and the new birth through the gospel message (1:18-25) to counteract its evil effects. (2) On the other hand the word “spirit” may be taken positively as the Holy Spirit and the sense would be, “God yearns jealously for the Spirit he caused to live within us.” But the word for “envious” or “jealous” is generally negative in biblical usage and the context before and after seems to favor the negative interpretation.

[4:6]  ⁵ sn A quotation from Prov 3:34.

[4:15]  ⁹ tn Grk “instead of your saying.”

[1:13]  ¹³ tn Or “God must not be tested by evil people.”

[2:11]  ¹⁷ sn A quotation from Exod 20:14 and Deut 5:18.

[2:11]  ¹⁸ sn A quotation from Exod 20:13 and Deut 5:17.

[2:14]  ²¹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[2:14]  ²² 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]  ²³ sn The form of the question in Greek expects a negative answer.

[2:23]  ²⁵ sn A quotation from Gen 15:6.

[2:23]  ²⁶ sn An allusion to 2 Chr 20:7; Isa 41:8; 51:2; Dan 3:35 (LXX), in which Abraham is called God’s “beloved.”

[4:13]  ²⁹ tn Or “city.”