Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself.
Parallel Translations
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Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself.
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Even so fayth yf it have no dedes is deed in it selfe.
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Euen so the faith, if it haue no woorkes, is dead in it selfe.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (7)
Passages linked to James 2:17 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- James 2:26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.
- 2 Peter 1:5-9 Yes, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence; and in moral excellence, knowledge; and in knowledge, self-control; and in self-control perseverance; and in perseverance godliness; and in godliness brotherly affection; and in brotherly affection, love. For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to not be idle or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins.
- James 2:19-20 You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe, and shudder. But do you want to know, vain man, that faith apart from works is dead?
- 1 Corinthians 13:13 But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.
- James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him?
- 1 Timothy 1:5 but the goal of this command is love, out of a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith,
- 1 Thessalonians 1:3 remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and perseverance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 17 Is dead, being alone. He says that faith…
17 Is dead, being alone. He says that faith is dead, being by itself, that is, when destitute of good works. We hence conclude that it is indeed no faith, for when dead, it does not properly retain the name. The Sophists plead this expression and say, that some sort of faith is found by itself; but this frivolous caviling is easily refuted; for it is sufficiently evident that the Apostle reasons from what is impossible, as Paul calls an angel anathema, if he attempted to subvert the gospel. (Galatians 1:8.)
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 17 Even so faith, if it hath not works,…
17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
Ver. 17. Is dead, being alone] That is, being workless; for life discovers itself by action; so doth true faith by trust in God and love to men. A tree that is not for fruit, is for the fire.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Even so faith; that which they boasted of, and…
Even so faith; that which they boasted of, and called faith.
Is dead; void of that life, in which the very essence of faith consists, and which always discovers itself in vital actings and good fruits, where it is not hindered by some forcible impediment; in allusion to a corpse, which plainly appears to have no vital principle in it, all vital operations being ceased. It resembles a man’s body, and is called so, but in reality is not so, but a dead carcass.
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Being alone; margin, by itself, or in itself; be it what it will, it is but dead: or, as we render it, being alone, i.e. not in conjunction with works, which always it should be.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Even so faith, if it hath not works, is…
Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. It is like a lifeless carcass, a body without a soul, Jam 2:26 for as works, without faith, are dead works, so faith, without works, is a dead faith, and not like the lively hope and faith of regenerated persons: and indeed, such who have no other faith than this are dead in trespasses and sins; not that works are the life of faith, or that the life of faith lies in, and flows from works; but, as Dr. Ames observes (b), good works are second acts, necessarily flowing from the life of faith; to which may be added, and by these faith appears to be living, lively and active, or such who perform them appear to be true and living believers.
(b) Medulla Theolog. l. 2. c. 7. sect. 35.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain So likewise that faith which hath not works is…
So likewise that faith which hath not works is a mere dead, empty notion; of no more profit to him that hath it, than the bidding the naked be clothed is to him.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 17. If it hath not works, is dead]…
Verse 17. If it hath not works, is dead] The faith that does not produce works of charity and mercy is without the living principle which animates all true faith, that is, love to God and love to man. They had faith, such as a man has who credits a well-circumstanced relation because it has all the appearance of truth; but they had nothing of that faith that a sinner, convinced of his sinfulness, God's purity, and the strictness of the Divine laws, is obliged to exert in the Lord Jesus, in order to be saved from his sins.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain faith . . . being alone--ALFORD joins "is dead…
faith . . . being alone--ALFORD joins "is dead in itself." So BENGEL, "If the works which living faith produces have no existence, it is a proof that faith itself (literally, 'in respect to itself') has no existence; that is, that what one boasts of as faith, is dead." "Faith" is said to be "dead in itself," because when it has works it is alive, and it is discerned to be so, not in respect to its works, but in respect to itself. English Version, if retained, must not be understood to mean that faith can exist "alone" (that is, severed from works), but thus: Even so presumed faith, if it have not works, is dead, being by itself "alone," that is, severed from works of charity; just as the body would be "dead" if alone, that is, severed from the spirit (Jam 2:26). So ESTIUS.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 17. Dead—It has no vital existence, being alone, and…
17. Dead—It has no vital existence, being alone, and not embodied in good doing.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 17. Even so faith, if it hath not works…
17. Even so faith, if it hath not works …] This then is St James’s objection to the faith of which he speaks. It is, while alone (literally, by itself), with no promise or potency of life, and it is, therefore, dead, and being so, as we scarcely call a corpse a man, is unworthy of the name of faith. The assent to a dogma, beginning and ending in itself, has no power to justify or save. St Paul’s language in Rom_2:13 shews that he was in substantial agreement with St James.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (17) Even so faith, if it hath not works,…
(17) Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.—Better, like the margin, is dead in its own self. If to be childless among women were a curse in Israel, so to be barren among God’s graces is the condemnation of faith in Christendom. And St. Paul, in substantial harmony with this assertion of his brother Apostle, declares (Rom_2:13) “Not the hearers of the Law are just before God, but the doers of the Law shall be justified.” There had been no lack of charity under the earlier Jewish teaching; in fact, “righteousness” in many passages of Holy Writ, and in the paraphrases for the unlearned, called the Targums, was explained to be “almsgiving.” But the whole system of Rabbinism seems gradually to have destroyed the spiritual life of its scholars; and amongst them now was fast spreading the doctrine of a sterile faith. In the revival of Monotheism under the sword of the prophet of Mecca, the faith of Abraham once more shone in the creed of his descendants; though, alas! the sons of Ishmael, and not Isaac the chosen: and the Muhammedans tell us still that if fasting and prayer bring the believer to the gates of Paradise, alms will let him in.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Being alone (kaq eJauthn); R.V, in itself. But the…
Being alone (kaq eJauthn); R.V, in itself. But the rendering of the A.V appears to be justified by the LXX in Gen_43:31, Pareqhkan aujtw monw kaiv k.t.l..
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 17. Even so faith. Faith that has no power…
17. Even so faith. Faith that has no power to bring one to obedience and to sway the life is as worthless as good wishes which end in words. Being alone. It cannot stand alone and be of any avail. Only when it shows its power in works is it of the slightest value.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.