A Translation of James

Translation of James

James 1

^1.1Jacob/James, God’s and the Lord Jesus Christ’s slave

To the twelve tribes, the ones in the Diaspora

Hello.

²Consider [it] total happiness, my brothers, whenever you stumble upon different kinds of testings, ³because you know that the testing-designed-to-prove-the-authenticity*** of your faith produces endurance. ⁴And the endurance had better have its complete work, so that you can be complete and whole, lacking in nothing. ⁵But if one of you lacks wisdom, he had better ask from the God Who gives to all generously and Who doesn’t mock, and it will be given to him. ⁶But he had better ask in faith, doubting nothing, because the person who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is blown and thrown around. ⁷Indeed, that human had better not expect that he will get anything from the Lord, ⁸a man doubting and unstable in all his ways.

⁹And the lowly brother had better brag about his high position. ¹⁰And the rich one in his lowly position, because like a flower of grass he passes away. ¹¹For the sun rises with the heat and dries up the grass and its flower falls off and the beauty of its face is destroyed, so too the rich [brother] fades during his travels.

¹²Blessed is the man who endures testing, because after he has become proven-authentic-by-testing he will receive the crown of life, which He promised to those who love Him! ¹³No one who is being tested had better say that “by God I’m being tempted!” because God is untemptable by evil things, and He tempts no one. ¹⁴Rather each person is tempted by their own desire, being dragged away and lured. ¹⁵Then the desire gives having conceived gives birth to sin, and the sin when brought to completion gives birth to death.

¹⁶Don’t be tricked, my loved brothers! ¹⁷every good giving and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of lights, concerning Whom there is no variation or shadow of change. ¹⁸Because He decided to , He gave birth to us by the message of truth, so that we would be a firstfruits, one of His created things.

¹⁹Know [this] my loved brothers, and every man had better be fast when it comes to listening, slow when it comes to speaking, slow when it comes to anger, ²⁰because anger from a man does not accomplish God’s righteousness. ²¹So, because you’ve put off all dirtiness and an abundance of badness in humility, take the implanted message, the one able to save your lives!

²²And become doers of the message and not only hearers, thereby deceiving yourselves, ²³because if some is a hearer of the message and not a doer, this person is like a man who studies the face of his existence in a mirror, ²⁴because he studies himself and goes out and immediately forgets what he’s like. ²⁵But the person who looks into the perfect law, the one of freedom and who continues, not becoming a forgetful hearer, but an action taker—this one will be blessed in his doing. ²⁶If someone seems to be worshipful who doesn’t bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, the worship of this guy is empty. ²⁷Wworship that is clean and undefiled before the God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their suffering, to keep oneself untainted by the world.

James 2

^2.1My brothers, don’t hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ of glory with partialities/favoritisms***. ²For if a man wearing gold rings would come into your synagogue in white clothes, but also a poor man would come in filthy clothes, ³And you would look on the one wearing the white clothes and would say, “You, sit here in a good spot” and to the poor man you would say “You stand or sit there under my footrest.” ⁴Then aren’t you discriminating among yourselves and haven’t you become judges of with wicked reasonings? ⁵Listen up, my loved brothers, didn’t God pick for Himself the poor in/with regard to the world as rich in faith and inheritors of the kingdom, which He promised to those who love Him? ⁶But you yourselves dishonor the poor! Aren’t the rich people exploiting you and are they themselves taking/drawing*** you into court? ⁸If indeed you fulfill a royal law according to the Scripture: “You will love your neighbor as yourself,” you act in a good way. ⁹But if you play favorites/discriminate***, you commit sin, being exposed by the Law as violators, ¹⁰because whoever would keep the whole law, but would trip up on one part, he is in a state of having become liable*** for all of it! ¹¹For the one who says, “You will not commit adultery” also said “You will not murder.” And if you don’t commit adultery, but you do murder, you are in the state of having become a violator of the Law. ¹²So speak in this way and act in this way: as those who are about to be judged through the law of freedom! ¹³For the judgment was merciless against the one not showing mercy! Mercy triumphs over judgment***!

¹⁴What is the benefit/what good does it do, my brothers, if someone would say he had faith, but wouldn’t have actions? That kind of faith can’t save him, can it? ¹⁵If a brother or sister really were naked and in need of their daily food, ¹⁶but anyone of you would say to them, “Go peace, warm yourselves up and feed yourselves until you’re full,” but you all wouldn’t give them the things the body needs, what good is it? ¹⁷So too the faith, if he wouldn’t have actions, is dead by definition.

¹⁸Butwill someone say, “You have faith, and I have actions”? Prove to me your faith without actions, and I will prove to you the faith from my actions! ¹⁹You believe that God is One, good job, even the demons believe [that] and so they shake in fear***! ²⁰But do you want to know, o empty man, that the faith without actions is useless/inactive/doesn’t work! ²¹Wasn’t Abraham our father proved righteous by actions by offering up Isaac his son on the altar? ²²You see that the faith acts together with his actions and by the actions the faith was made complete. ²³And the scripture was fulfilled that says “And Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness and he was called God’s friend. ²⁴See that by actions a man proved righteous and by faith alone! ²⁵But also in the same way wasn’t Rahab the prostitute by actions proved righteous by welcoming the messenger as guests and sending them out on another road? ²⁶For just as the body without a spirit is dead, so too the faith without actions is dead!

James 3

^3.1Many of you, don’t become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we will get a greater judgment. ²For absolutely all of us trip up in many things. If some doesn’t trip up in speech, this is a perfect man, who is able to bridle/control also his whole body. ³But if we throw the bridle of the horses into their mouths so that they would obey us, then we direct their whole body. ⁴Look, also boats which are so great and driven by harsh winds are directed by a very small steering paddle, wherever the desire of the one who is guiding plans. ⁵So too, the tongue is a small part and boasts great things. Look, how big a fire burns such a great forest! ⁶And the tongue is fire! The world of unrighteousness! The tongue puts itself in charge among our body parts. The thing that stains the whole body and sets on fire the wheel of life and is being set on fire by Hell! ⁷For every species of both wild animals and birds, both reptiles and sea creatures is being tamed and is in a state of being tamed by human species, ⁸but the tongue no one among men is able to tame, an unstable/chaotic evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹With this [body part] we bless the Lord and Father and in this [body part] we curse humans, the ones coming to exist according to the likeness of God! ¹⁰From the same mouth a blessing and a curse comes out. It shouldn’t be that these things happen this way. ¹¹The spring doesn’t gush bitter [water] and sweet [water] from the same hole, does it? ¹²My brothers, a fig tree can’t make olives or a grapevine figs, can they? Neither [can] a what is salty make sweet water.

¹³Is there someone wise and learned/experienced*** among you? He had better show his actions from his good lifestyle in the humility of wisdom. ¹⁴But if you have bitter jealousy and selfishness in your heart, don’t boast and lie against the truth! ¹⁵This isn’t the wisdom from above that has come down, but earthly, unspiritual***, and demonic! Because wherever there is envy and selfishness, chaos and every base/wicked thing are there. ¹⁷And the wisdom that comes from above first of all is holy/pure, then peaceful, tolerantobedient, filled with mercy and good fruits, undiscriminating/nonjudgmental/impartial***, unhypocritical. ¹⁸And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace to those who practice peace.

James 4

^4.1Where to wars come from? And where do battlescome from among you? Isn’t from this? From your pleasures that wage war among your body parts? ²You desperately want, but you don’t have, you kill and envy and you can’t get [it/enough]***, you war and battle, you don’t have because you don’t ask. ³You ask and you don’t receive because you ask wickedly, so that you can blow your money on your pleasures! ⁴Adulteresses, don’t you know that the friendship of the world is hostile/an enemy of God? So whoever would want to be a friend of the world, is made [to be] an enemy of God. ⁵Or do you think that for no reason the Scripture says the Spirit Who lives in you desperately wants with jealousy, ⁶and gives greater grace? Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. ⁷So, subordinate/submit to God, stand against the devil, and he will flee from you! ⁸Draw near to God and He will draw near to you! Clean [your] hands, sinners, and make your hearts holy, doubters! ⁹Feel miserable and mourn and cry! Your laughter had better turn into mourning and your happiness into dejection/depression. ¹⁰Be humbled before the Lord and He will raise you up. ¹¹Don’t talk down to one another, brothers. The person who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against to the Law and judges the Law. But if you judge the Law, you’re not a doer of the Law, but a judge. ¹²There is One Lawgiver and Judge, the One Who can save and destroy, but who are you who judges the neighbor?

¹³Come on, now, those of you who say “Today or tomorrow we’ll go into such and such a city and we’ll work there for a year and make business deals and profit,” ¹⁴you who don’t know what kind of tomorrow your life will have, because you’re a vapor that***** appears for a little while, then also disappears. ¹⁵Instead of what you said, [say] “If the Lord would want, we’ll both live and do this or that.” ¹⁶But now you’re bragging with your arrogant-boasts! All of that kind of bragging is evil! ¹⁷So, for the person who knows to do what’s good and doesn’t do [it], it is sin for him!

James 5

^5.1Come on now, you rich people, sob, crying out because of your miseries that are coming on! ²Your riches are in a state of decaying and your clothes are in a state of becoming eaten-by-moths! ³Your gold and silver has become tarnished and their corrosion will be a testimony against you! And it will eat your fleshes like fire! You did store up in the last days! ⁴Look, the paycheck of the workers who mow*** your fields, the person being robbed [or perhaps ‘waiting to get paid’] by you cries out, and the shouts of those who harvest are in a state of speaking into the ears of the Lord of Armies! ⁵You lived for pleasure*** on the earth and you lived it up, you fed your hearts on a day of slaughter, ⁶you found guilty, you murdered the righteous person, he didn’t position himself against you!

⁷So, be patient, brothers until the coming of the Lord! Look, the farmer waits for the precious fruit from the ground, while being patient for it until it would get the early and the late [rain]. ⁸And be patient yourselves! Strengthen your hearts, because the coming of the Lord is close. ⁹Brothers and sisters, don’t groan against one another, so that you won’t be judged. Look, the Judge is standing in front of the doors. ¹⁰Brothers, take the prophets as an the example of suffering-evil and patience, who spoke in the Name of the Lord. ¹¹Look, we call blessed the people who endured. You’ve heard about the endurance of Job and you know what the Lord did in the end, because the Lord is caring and compassionate.

¹²But above all, my brothers, don’t swear oaths either to heaven or earth or any other oath. But your yes had better mean yes, and your no had better mean no, so that you don’t fall under judgment.

¹³Someone suffering evil among you, had better pray. Someone who’s happy had better sing praise songs! ¹⁴Someone who’s sick among you, had better summon the elders of the church and they had better pray over him, while smearing [him] with olive oil in the Name of the Lord. ¹⁵And the prayer of faith will save the sick person and the Lord will raise him—even if he would have done some sin, it will be forgiven him. ¹⁶So confess out loud your sins to one another and pray for another, so that you’d healed. A righteous person’s prayer is really strong, so it’s effective. ¹⁷Elijah was a man with the same nature as us, and in a prayer he prayed that it wouldn’t rain. And it didn’t rain on the land for three years and six months! ¹⁸And he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land produced its fruit!

¹⁹My brothers, if someone among you has been led astray from truth and someone turns him around, ²⁰he had better know that the person who turns a sinner around from the deception of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a large number of sins!