Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
James 2:14-26, Faith that shudders, Abraham and Rahab
Faith without deeds is dead, James argues. Wishing a hungry brother well helps no one, the demons believe that God is one and shudder, and Abraham and Rahab were counted righteous by what they did.
James 2:14-26, in every translation this tool compares.
James argues that a faith that never acts is no faith at all. Kind words to a hungry, poorly clothed believer, with no help given, are useless, and even demons hold correct beliefs about God and tremble. He points to Abraham offering Isaac and Rahab sheltering the spies as people whose trust in God showed in what they did. How James's words sit beside Paul's on faith and works is debated.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/unclean-spirits\/","n":"Unclean spirits and exorcists","s":"Spirits that defiled and harmed people. Exorcists of the day used names, oaths, spells and foul smells to drive them out. Jesus gave an order.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/hospitality\/","n":"Hospitality to travelers","s":"Taking in travelers was one of the great virtues of the ancient Mediterranean, above all among Jews. Messengers could travel light because they expected to be housed.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/children-of-abraham\/","n":"Children of Abraham","s":"Jews called Abraham our father, and many believed that being his descendants all but guaranteed a place among God's saved people. The Gospels and Paul argue over who his true children are.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/angels\/","n":"Angels","s":"God's messengers and his heavenly army. Jews of Jesus' day spoke of guardian angels, of the greatest angels standing before God's face, and of angels coming with God at the judgment.","r":""}
There is one God is the Shema, Deuteronomy 6:4, which Jews recited every day; it was the cornerstone of Jewish faith (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes; the ESV Study Bible). That demons recognized the truth about God and trembled at his name was widely held, even in the magical papyri (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes). Heiser notes that the word for the messengers Rahab welcomed is the Greek word also used for angels. Whom James is answering is read in several ways: a garbled form of Paul's teaching heard secondhand, before James had met Paul (Carson, Moo and Morris), a later stage of Paul misunderstood, after James's death (Kümmel, as they report), a strain of Jewish piety feeding the revolutionary mood (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes), or mere intellectual assent (the Zondervan dictionary). The ESV Study Bible, Wright and Bird, and Wright's commentary see no real contradiction: for Wright, faith here is the bare Jewish confession that God is one, and James is "on the same page as Paul" (Galatians 5:6). Luther called James an "epistle of straw", yet "he quoted James approvingly many times" (Carson, Moo and Morris).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to James 2:14-26, and on James 2:14-16, 2:18, 2:19-20, 2:21-24 and 2:25
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on James 2:16, 2:19 and 2:25
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on James 2:14-26 and 2:19
- N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, The New Testament in Its World, ch. 31, The Argument of James, section 4, and Table 31.2
- Michael S. Heiser, Reversing Hermon, ch. 5, The Sin of the Watchers and the Genealogy of Jesus, section 2, Rahab
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 18, James, Author, Adoption into the Canon and The Contribution of James
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry James, Letter of
- N. T. Wright, Early Christian Letters for Everyone, comment on James 2:14-26
