Saints Translation

By Vincent Melli

James — Greek text and reception

DeaconPracticed wisdom

James 1 — Greek text and reception

Saints Translation: James [V2 Working Draft]

Each card preserves the Greek reading and its textual and reception notes. This source provides a Greek study edition; Hebrew counterparts and Hebrew–Greek classifications are not supplied.

Chapter 1

Testing, wisdom, and doing the word

Greeting

Verse 1:1

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion: greetings.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The writer names himself James without further identification. Twelve is explicit; diaspora is the dispersion, not a named modern region. Reception: [R01].

Trials and wisdom

Verse 1:2

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

Count it all joy, my brothers, whenever you encounter trials of various kinds,

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Peirasmoi means trials here; the related temptation language in 1:13 receives its force from context. Reception: [R01].

Verse 1:3

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Testing and endurance remain distinct; the source names faith as what is tested. Reception: [R01].

Verse 1:4

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

And let endurance have its complete work, so that you may be complete and whole, lacking in nothing.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The repeated complete and the additional whole are preserved; no claim of instant completion is supplied. Reception: [R01].

Verse 1:5

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The shared lack word links 1:4–5. Generously renders haplōs, which also carries simplicity or undivided giving. Reception: [R02].

Verse 1:6

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

But let him ask in faith, doubting nothing, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The singular petitioner and the two wind-driven actions are retained. Reception: [R02].

Verse 1:7

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord,

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: This warning continues into the description in 1:8; Lord follows kyrios. Reception: [R02].

Verse 1:8

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

a man of divided mind, unstable in all his ways.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Dipsychos is literally double-souled; divided mind expresses the inner division without a medical diagnosis. Reception: [R02].

Lowly and rich

Verse 1:9

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation,

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Lowly and exaltation form the stated contrast; the sentence continues with the rich person. Reception: [R03].

Verse 1:10

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

and the rich person in his humiliation, because he will pass away like a flower of grass.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The source does not repeat brother for the rich person; his identity is not supplied beyond rich. Reception: [R03].

Verse 1:11

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

For the sun rose with its scorching heat and dried the grass, and its flower fell, and the beauty of its appearance perished. So also the rich person will wither in his pursuits.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The illustration’s past verbs and the rich person’s future withering remain distinct. SBLGNT has poreiai, journeys or pursuits; Calvin’s preference for a different form meaning riches is not adopted [R03]. Reception: [R03].

Desire, testing, and divine giving

Verse 1:12

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

Blessed is the man who endures a trial, because, having been approved, he will receive the crown of life that He promised to those who love Him.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: SBLGNT leaves the promising subject grammatically implicit. He supplies the required English subject without adding the noun Lord found in some received presentations. Crown of life retains the image without inserting a theory of merit. Reception: [R04].

Verse 1:13

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

Let no one who is tempted say, “I am being tempted by God.” For God is not susceptible to temptation by evil, and He Himself tempts no one.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The two assertions about God remain distinct; no one is an explicit universal negative. Reception: [R04].

Verse 1:14

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

But each person is tempted when drawn away and enticed by his own desire.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: His own desire is the stated agent; no external tempter is inserted. Reception: [R04].

Verse 1:15

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

Then desire, after conceiving, gives birth to sin; and sin, when fully grown, gives birth to death.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The two stages of birth imagery and the progression to death are retained. Reception: [R04].

Verse 1:16

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

Do not be led astray, my beloved brothers.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The warning is plural and affectionate; it does not name a particular deceiver. Reception: [R05].

Verse 1:17

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

Every good giving and every complete gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow from turning.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Giving and gift preserve two related nouns; the lights and turning-shadow imagery is retained without a cosmological expansion. Reception: [R05].

Verse 1:18

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

By His will He gave us birth through the word of truth, so that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Divine willing and begetting answer the birth imagery of 1:15. A kind of preserves tina. Reception: [R05].

Hearers and doers

Verse 1:19

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger,

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Iste can be imperative, know, or indicative, you know; the first construal is retained. SBLGNT has this form, rather than the Wherefore opening displayed in Calvin’s English presentation. The three contrasting speeds remain. Reception: [R06].

Verse 1:20

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

for a man’s anger does not accomplish the righteousness of God.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Righteousness of God leaves the genitive’s fuller interpretation open; the negative is retained. Reception: [R06].

Verse 1:21

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

Therefore, putting away every impurity and the abundance of evil, receive with gentleness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Putting away and receiving are distinct. Implanted word and souls retain the source images and nouns. Reception: [R06].

Verse 1:22

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

But become doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The contrast concerns hearing without doing; the deception is self-directed. Reception: [R07].

Verse 1:23

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror,

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Natural face renders literally the face of his birth; the illustration continues in 1:24. Reception: [R07].

Verse 1:24

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

for he looked at himself and went away and immediately forgot what he was like.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: All three actions and immediately are retained; the object forgotten is the person’s appearance. Reception: [R07].

Verse 1:25

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

But the one who looks closely into the complete law, the law of freedom, and continues in it, becoming no forgetful hearer but a doer of work, will be blessed in his doing.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The word/work and hearing/doing contrasts remain, as does the positive identification of law and freedom. Reception: [R07].

Verse 1:26

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

If anyone thinks he is religious while not bridling his tongue but deceiving his heart, that person’s religion is futile.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The bridle image anticipates chapter 3. Futile concerns the described practice, not every act called religion. Reception: [R07].

Verse 1:27

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The two duties are both retained. Care for renders the active visitation and concern of episkeptesthai. Reception: [R07], [R34].