Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of James 2:17
Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
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.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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 mans body, and is called so, but in reality is not so, but a dead carcass.
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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
17. faith . . . being aloneALFORDjoins “is dead in itself.” So BENGEL,”If the works which living faith produces have no existence, itis a proof that faith itself (literally, ‘in respect to itself’) hasno 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 tobe so, not in respect to its works, but in respect to itself.English Version, if retained, must not be understood to mean thatfaith can exist “alone” (that is, severed from works), butthus: Even so presumed faith, if it have not works, is dead,being by itself “alone,” that is, severed from works ofcharity; just as the body would be “dead” if alone, thatis, severed from the spirit (Jas2:26). So ESTIUS.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. It is like a lifeless carcass, a body without a soul, Jas 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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
If it have not works ( ). Another condition of the third class with and and the present active subjunctive of , “if it keep on not having works.”
In itself (‘ ). In and of itself (according to itself), inwardly and outwardly dead (). Same idiom in Acts 28:16; Rom 14:22. It is a dead faith.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Being alone [ ] . Wrong. Rev., correctly, in itself. The phrase belongs to dead. It is dead, not merely in reference to something else, but absolutely.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) (Gr. Houtos kai) “Just like this” simply means that the person claiming this faith is a hypocrite if he has a non-productive faith. The term dead (Gr. nekra) is used in the sense of barren, empty, or a fruitless faith. The term dead is used by James as the English term “dead” is used when one speaks of a “dead womb”, meaning a barren womb, or “dead soil,” soil that has no productivity because of having been struck by lightning or rendered useless because of salt.
2) The faith God gives is a live faith – it never dies, but works by love, Gal 5:6. It manifests itself in deeds of obedience to the One who gives it. Any claim to this faith that is not accompanied by works is a false claim, Mat 7:17.
3) Eve n a saved person who does not, by his own volition or will, as a free moral agent, obey the commands of God to serve, becomes empty, barren, and fruitless. 2Pe 1:8-9. For a child of God to neglect to energize faith in deeds of service is displeasing to God and causes one to become unfruitful, and spiritually astigmatized, near blind.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
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. (Gal 1:8.)
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(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 Gods 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.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
17. Dead It has no vital existence, being alone, and not embodied in good doing.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Even so faith, if it does not have works, is dead in itself.’
And that is why he can say that such faith is dead. It is unresponsive, it fails to act, and it reveals a closed mind and a closed heart. It in practise ignores the One Whom it claims as Lord. What then is it faith in? It is a moribund faith in an unknown god..
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jam 2:17. Even so faith, if it hath not works, &c. See the preceding note. St. Paul (says Dr. Heylin,) had used the term faith as it was understood in the Jewish schools; (and still in our own schools, where it is said, “Objectum formale fidei, est veritas prima;”) and as our Lord often used it, particularly when he condemned the Pharisees for their neglect of it, though a principal point of their own law: but some Christian professors soon let go the primitive sense of the word, and meant by it only an historical belief of the gospel. St. James, judiciously avoiding to dispute about words, uses the term in the signification which theygave it;and this perhaps is the reason why here, when he proposes the subject, he says not “what advantage is it for a man to have faith, if he has not works;” but “what advantage is it for a man to say that he has faith, &c.?”And then, to shew the absurdity of supposing that there could be a salutary faith without good works, he puts a parallel case in the duty of charity; Jam 2:15-16,
We may, and we sometimes do, call a dead corpse a man; but very improperly: and as the carcase differs from a living man, so the nominal faith differs from that which is real and salutary.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jas 2:17 . Application of the similitude. The verse forms one sentence, of which is the subject and is the predicate; neither after (Pott) nor after (Michaelis) is a colon to be put. After the idea continually (Baumgarten) is not to be supplied. has here the same meaning as in Jas 2:14 .
From the fact that James calls faith dead if it has not works, it is evident that by these works is not meant something which must be added to faith, but something which grows out of faith; the here treated of are works of faith, in which are the germs of faith. is here not to be explained by operibus destituta, but = inanima, equivalent to a dead body; [134] correctly, de Wette: “ dead , that is, without the power of life; thus not primarily to be referred to its effects, but to be understood as its internal nature;” however, James thus designates a faith without works to prove that it and .
The more precise statement has been variously understood. Grotius considers it as simply pleonastic; some critics separate it from and take = against (Mller = , i.e. sibimet ipsi repugnat; Augusti: contra semet ipsam); others unite it with (Knapp = fides sola; Baumgarten: “in so far as faith is alone”). But belongs evidently, as its position shows, to (de Wette, Schneckenburger, Wiesinger, Lange). It is thus emphatically stated that a faith without works is not only dead in reference to something else, but dead in reference to itself. It serves for the intensification of the idea , yet not so that by it the existence of a without works was denied (against Schneckenburger).
[134] The comparison of faith without works to a dead body is found among the old interpreters in such a manner that it formed a controversy between Catholic and Protestant interpreters; whilst Lorinus says: mortnum corpus verum corpus est, nt sine operibus et charitate fides, Laurentius remarks: sicut homo mortuus non est verus homo, ita nee fides mortua vera fides.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
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.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
17 .] Application of the similitude . So also faith, if it have not (be not accompanied by as its proper result. Here, again, the quasi-identification of the with the man, and ascription of the to it as a possession, shew in what relative places the two stand in the Apostle’s estimate) works, is dead (so Plautus in a remarkably similar passage, Epidic. i. 2. 13, “Nam quid te igitur retulit Beneficum esse orations, si ad rem auxilium emortuum est?”) in itself (not as E.V., “being alone,” : nor, “against itself” = , as Mller, al.; nor is it to be joined to , “fides sola,” as Knapp and Baumgarten (“ in as far as it is alone ”): but the words belong to and qualify , as De W., Huther, al.; it is dead, not merely “ad rem,” as Plaut. above, but absolutely, , in itself: has no living root whereby it energizes. Cf. Palm and Rost under , , an und fur sich).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Jas 2:17 . : just as faith without works is dead, so this spurious, quiescent charity, which is content to leave all to God without any attempt at individual effort, is worthless. : the Vulgate in semetipsa brings out the force of this; such faith is, in its very essence, dead; cf. the Peshit.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
dead. Greek. nekros. Compare App-139.
alone = by (App-104.) itself.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
17.] Application of the similitude. So also faith, if it have not (be not accompanied by as its proper result. Here, again, the quasi-identification of the with the man, and ascription of the to it as a possession, shew in what relative places the two stand in the Apostles estimate) works, is dead (so Plautus in a remarkably similar passage, Epidic. i. 2. 13, Nam quid te igitur retulit Beneficum esse orations, si ad rem auxilium emortuum est?) in itself (not as E.V., being alone, : nor, against itself = , as Mller, al.; nor is it to be joined to , fides sola, as Knapp and Baumgarten (in as far as it is alone): but the words belong to and qualify , as De W., Huther, al.; it is dead, not merely ad rem, as Plaut. above, but absolutely, , in itself: has no living root whereby it energizes. Cf. Palm and Rost under , , an und fur sich).
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Jam 2:17. , if it hath not works) If the works which living faith produces in other cases have no existence, it is a proof that faith itself (this is the meaning of ) has no existence, or that that, which any one boasts of as faith, is dead.- , is dead) As the mere saying, Take food and drink and a garment, is not meat and drink that satisfies, nor a garment that warms, so the saying, I have faith, is not real faith, which profits his neighbour, and is salutary to the speaker himself. The title dead strikes us with horror. Though the abstract word is used, the concrete is meant. Faith is dead; that is, the man who says that he has faith, has not that life, which is faith itself. A similar[23] change in the attribution of words occurs, ch. Jam 3:4. See the note.- , in respect to [by] itself) And when it has works it is alive, and is discerned to be so, not in respect to [by] the works, but in respect to [by] itself. It does not derive its life from works.
[23] See Append. on HYPALLAGE.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
so: Jam 2:14, Jam 2:19, Jam 2:20, Jam 2:26, 1Co 13:3, 1Co 13:13, 1Th 1:3, 1Ti 1:5, 2Pe 1:5-9
alone: Gr. by itself
Reciprocal: Eze 18:11 – that Mat 7:24 – whosoever Luk 6:49 – that heareth 1Co 15:2 – unless Col 2:13 – dead Phm 1:6 – the communication
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jas 2:17. Faith is a grand principle and no man can be a Christian without it. Neither will he be regarded by the Lord as one unless he makes his faith a living one by good works, such as supplying the comforts of life to those in need and worthy.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jas 2:17. Now follows the application of this illustration. As this love, which merely expends itself in kind words and wishes, is of no value; so neither is the faith of him who professes to believe the Gospel, yet walks not up to his profession. Even so; as charity without works is dead, so faith, if it hath not works, if it be merely a theoretical assent to the truths of revelation, is dead. From this it is evident that by works is not meant merely something which is added to faith, but something which proceeds from it; as life is seen by its actions, so is faith by its works. The works then are those of a living faith, those to which faith gives birth. If, observes Neander, James calls the faith which is without works a dead faith, it could not surely be his view that works, which are but the outward manifestation, made faith to be living; but he must have presupposed that true faith has the principle of life within itself, from which works must proceed, and which manifests itself in works.
being alone. The words in the Greek are not tautological, as they appear in our version, but emphatic. More correctly rendered they are by itselfdenoting that a simple assent is useless, or rather in itself, i.e is wholly and completely deadhas no living root which might spring uptwice dead, plucked up by the roots, as Jude expresses it (Jud 1:12). As has been observed, A tree in winter may not have signs of life, but is not dead in itself; it will put forth shoots and leaves in spring. But faith has no winter; if it has not works, it has no life in it, and ought not to be called faith, for dead faith is no faith (Wordsworth). It is, however, to be remembered that James does not deny the existence of a theoretical faith; he distinguishes between faith and faith, between theoretical and practical faith; and to the former, the theoretical faith, he denies that justification can be ascribed.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
The logical conclusion is that if there are no works, there may not be saving faith, even though the person proclaims it most heartily.
I became involved in a discussion on an internet board with a man that taught baptismal regeneration – that doctrine that tells the person that they must be baptized to be saved. The discussion went on for days, back and forth, and we finally arrived at a point at which I could not move him from his view. He was so close to the Biblical view, but he would not let go of his need for baptism.
A day or two went by and I thought the discussion was over. Finally I received a note from the man saying that he had come to believe that if there is saving faith, that the person will be baptized, which I would agree with, and that this baptism would be the final act of a saving faith.
The point is not that he changed his mind, it was that he clarified his belief and realized that the act of baptism was not salvific, but an act of obedience. We agreed from that point on.
What point would faith be if there was no obedience to baptism? Little, it would indicate that the faith is not of the type that leads to salvation.
This truth from James is so very important to the person that suggests that they are saved. If they are saved, then there will be good works coming from that saving faith. It is important for pastors and teachers to know this as well – now do you see the importance of getting to know your people? If you don’t know them, you will not know if they have good works or not, and if you don’t know this then you must assume their professed faith is true.
We need to know a persons status with God to minister to them properly – know their works! Not only should we know if there are works, we need to know if they are works for good or evil. Faith with evil works is not the desired outcome either.
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
3. James’ restatement of his point 2:17
James was not saying that a person who responds to another Christian’s need, as in Jas 2:15-16, shows that he has failed to exercise saving faith and is devoid of eternal life. He was saying that faith, if work (i.e., obedience to the Word of God) does not accompany it, is dead (i.e., inactive).
"We can make statements in all sincerity of mind and emotion: ’I feel sorry for the poor; I don’t condone racism.’ But James will say, ’What good is that if you aren’t doing something to help the poor or to heal the distrust and injustice between races?’ Some Christians attempt a stance of personal belief without personal action, saying, for example, ’I personally disagree with abortion, but I won’t try to change others’ minds.’ James persists in asking us: What are you doing to protect the victims-both the victimized baby and the victimized mother?" [Note: Stulac, p. 120.]
"Dead" does not mean non-existent but inactive, no longer vital, dormant, useless (cf. Jas 2:14). This is a very important point.
"It has not usually been considered too deeply why James chose the term ’dead’ to describe a faith that is not working. But the moment we relate this to the controlling theme of ’saving the life,’ everything becomes plain. The issue that concerns James is an issue of life or death. (He is not discussing salvation from hell!) The truth which he has in mind is that of Proverbs: ’Righteousness tendeth to life . . . he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death.’ [Pro 11:19; cf. Pro 10:27; Pro 12:28; Pro 13:14; Pro 19:16] Can a dead faith save the Christian from death? The question answers itself. The choice of the adjective ’dead’ is perfectly suited to James’ argument." [Note: Hodges, The Gospel . . ., p. 27.]