Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Bengel Commentary - James 2:17 - 2:17
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Jam 2:17. Ἐὰν μὴ ἔργα ἔχῃ, 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 καθʼ ἑαυτὴν) has no existence, or that that, which any one boasts of as faith, is dead.-νεκρά ἐστι, 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.-ΚΑΘʼ ἙΑΥΤῊΝ, 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.