Chapter 1

1 From James, a slave of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. Greetings! 2 My brothers and sisters, consider it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials,⁠ 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you will be perfect and complete, not deficient in anything. 5 But if anyone is deficient in wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without reprimand, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith without doubting,⁠ for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed around by the wind.⁠ 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord,⁠ 8 since he is a double-minded individual, unstable in all his ways. 9 Now the believer of humble means should take pride in his high position. 10 But the rich person’s pride should be in his humiliation because he will pass away like a wildflower in the meadow.⁠ 11 For the sun rises with its heat and dries up the meadow; the petal of the flower falls off and its beauty is lost forever. So also the rich person in the midst of his pursuits will wither away. 12 Happy is the one who endures testing because when he has proven to be genuine, he will receive the crown of life that God promised to those who love him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one.⁠ 14 But each one is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires.⁠ 15 Then when desire conceives, it gives birth to sin,⁠ and when sin is full grown, it gives birth to death. 16 Do not be led astray, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 All generous giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or the slightest hint of change.⁠ 18 By his sovereign plan he gave us birth through the message of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. 19 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters! Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.⁠ 20 For human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness. 21 So put away all filth and evil excess and humbly welcome the message implanted within you, which is able to save your souls.⁠ 22 But be sure you live out the message and do not merely listen to it and so deceive yourselves.⁠ 23 For if someone merely listens to the message and does not live it out, he is like someone who gazes at his own face in a mirror.⁠ 24 For he gazes at himself and then goes out and immediately forgets what sort of person he was. 25 But the one who peers into the perfect law of liberty and fixes his attention there, and does not become a forgetful listener but one who lives it out—he will be blessed in what he does.⁠ 26 If someone thinks he is religious yet does not bridle his tongue, and so deceives his heart, his religion is futile. 27 Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their adversity⁠ and to keep oneself unstained by the world.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare James 1:14 and Sukkah 52b

New Testament · Rabbinic

Summary

James and Rabbinic tradition in tractate Sukkah use the idea of two “yetzers,” or inclinations, to explain temptation and sin. Sukkah describes people torn between good and evil impulses, while James similarly says that sin begins with an inner impulse.

Passages

James 1:14

New Testament

13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each one is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires. 15 Then when desire conceives, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is full grown, it gives birth to death. 16 Do not be led astray, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 All generous giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or the slightest hint of change. 18 By his sovereign plan he gave us birth through the message of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

80–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in James

Sukkah 52b

Rabbinic · Babylonian Talmud

Rava said: Initially, the verse called the evil inclination a traveler coming from afar. Subsequently, the verse calls it a guest, as one welcomes it. Ultimately, the verse calls it man, indicating significance, as it became the homeowner. As it is stated in the parable of the poor man’s lamb that Nathan the prophet said to David: “And there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was reluctant to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to prepare for the guest” (II Samuel 12:4). And it is written in the same verse: “And he took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared it for the man that was come to him.” In other words, the evil inclination that began as a traveler gradually rose in prominence.

450–550 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Sukkah

References

"... All this accumulative evidence of James’ acquaintance with a Platonic discourse demonstrates that, like Philo, James partook in Jewish and Greek discourses at the same time. It is no wonder then that, if James were familiar with the Jewish concept of the two yeṣarim, he transferred this notion not into the Greek terminology of double-heartedness (διπλοκαρδία), but into that of double-mindedness (διψυχία). A Jewish anthropology of two yeṣarim proved compatible with the Greek reflections on a divided self. Particular Jewish and Greek anthropological traditions turn out to be far from incompatible, and the frequent claims of a fundamental opposition between Jewish anthropological holism versus Greek anthropological dualism seem unjustified. Finally, a note on what this dichotomic doctrine of two inclinations (yeṣarim) or a double-minded (δίψυχος) human condition means for the question of the extent of the sinfulness of the human condition. In the description of the theme of the conference out of which this book emerged it was stated that in rabbinic thought the explanation of the existence of sin in the world by the existence of an Evil Inclination implies that “nobody is sinful by nature, but all are led to sin by the Evil Inclination” (emphasis mine). This implication also holds true for the anthropology of double-mindedness that characterizes the Letter of James, as James is very careful not to identify the double-minded (δίψυχος) human condition with sin as such. As he explains, human beings only sin when they actively give way to their desire by allowing it to conceive: “one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it; then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death” (James 1:14–15) ..."

George van Kooten, “The 'Two Inclinations' and the Double-Minded Human Condition in the Letter of James,” in The Evil Inclination in Early Judaism and Christianity, ed. James Aitken, Hector M. Patmore, and Ishay Rosen-Zvi (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021), 143–158.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

James5 chapters

Compare James 1:14 and Sukkah 52b

Summary

Passages

James 1:14

Sukkah 52b

References

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