"Faith without works is dead!" chirps many an ignorant Christian, thinking that James 2:17 and 2:20 are talking about salvation. Well, I got tired of hearing this abuse of James. So finally did 22 videos exegeting the relevant words -- live from BibleWorks on screen -- to prove that James is talking about Spiritual MATURATION (the theme of his letter, 1:3 and 1:12), not salvation. You can view the playlist in Youtube: here .
The last 12 videos are most helpful, because I color-coded his rhetorical style, and especially his penchant for changing between the common, anarthrous, and monadic use of the (nee: definite) article, to make his trenchant points.
My pastor always harped on the need to track the article and prepositions, when deciphering Bible text, how they are used as tracking devices. Yeah, and if you do that, you can tell exactly when the Lord was born and died -- so why don't we know that? For the same reason as we routinely misuse James! No one cares what Bible REALLY says, it's only what popular or respected people say, that matters!
It becomes very easy to see how he condemns human works in favor of Divine Works, when you see how he uses the (nee: definite) article. Can prove the chirpers wrong in maybe 10 minutes' scanning.
5 comments:
Rather than post at Youtube, I'll post here. Actually, I looked for a direct email contact on your web pages and didn't see one.
Just so you know, I grew up as a taper. I know you'll know what that means.
I've been exegeting James again for a project I'm working on and as of yesterday I’m having a few new thoughts about it.
I just watched your introductory video and part of your 1/22 video regarding James 1:3. Have you ever done some in-depth study on “dokimion” and its cognates, especially to see how they are used and therefore possibly defined by the Text itself? Also, the Lexicons denote that this word can be viewed in 3 ways: the means of testing, the act of testing, and the result of testing. So it seems we need to be careful with it as you are explaining about "pistis". And, did you note that “katergazetai” might also be taken in a passive sense? And, did you have any thought on the placement of “humon”?
My concern for the translation is that the way the English versions are taking this, I see a potential conflict with Rom 5:4 and 1Pet 1:7.
Interesting website. Spent the better part of the day reading some of your dating concepts. So much data…
To Gary: as for dokimion, it ties to Romans 12:1-3 (Paul maybe alludes back to James). The root: test for gemstone or true metal (gold or silver), vs. fakes. See Thayer & Bauer Danker lexicons.
Re katergazetai, wouldn't surprise me if all three ideas were employed: reflexive, passive, deponent. :)
On humon, stressing Doctrine in YOU? James could have omitted the pronoun.
Continued...
From Continued...
On Rom5:4, another testing-for-genuineness root meaning of dokime. Paul harps on it, ever since 1Cor3; it's a Pauline fav; compare to James 1:12.
1Peter 1:7's dokimion stresses test-for-gem/gold-silver content metaphor.
Recall what Colonel said re chara? Unalloyed happiness?
If you get something different, I'd be grateful to hear it!
BTW, I had to vet the Colonel's longstanding teaching re Blessing By Association; timeline turned out to be a vindication of that doctrine.
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