Musings... Dr. Black's BLOG
Comments on Translation Issues Affecting the ISV®
[Introductory Thoughts]
[The ISV Heritage: Where We Got our English Bible]
[The Poetry of the International Standard Version]
[Zechariah 12:10 — Look Upon Me Whom They Pierced]
[The Disciple Whom Jesus Kept on Loving?]
[John 3:16 — God Loved the World So Much!?!]
[John 18:4 — Whom Sweet Whom]
[John 21:15-17 — Sloppy Agape]
[Acts 2:38 — Baptism for Forgiveness?]
[1 Corinthians 13:4-7 — An Ode to Love]
[Ephesians 5:32 — Mustering Mystery out of Musterion]
[Philippians 1:27-30 — Good Citizens]
[1 Timothy 3:2 — "Teachable" or "Able to Teach"]
[Titus 1:12 — On Poets & Liars: When is Poetry Poetry?]
[Hebrews 1:1 — Alliteration in the Bible]
[Hebrews 6:1 — "Press on" or "Be Carried Along"?]
[Hebrews 12:1-2 — Too Much Lettuce?]
[James 1:17 — Good Giving?]
[James 2:14 — Can Faith Save?]
Can Faith Save?
James 2:14 has sometimes been misunderstood
as conflicting with Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith. No less a scholar than
Martin Luther insisted on a contradiction between the teachings of James and Paul. This
misunderstanding is perpetuated in the KJV rendering, "Can faith save him?"
However, James more literally says "Can
the [aforementioned] faith save him," referring only to the works-less faith he has
just described. This is nicely brought out in the NIV ("Can such faith save
him") as well as in the NASB ("Can that faith save him?"). Neither
translation, however, goes far enough.
The question "Can the [aforementioned]
faith save him" is so structured in the Greek text that it expects a negative answer.
James is really asking, as it is rendered in the ISV:
"This kind of faith can’t save him,
can it?"
The answer is, Absolutely not! What James
writes is really a statement couched in the form of a question: faith without works cannot
save anyone. Faith must prove itself in the deeds it produces.
Therefore, faith that does not issue in
actions is superficial and spurious—a point with which the apostle Paul certainly
agreed (cf. Galatians 5:6—"What matters is faith that is active through
love"). |
