Devine Scripture

James 2:26

What does James 2:26 mean?

A plain-English look at James 2:26 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.

What James 2:26 means

James ends with a vivid comparison: just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead. Works are to faith what breath is to the body—evidence of life and the means by which life expresses itself. A corpse can bear a resemblance to a living person, but it cannot move; so a claim to faith without obedience may look religious, yet it lacks the animating presence of God. This image leaves no middle ground: faith lives and works, or it is dead. The church must pursue the former with humble dependence on grace.

Parallel translations

WEB

World English Bible · 2000

For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.

KJV

King James Version · 1611

For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

ASV

American Standard Version · 1901

For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.

BBE

Bible in Basic English · 1949

For as the body without the spirit is dead even so faith without works is dead.

YLT

Young's Literal Translation · 1862

for as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also the faith apart from the works is dead.

DRA

Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752

For even as the body without the spirit is dead: so also faith without works is dead.

DBY

Darby Bible · 1890

For as the body without a spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

Context

This concluding analogy gathers the entire section (vv. 14–26) into one image and echoes the earlier pronouncement in verse 17. It also reaches back to the earlier concern with mercy and impartiality (vv. 1–13), implying that such works are part of faith’s living expression. Having supplied a principle, a practical example, an exchange with an objector, two scriptural witnesses, and a final picture, James closes his case that faith without works is dead.

v.25And in like manner was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works, in that she received the messengers, and sent them out another way?

v.26This passage

Cross references

Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.

  • James 2:14

    What doth it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but have not works? can that faith save him?

  • Ecclesiastes 12:7

    and the dust returneth to the earth as it was, and the spirit returneth unto God who gave it.

  • Luke 23:46

    And Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said this, he gave up the ghost.

  • James 2:17

    Even so faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself.

  • James 2:20

    But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith apart from works is barren?

  • Isaiah 2:22

    Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of?

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