2:19
In 2:19, James gave more evidence to convince his readers that true faith is a matter of both faith and good deeds. People are wrong if they think that it is enough just to believe true things about God without doing good deeds.
2:19a
You believe that God is one: In this verse, James talked about a second meaning of the word believe. This type of belief is different than the type of belief that he talked about in previous verses. The two types of belief are:
(a) The type of belief that people have when they trust in God and entrust themselves to Jesus, the Messiah. This type of belief results in salvation. This is the type of belief that James talked about in 2:14–18 and 2:20–26.
(b) The type of “belief” that people have when they just believe something about God. This type of belief does not have any good works. This type of belief does not result in salvation. The demons have this same type of belief. This is the type of belief that James talked about here in 2:19. It means “accept that a certain statement is true.” It refers specifically to the statement God is one.
James used the same Greek word to talk about these two types of belief. If your language uses two different terms for these two meanings of “believe/faith,” it may be helpful to indicate how they are related. See the General Comment on 2:19a–d at the end of 2:19d for some suggestions of how to do this.
Some other ways to translate this clause are:
You accept as true that there is one God
-or-
You affirm that there is one God
-or-
You are convinced that there is one God
You: In this verse, James continued to address the person who disagreed with him. So in Greek, the pronoun You is singular. However, James was also writing to anyone who believed that it was possible to have faith without good deeds. So, in some languages, it will be more natural to use the plural form of “you” here.
God is one: The Jewish belief that God is one was the most basic belief of all Jews. (This belief is expressed in Deuteronomy 6:4.) This belief was in contrast to belief in many gods. (There is a textual issue here. There are a number of textual variants, but the main point of difference is whether the definite article appears with “God” Some commentators (Moo (2000), page 130; Martin, page 77; Hiebert, page 186, for example) feel “God” with the article focuses on the unity of God (“God is one”) while “God” without the article would be a statement of monotheism (“there is one God”). Other commentators (Davids (1982), page 125; Lenski, page 584; Huther, page 92, Translator’s Handbook, page 89) suggest that the meaning of either reading would be the same – probably understood as an affirmation of monotheism. Independent of which textual variant is chosen (or whether one sees all variants as essentially expressing the same meaning), there is some question of whether this is a statement about the unity of God or his uniqueness (a statement of monotheism). The discussion in commentaries is somewhat confusing because some writers seem to use unity to mean uniqueness. That is, they state that this was about the unity of God, but then discuss unity in the sense of monotheism. Most English versions translate this as a statement of monotheism (as the New International Version (2011 Revision) does). For the versions that translate it as “God is one” (Revised Standard Version, English Standard Version, New American Standard Bible, NET Bible), it is not certain if they intend this to express the unity of God or his uniqueness (monotheism). In considering the context in which Deuteronomy 6:4 was spoken and the context of the book of James, it seems much more likely that this expresses monotheism (in contrast to belief in many gods) than it does the unity of God (in contrast to his fragmentation or division into three persons). In the Old Testament period (the context of Deuteronomy 6:4), the unity of God would have been assumed. And the trinitarian understanding of God existing in three persons was not well enough developed in James’ day to think that God’s unity (though existing in three persons) was in view.) This clause may be translated as:
there is only one God (Contemporary English Version)
2:19b
Good for you!: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Good for you is literally “You do well” (as in the Revised Standard Version). James was not completely praising his readers for believing that there is only one God. His point was that such faith is good, but it is not good enough. Even the demons believe that. If their faith was no more than empty words without deeds, it was dead/useless.
Some ways to translate this phrase and indicate that such faith is not sufficient are:
• Put the implied information after 2:19b. For example:
That’s good but not enough
-or-
You do well, but it is not sufficient by/in itself
• Put the implied information after the word shudder in 2:19d. For example:
Good! 19cBut even the demons believe that— 19dand shudder. So such faith is not enough/sufficient.
2:19c
Even: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Even here indicates:
(a) something unexpected. It is not likely that demons would be described as believing in God. But even they believe. For example:
Even demons believe this (Contemporary English Version)
(b) an addition. James’ readers believed that there is one God. Demons also believe the same thing. For example:
The demons also believe (Good News Translation)
If possible, translate this word with a word that can include both meanings. If you must make a choice, choose meaning (a).
demons: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as demons refers to spirits that are evil and can control people’s actions. The word demons refers to the same type of spirit as the Greek terms that are often translated as “evil spirits” and “unclean spirits.”
Some ways to translate demons are:
• Use a general term in your language that refers to spirits that are evil and can control people.
• Use a specific term in your language that refers to a certain type of spirit. These spirits should be ones that do evil things. Do not use a term that refers to spirits of dead people.
• Use a descriptive phrase. For example:
evil/bad spirits
-or-
unclean spirits
-or-
spirits who oppose God
Be sure that an expression like “unclean spirits” does not imply that the spirits are literally dirty.
believe that: The word that refers to 2:19a. It means “that there is only one God.” Even demons believe that there is only one God.
Another way to translate this phrase is:
even the demons have the same belief (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
even demons believe like that
-or-
even demons believe that there is one God
believe: Here the word believe has the same meaning as believe in 2:19a. It means to accept that something is true.
2:19d
shudder: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as shudder means “shake” or “tremble.” Here it means to shake or tremble because of fear. Some ways to translate this word are:
shake with fear (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
tremble in fear of him
-or-
shake with horror because they know that God will judge them
General Comment on 2:19a–d
James used the same Greek word to talk about two types of belief. Some languages use two different terms to translate these two meanings of “believe.” In such languages, it may be helpful to use both terms in 2:19 to show how they are related. For example:
You accept as true that there is one God. Good! But if that is all you mean when you say that you are trusting God, then you are just like the demons. Even they accept this as true, and it makes them shudder.
-or-
It is good that you are convinced that there is only one God. But the kind of in God that leads to salvation is more than that. Even the demons are convinced that there is only one God. They will certainly not be saved. Instead, thinking about this makes them shake with fear.
© 2012 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.