complete verse (James 2:10)

Following are a number of back-translations of James 2:10:

  • Uma: “For even though we exert effort to follow all the commands in the Lord’s Law, if we break even just one, we are nonetheless guilty. We can say, it’s just like we broke them all.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Whoever breaks only one commandment of the law even though he follows/obeys the others, he has already broken the whole law.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “For even though a person only transgresses one command of the Law, God considers him just the same to be a transgressor of all the Law.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Because if someone has-been-following all of God’s laws except one only, he has of course sinned, so it’s as if he has broken them all.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “For if a person breaks even only one part of these laws, he will be regarded by God as sinful now, even though he is following/obeying all the others.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Suppose that a person does all that is written in the law, but just one part is lacking that he doesn’t do, then he rejects the law. It is as though he didn’t do anything which the law says.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

law

The Greek that is translated in English as “Law” or “law” is translated in Mairasi as oro nasinggiei or “prohibited things” (source: Enggavoter 2004) and in Noongar with a capitalized form of the term for “words” (Warrinya) (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).

In Yucateco the phrase that is used for “law” is “ordered-word” (for “commandment,” it is “spoken-word”) (source: Nida 1947, p. 198) and in Central Tarahumara it is “writing-command.” (wsource: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)

See also teaching / law (of God) (Japanese honorifics).

Translation commentary on James 2:10

For whoever …: James now goes on to explain the concept that whoever is guilty of one commandment is guilty of all. He elaborates on what he has said in the previous verse with an explanatory For, even though he will not draw a conclusion of what he has been saying now until verse 12. This connective particle is sometimes left untranslated. However, to show the connection between the two verses and to maintain a general train of thought, it may be desirable in some languages to keep this link by having a “For,” “Because,” “It follows that,” or even “That is why” in the sense of “the reason is” (similarly the Japanese colloquial version).

Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it: this statement is meant to explain a well-known Jewish teaching that the Law should be observed in its entirety, as there is no distinction between important and less important commandments—the Law is indivisible. Therefore to break one commandment is to be guilty of breaking all. Here the whole law obviously refers to the Law of God handed down through Moses, and may also be expressed as “everything that God has commanded us [inclusive] through Moses” or “all the commandments that God has given to us through Moses.”

The verb fails is literally “trips” or “stumbles” (so New International Version), in the sense of making a mistake or a slip (Goodspeed, Moffatt: “makes one single slip”). In this context it refers to the breaking of the Law. In many languages a literal translation of the phrase keeps the whole law but fails in one point can create a problem, for it is difficult to think and say that someone keeps the whole law and yet fails in one point—since the “whole” obviously means all, and consequently there should be no exception. It is possibly for this reason that Revised English Bible has rendered the phrase as “… breaks just one commandment and keeps all the others.” A simpler rendering is found in Contemporary English Version: “If you obey every law except one.” Another way of saying the same thing without the apparent contradiction is to render simply “breaks one commandment,” leaving the phrase keeps the whole law to be understood from the context without actually mentioning it, as Good News Translation has done (so also Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). In many translations this can be done without losing any significant component of the meaning of the phrase.

The word guilty is a legal term that can mean “liable for punishment,” or “guilty of crime,” or “guilty in respect of the law that a person has broken.” The first two meanings seem unlikely, in that the person who breaks one law is said to be liable for all the punishments or guilty of crimes listed for all transgressions. The last meaning mentioned appears to fit the context better and is probably the one intended by the author.

The phrase all of it in Greek is one word “all.” It can be understood in two ways. First, it can be understood as in contrast to “one.” In this case if we render the “one” as “one point [or, commandment],” the “all” here means “all points [or, commandments].” This is apparently the understanding of Good News Translation when it renders the phrase as “breaking them all” (compare also Revised English Bible “breaking all of them”). Other ways of expressing this are “breaking all the commandments” (meaning the Ten Commandments), “guilty of disobeying all God’s prohibitions,” or even “guilty of doing all the things that God prohibited.” However, all can also be taken as an equivalent of “entirety” or “whole,” as in the whole law. In this instance the phrase may be rendered guilty of all of it, or “guilty in respect to all of it” (New American Bible), or “guilty of breaking the whole Law” (as in Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

Alternative translation models for this verse are:
• For whoever follows [or, obeys] all God’s commandments except for one is guilty of disobeying all of them.
• If you only disobey one of God’s commandments, it is the same as disobeying the whole Law [or, all of God’s words in the Law that he gave through Moses].

Quoted with permission from Loh, I-Jin and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Letter from James. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator's Notes on James 2:10

2:10–11

Verses 2:10–11 explain how someone who favors rich people is a lawbreaker. When someone shows favoritism, he is not keeping the part of the law that tells him to love his neighbor as himself. He has broken this one commandment in the law, so he has broken all the law.

In some languages, James’ explanation will be clearer if some clauses in 2:10–11 are reordered. See the General Comment on 2:10–11 at the end of 2:11e for an example.

2:10a

In Greek, 2:10 begins with a conjunction that most English versions translate as “for.” The Greek word introduces an explanation of 2:9. The Berean Standard Bible has left this conjunction implicit. Consider whether you need a conjunction or phrase in your language to make the relationship between 2:9 and 2:10–11 clear.

Some other ways to translate this conjunction are:

Because
-or-
The reason I said this is

the whole law: The phrase the whole law refers to all the commands and instructions that are part of God’s law. See the note at 2:8a where God’s law is called “the royal law.”

2:10b

stumbles: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as stumbles is used figuratively. Here in the context of following God’s laws and rules, it means “does not obey every one of God’s commands” or “does something wrong.”

Some other ways to translate this word are:

fails to obey (New Century Version)
-or-
does not keep
-or-
does not do what God has said

just one point: The phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as just one point refers to any one commandment of the law. The way in which this person has gone wrong is that he has broken only one out of all the commandments.

Some other ways to translate this phrase are:

only one commandment/law
-or-
only one part
-or-
in one single matter

2:10c

is guilty: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as is guilty is literally “has become guilty” (as in the Revised Standard Version). The verb “has become” emphasizes the person’s situation. It can also be translated as “is” (as in the Berean Standard Bible).

Some other ways to translate this phrase are:

is responsible
-or-
has become accountable (English Standard Version)

of breaking all of it: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as all of it is literally “all.” It refers to breaking/disobeying the law as a whole or as a unit (even though the law as a whole is made up of individual commands).

Some other ways to translate this phrase are:

of disobeying the whole law
-or-
of failing to keep the entire law of God
-or-
of breaking God’s laws/commands

© 2012 by SIL International®

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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.