Is it not they …?: the author brings up the third charge with the emphatic they, as in the second charge. They, the rich, are precisely the ones who blaspheme that honorable name. It seems unnecessary to understand the saying as indicating that Christians are under some kind of religious persecution, as has been suggested by some scholars. The verb blaspheme here means “to abuse,” “to insult,” “to slander” (so Goodspeed, New International Version), “to speak evil of” (so Knox, Good News Translation), or “to say evil things about.” It may be observed that blasphemy can be committed by words as well as by deeds. Since nothing is said specifically about the rich saying evil things about the name in this context, it may be desirable to use a more general term such as “to insult,” “to abuse,” or “to disgrace” when translating the verb. The phrase honorable name may be rendered as “good name” (Good News Translation), “excellent name” (New Revised Standard Version), or “noble name” (Goodspeed, New International Version, Today’s Chinese Version). The translator will have to choose the one most appropriate to his or her language.

The phrase which was invoked over you, or “by which you have been called,” reflects a common Hebrew idiom “to call a name upon someone,” meaning “to give a name to someone,” indicating possession by the name giver or special relationship to the name giver. In the Old Testament, when God calls a name over someone, it means that this person becomes God’s possession and has a special relationship to him (compare Amos 9.12; Deut 28.10; Jer 14.9). In the New Testament it is Jesus who maintains this close relationship with his believers. The verb form used suggests that this has already happened at a definite time, most likely at baptism, as that is often defined as baptism in or into the name of Jesus Christ (compare Acts 2.38; 10.48; 19.5). Slander of the name of Jesus is an abuse of those who bear his name, namely Christians (compare Acts 5.41). On the other hand, whoever abuses the bearer of the honorable name abuses the name itself, that is, the name of Jesus Christ (so Contemporary English Version “make fun of your Lord”).

There are several possible ways to translate this clause, depending on what we understand to be the background of the phrase the honorable name which was invoked over you. The first possibility is to leave unidentified the person whose “honorable name” is referred to. This is the option taken by some translations; in addition to Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, we have, for example, “the honourable name which has been pronounced over you” (New Jerusalem Bible) and “the noble name of him to whom you belong” (New International Version). The second possibility, taking the Old Testament as the background as shown above, is to make God the subject of calling someone; for example, “the honoured name by which God has claimed you” (so New English Bible, Revised English Bible) and “the good name which God has given you” (Bible en français courant). The final possibility, and the most likely one, is to identify the honorable name as that of Christ, and in particular the name spoken at the time when a person became a Christian through baptism; for example, “the good name that was invoked over you when you became a Christian” (so Italian common language version [Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente]), “the good name that they [or, people] pronounced over you when you believed in Christ,” or “the fair name of Jesus, which was pronounced over you, when you became his in baptism” (Barclay; similarly Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

The answer to the two rhetorical questions in verses 6 and 7 is “Yes, the rich.” In some languages it may be more effective to answer the questions directly, as Good News Translation has done after the first question. In this case it is best to express the second question as a strong statement, again as Good News Bible has done. In other languages it may be more appropriate to restructure all these rhetorical questions as strong statements. For example:
• It is the rich who exploit you! It is they who drag you to court! It is they who slander the honorable name invoked on you! (so Today’s Chinese Version).

Other possible renderings may be:
• It is the rich who treat you badly! It is they who force you to go before the judges! It is they who say evil things about your Lord.
• It is they who say evil things about Jesus to whom you belong.

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 .