James 2:20

ἀργή, supported by BC*, some cursives, O. L. (vacua) and some other versions. On the other hand νεκρά is read in אActs 2, later uncials, the Vulgate and several other versions. But the tendency to bring this verse into agreement with James 2:26 probably accounts for νεκρά.

20. ὦ ἄνθρωπε κενέ. A comparison with Matthew 5:22 will shew that the first generation of Christians did not observe obedience to the letter, ῥακά in that passage being probably literally equivalent to κενέ here.

ὃτι ἡ πίστις χωρὶς τῶν ἔργων�. On the surface a verbal argument; for ἀργή (ἀ and ἔργον) is synonymous with χωρὶς τῶν ἔργων. But ἀργή carries with it a moral stigma, πᾶν ῥῆμα� (where πονηρόν is a variant), Matthew 12:36; οὐκ�, 2 Peter 1:8.

The argument is this: the ἄνθρωπος κενός might appeal to the faith of Abraham as an example of faith without works, faith purely and simply in the One true God. St James shews that even then justification was a result not of an inactive belief but of works in which faith was manifested, and which implies a great deal more than an intellectual assent to a proposition. It implies that grasp of unseen realities and that instinctive love and trust in God which go to form the conception of faith in the Epistle to the Hebrews, the leading and inspiring characteristic of the heroes of Israel.