50 Fun Facts About Book of James

James 2 closes with the verdict that faith without works is what?

Dead is James's verdict, and his example is telling a cold, hungry person to 'be warmed and filled' while handing over nothing the body needs.

According to James 3, which small part of the body can no human tame, unlike every kind of animal?

The tongue is called a restless evil, and James complains that the same mouth praises God and then curses people made in God's likeness.

James 1 says anyone who lacks which quality should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault?

Wisdom is promised to whoever asks, but James adds a condition: the request must be made in faith, because a doubter should not expect to receive anything.

James 4 tells merchants planning a year of profit that they are what, appearing briefly and then vanishing?

A mist is all a person amounts to in James's picture, which is why he calls confident talk about tomorrow's business a form of boasting.

Which Reformation leader derided the Epistle of James as an 'epistle of straw' and doubted an apostle wrote it?

Martin Luther objected to what James says about faith and works, yet he still kept the letter in his German Bible, moving it to the end.

James 2 says that merely believing God is one is no achievement, because who else believes it and shudders?

The demons believe and shudder, James says, so belief that never turns into action proves nothing about a person.

James 1 defines pure religion as staying unstained by the world and caring for which two groups in their distress?

Orphans and widows come at the end of a chapter that calls religion worthless if a person cannot keep a rein on his own speech.

James 4:6 says that God opposes the proud but gives grace to which people?

The humble receive grace, a line James borrows from the Old Testament before telling his readers to submit themselves to God.

In James 1, someone who hears the word but does not act forgets his own face after looking into what?

A mirror shows a face that is forgotten the moment the viewer walks away, and James says hearing without acting is the same kind of self-deception.

Which Old Testament sufferer does James 5 name as a model of endurance whose story ended in God's compassion?

Job comes straight after the prophets in James's list of examples, as proof that the Lord shows compassion in the end to those who hold on.

James 1 opens by telling believers who meet trials of many kinds to consider the experience pure what?

Joy is the surprising response James asks for, and he promises that those who come through the test will be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

James 1:22 tells believers not to deceive themselves by being hearers only, but to be what of the word?

Doers of the word are the ones James says will be blessed in what they do, unlike listeners who forget what they heard.

James 3 pictures human speech as which small part of a large ship driven by strong winds?

A rudder is tiny beside the ship it turns, and James applies the picture to human speech: small, he says, but boasting of great things.

According to James 4:7, what will the devil do when believers submit to God and resist him?

Flee is the promise, and James places it straight after his reminder that God opposes the proud.

Which prophet does James 5 call 'a man just like us' whose earnest prayer stopped the rain for years?

Elijah prayed and no rain fell for three and a half years, then prayed again and the heavens gave rain, which James offers as proof that prayer works.

Which reward does James 1 say God has promised to those who love him and endure under trial?

The crown of life is promised to those who love God, and James goes straight on to deny that God is ever the one doing the tempting.

According to James 2, what triumphs over judgment?

Mercy triumphs, James writes, straight after the warning that anyone who has shown none will be judged without it.

James 3 pictures the damage speech can do as a small spark that sets what ablaze?

A forest set alight by one spark is James's image for speech, which he says stains the whole person and is itself set on fire by hell.

According to James 4, what should people say before announcing plans to travel, trade and make a profit?

If the Lord wills is the condition James wants attached to every plan, because nobody knows what tomorrow will bring.

Christian tradition credits the Epistle of James to a leader of the Jerusalem church known as the brother of whom?

Jesus had a brother called James the Just, the traditional author, though many modern scholars think someone later wrote in his name.

James 1:19 says everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to what?

Anger comes third in the saying, and James gives his reason at once: a person's temper does not bring about what God wants.

James 1 compares a person who prays while doubting to what, blown and tossed by the wind?

A wave of the sea goes wherever the wind sends it, and James calls such a person unstable in everything he does.

Which woman does James 2 praise for welcoming Israelite spies and sending them away by another route?

Rahab was a prostitute in the text, and James sets her beside Abraham as someone proved right by what she did.

James 2 says Abraham was justified by works when he offered which son on the altar?

Isaac on the altar is James's proof that Abraham's faith was working together with his actions and was made complete by them.

In James 5, what are those who pray over a sick person told to apply in the Lord's name?

Oil goes with prayer in this passage, which became the main biblical basis for the church rite of anointing the sick.

James 4 warns that anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world makes himself what?

An enemy of God is James's blunt verdict on believers whose quarrels, he says, come from cravings at war inside them.

Which practice does James 2 say leaves believers convicted by the law as transgressors?

Favoritism makes believers into judges with evil thoughts, James says, and he points out that it is the rich who drag them into court.

As believers wait for the Lord's coming, James 5 points to which worker as a model of patience?

A farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, and James tells believers to wait the same way because the Lord's coming is at hand.

'Above all,' says James 5, believers must not do what, letting their yes be yes and their no be no?

Swear oaths by heaven or by earth and a believer risks falling under judgment, James warns, so a plain yes or no must be enough.

James 3 opens by warning that not many believers should become what, since they will be judged more strictly?

Teachers work with words, and James moves straight from this warning to how easily everyone stumbles in what they say.

The letter of James opens with a greeting to which scattered group, said to be living in the Dispersion?

The twelve tribes are addressed in the style of a Jewish Diaspora letter, a form written to encourage communities living outside Israel.

What term does James 1 use for the doubter who is unstable in all his ways and should expect nothing?

Double-minded describes a person pulled two ways at once, and James uses the same word again in chapter 4 when he tells readers to purify their hearts.

What name does James 2 give to the Scripture command 'Love your neighbor as yourself'?

The royal law is James's name for the command, and he argues that anyone who honours the rich over the poor has broken it.

James 5 tells anyone who is sick to call which leaders of the church to come and pray?

The elders are to pray over the sick person, and James promises that the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is ill.

James 4 ends by saying that knowing the right thing to do and failing to do it counts as what?

Sin, for James, includes the good left undone, a point he makes just after scolding merchants who plan ahead without a thought for God.

James 4:3 says people ask God and do not receive because they ask in what way?

With wrong motives is the reason given, and it follows the blunter one in the verse before: some people lack things simply because they never ask God.

In which language was the Epistle of James originally written, despite its strongly Jewish audience and style?

Koine Greek was the letter's language, and its polish is one reason many scholars doubt that James the Just, a Galilean, wrote it himself.

According to James 1, the testing of a believer's faith develops which quality, which must finish its work?

Perseverance is one link in a chain: James says it must be allowed to finish its work so that the believer lacks nothing.

According to James 1, each person who is tempted is lured away and enticed by what?

Their own desires are to blame, James argues, since God cannot be tempted by evil and does not tempt anyone.

James 4:8, which tells sinners to cleanse their hands, promises that God will do what?

Draw near to them is the promise for all who draw near to God, and James pairs it with a call to purify hearts and trade laughter for mourning.

By what title does James 1 call God when saying every good and perfect gift comes down from above?

The Father of lights does not change like shifting shadows, James adds, which is why only good gifts can be expected from above.

James 1 says God gave believers birth through the word of truth to be a kind of what among his creatures?

First fruits is a harvest image, and James stresses in the same verse that this new birth happened because God chose it.

James 1 says the rich will pass away like what, withered when the sun rises with scorching heat?

A flower of the field loses its beauty in a day's heat, and James says the rich man will fade in the same way in the middle of his pursuits.

James 2 argues that stumbling at one point makes a person guilty of all, citing which two of the Ten Commandments?

Adultery and murder are the pair: the same God forbade both, James reasons, so avoiding one while committing the other still leaves a person guilty.

According to James 3, a fig tree cannot bear which crop, any more than a grapevine can bear figs?

Olives from a fig tree would be as unnatural, James argues, as praise and curses pouring out of the same mouth.

James 4 quotes which Old Testament book when it says that God opposes the proud?

Proverbs supplies the line, in the wording of the ancient Septuagint translation, and 1 Peter quotes the very same verse.

The name James in English Bibles is a form of which Old Testament patriarch's name?

Jacob is the name behind James, and it was so common in antiquity that several early Christian figures in the New Testament share it.

The church historian Eusebius placed the Epistle of James in which class of disputed New Testament books?

Antilegomena means 'spoken against', and Eusebius noted that few early writers mentioned James even though many churches read it publicly.

Which ancient writer recorded that James the Just, the letter's traditional author, died by stoning?

Josephus places the execution in a gap between Roman governors, when the high priest Ananus took his chance to convene a court.

James 3 says speech is itself set on fire by hell, a word that translates which original term?

Gehenna is the term in the text, and James names it as the source of the fire that speech then spreads through the whole person.