What Does James 2:20 Mean in the King James?
But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse calls the person “empty” because trust that never becomes action has no living form.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you where a claim of trust has no corresponding action and calls that trust dead. It also calls the person empty, showing that the lack is not religious language but a living expression of trust. Trust takes form in what it does.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that claiming inward trust is enough to make it alive even when it bears no action.
THE ROOT
πίστις
pistis
GROWS FROM
πιστ- (pist-), related to πείθω (peithō)
Trust and reliance: confidence placed in what is trusted.
“faith” in this verse is pistis. The word carries the sense of trust, not merely holding an idea to be true. James asks whether that trust is living, and the rest of the sentence answers by looking at what it does.
ALSO GROWS
pisteuō: to trust or entrust oneself
πιστεύω
The verb shows trust as reliance in motion, not only a belief held inwardly.
pistos: reliable, trustworthy, firm or steady
πιστός
This branch brings out the relation between trust and what is held reliable.
ἔργων
ergōn
GROWS FROM
ἐργ-
erg-
An act, deed, or work: something done.
“works” in this verse is ergōn. The verse points to deeds, the actions in which trust takes form. Its contrast is not between thought and effort, but between trust with no living expression and trust that acts.
ALSO GROWS
ergazomai: to work or do
ἐργάζομαι
The same word family describes work as something carried out, giving trust a visible form.
synergeō: to work together or cooperate
συνεργέω
James uses this related verb in verse 22 for faith working together with works.
κενέ
kene
GROWS FROM
κεν-
ken-
Empty, void, without contents.
The address calls the person empty, adding more than the sense of foolishness often carried by “vain.” The next image explains the emptiness: trust without action is called dead.
ALSO GROWS
kenoō: to empty or make void
κενόω
This verb shows the root as a condition in which substance has been emptied out.
kenodoxia: empty glory or vain conceit
κενοδοξία
The compound preserves the idea of emptiness within a person’s claim or self-regard.
THE PATTERN
Trust becomes visible in the life and actions it animates.
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.THE THREAD
Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?The word for faith, πίστις (pistis), appears again, alongside ἔργα (erga), the same word family as “works.” James says trust works together with its deeds and reaches maturity through them, opening up what “dead” means here.
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