What Does James 2:4 Mean in the King James?
Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?
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
Partiality and judgment are one act here: both grow from the same Greek root of dividing and deciding.
THE MEANING
Favoritism divides the people before you and divides your judgment within you. When you elevate someone by appearance, your reasoning is already tilted; you become a judge whose thoughts are shaped by that ranking.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that preference can remain neutral, that ranking people by what they display leaves your judgment clean. This verse exposes the ranking itself as the beginning of the judgment.
THE ROOT
διεκρίθητε
diekrithēte
GROWS FROM
κριν-
krin-
To separate, distinguish, decide, or judge.
English makes “partial” and “judges” sound like separate problems. In Greek they share the same root: dividing people into ranks is already a judgment, and the judgment formed by those divisions is called evil.
ALSO GROWS
kritai: judges
κριταί
The verse uses this word for “judges,” revealing that the division named by “partial” and the judging that follows share a root.
krisis: judgment or decision
κρίσις
This branch shows the root’s movement from distinguishing between people to making a judgment about them.
THE PATTERN
When outward distinctions divide people into ranks, judgment follows that division; a person’s worth is not measured by appearance.
Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God’s: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it.But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:THE THREAD
Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.Romans carries the same root heard in James’s “partial” and “judges”: the act of judging another loops back onto the one who judges. James shows that loop beginning in the division itself.
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