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James 2:14 Τί τὸ ὄφελος, ἀδελφοί μου, ἐὰν πίστιν λέγῃ τις ἔχειν, ἔργα δὲ μὴ ἔχῃ; μὴ δύναται ἡ πίστις σῶσαι αὐτόν;
Lexical Nugget: What is the meaning of ὄφελος and how does James use it? This noun appears only once in the lxx (Job 15:3), and occurs outside James in the NT only in 1 Cor 15:32, where Paul asks, “If from human motives I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what does it benefit me [τί μοι τὸ ὄφελος]?” The verb ὀφείλω appears often in the NT and in Matt 16:26 provides an interesting parallel to the use of the noun here: “For what shall a person be benefited [τί γὰρ ὠφεληθήσεται ἄνθρωπος] if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?” James will again use this question to end 2:16, and thus it serves as an inclusio to “bookend” his point about the necessary alliance of faith and works.
Grammatical Nuggets: How does James ask his question in the last clause with the article before πίστις? The first πίστιν is anarthrous (without an article) and signals a new subject from that in 2:1-13. The negative particle μὴ in the second clause/question indicates an expected negative reply (Porter, Idioms, 277-279). The article ἡ before πίστις serves an anaphoric function, referring back to the type of deficient faith that was described in the earlier conditional sentence (Wallace, GGBB, 219). The sense conveyed is: “No. That kind of faith cannot save the person who says that he has it.” This translation does not leave an impression that James is saying that faith does not save. This misunderstanding could possibly arise from the KJV rendering (“can faith save him?”) and possibly contributed to the supposed contradiction between James and other NT writers. James will repeat this anaphoric use of the article when he ties together the argument of this sub-section in 2:17: “So also that kind of faith (ἡ πίστις), if it is not accompanied by actions, is dead being by itself.”
Lexical Nugget on James 2:19: What is the specific meaning of φρίσσουσιν? How do demons “shudder” (BDAG, s.v. “φρίσσω,” p. 1065)? That all created things shudder before God the Creator is a very Jewish teaching (Josephus, War 5.378). The NT witnesses to the monotheism of demons (Acts 16:17; 19:15) and their fear of Christ whom they recognize (Mark 1:23-24; 5:7). There is a sarcasm contained in this statement. The bare knowledge of a theological truth that even demons affirm has no benefit for them. There is also a type of faith that arises out of craven fear but leads only to “shuddering” but not to peace (2 Tim. 1:7a: “God has not given us the spirit of fear”). Possible links with the Jesus oral and written tradition again should not be overlooked. Jesus’ use of the same material in what has been called “the Jesus Creed” of Matthew 22:37-39 provides the meaning and application that James adapts and employs.