James 1:1
New International Version
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings.

New Living Translation
This letter is from James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am writing to the “twelve tribes”—Jewish believers scattered abroad. Greetings!

English Standard Version
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.

Berean Standard Bible
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes of the Dispersion: Greetings.

Berean Literal Bible
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.

King James Bible
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

New King James Version
James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: Greetings.

New American Standard Bible
James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings.

NASB 1995
James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings.

NASB 1977
James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad, greetings.

Legacy Standard Bible
James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes who are in the Dispersion: Greetings.

Amplified Bible
James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve [Hebrew] tribes [scattered abroad among the Gentiles] in the dispersion: Greetings (rejoice)!

Christian Standard Bible
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ: To the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. Greetings.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ: To the 12 tribes in the Dispersion. Greetings.

American Standard Version
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are of the Dispersion, greeting.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Yaqob the Servant of God and of our Lord Yeshua The Messiah to the twelve tribes which are scattered among the nations: Peace.

Contemporary English Version
From James, a servant of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ. Greetings to the twelve tribes scattered all over the world.

Douay-Rheims Bible
James the servant of God, and of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

English Revised Version
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are of the Dispersion, greeting.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
From James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. To God's faithful people who have been scattered. Greetings.

Good News Translation
From James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ: Greetings to all God's people scattered over the whole world.

International Standard Version
From: James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. To: The twelve tribes in the Dispersion. Greetings.

Literal Standard Version
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes who are in the dispersion: Greetings!

Majority Standard Bible
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes of the Dispersion: Greetings.

New American Bible
James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion, greetings.

NET Bible
From James, a slave of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. Greetings!

New Revised Standard Version
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.

New Heart English Bible
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are in the Diaspora: Greetings.

Webster's Bible Translation
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

Weymouth New Testament
James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ: to the twelve tribes who are scattered over the world. All good wishes.

World English Bible
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are in the Dispersion: Greetings.

Young's Literal Translation
James, of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ a servant, to the Twelve Tribes who are in the dispersion: Hail!

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Greetings from James
1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes of the Dispersion: Greetings. 2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds,…

Cross References
Luke 22:30
so that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

John 7:35
At this, the Jews said to one another, "Where does He intend to go that we will not find Him? Will He go where the Jews are dispersed among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks?

Acts 12:17
Peter motioned with his hand for silence, and he described how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. "Send word to James and to the brothers," he said, and he left for another place.

Acts 15:23
and sent them with this letter: The apostles and the elders, your brothers, To the brothers among the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia: Greetings.

Acts 26:7
the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to realize as they earnestly serve God day and night. It is because of this hope, O king, that I am accused by the Jews.

Romans 1:1
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, and set apart for the gospel of God--

Titus 1:1
Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness,


Treasury of Scripture

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

James.

Matthew 10:3
Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus;

Matthew 13:55
Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?

Mark 3:18
And Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Canaanite,

a servant.

John 12:26
If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.

Romans 1:1
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,

Philippians 1:1
Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:

to.

Exodus 24:4
And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.

Exodus 28:21
And the stones shall be with the names of the children of Israel, twelve, according to their names, like the engravings of a signet; every one with his name shall they be according to the twelve tribes.

Exodus 39:14
And the stones were according to the names of the children of Israel, twelve, according to their names, like the engravings of a signet, every one with his name, according to the twelve tribes.

scattered.

Leviticus 26:33
And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.

Deuteronomy 4:27
And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you.

Deuteronomy 28:64
And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.

greeting.

Acts 15:23
And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia:

Acts 23:26
Claudius Lysias unto the most excellent governor Felix sendeth greeting.

2 Timothy 4:21
Do thy diligence to come before winter. Eubulus greeteth thee, and Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia, and all the brethren.

Jump to Previous
Abroad Bondman Bondservant Bond-Servant Christ Dispersed Dispersion Earth Good Greeting Greetings Hail James Jesus Jews Love Nations Parts Scattered Sends Servant Tribes Twelve Wishes Words World
Jump to Next
Abroad Bondman Bondservant Bond-Servant Christ Dispersed Dispersion Earth Good Greeting Greetings Hail James Jesus Jews Love Nations Parts Scattered Sends Servant Tribes Twelve Wishes Words World
James 1
1. James greets the twelve tribes among the nations;
2. exhorts to rejoice in trials and temptations;
5. to ask patience of God;
13. and in our trials not to impute our weakness, or sins, to him,
19. but rather to hearken to the word, to meditate on it, and to do thereafter.
26. Otherwise men may seem, but never be, truly religious.














(1) James, a servant (or slave, or bond-servant) of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.--Bound to Him, i.e., in devotion and love. In like manner, St. Paul (Romans 1:1, et seq.), St. Peter (2Peter 1:1), and St. Jude brother of James (James 1:1), begin their Letters. The writer of this has been identified (see Introduction, ante, p. 352) with James the Just, first bishop of Jerusalem, the brother of our Lord.

To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad.--Or, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion. To these remnants of the house of Israel, whose "casting away" (Romans 11:15) was leading to the "reconciling of the world;" whose "fall" had been the cause of its "riches;" "and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles" (James 1:12). Scattered abroad indeed they were, "a by-word among all nations" (Deuteronomy 28:37), "a curse and an astonishment" (Jeremiah 29:18) wherever the Lord had driven them. But there is something figurative, and perhaps prophetic, in the number twelve. Strictly speaking, at the time this Epistle was written, Judah and Benjamin, in great measure, were returned to the Holy Land from their captivity, though numbers of both tribes were living in various parts of the world, chiefly engaged, as at the present day, in commerce. The remaining ten had lost their tribal distinctions, and have now perished from all historical record, though it is still one of the fancies of certain writers, rather pious than learned, to discover traces of them in the aborigines of America, Polynesia, and almost every where else; most ethnologically improbable of all, in the Teutonic nations, and our own families thereof. But long before the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, and even the preaching of Christianity, Jewish colonists were found in Europe as well as Asia. "Even where they suffered most, through their own turbulent disposition, or the enmity of their neighbours, they sprang again from the same undying stock, however it might be hewn by the sword or seared by the fire. Massacre seemed to have no effect in thinning their ranks, and, like their forefathers in Egypt, they still multiplied under the most cruel oppression." (See Milman's History of the Jews, vol. i., p. 449, et seq.) While the Temple stood these scattered settlements were colonies of a nation, bound together by varied ties and sympathies, but ruled in the East by a Rabbi called the Prince of the Captivity, and in the West by the Patriarch of Tiberias, who, curiously, had his seat in that Gentile city of Palestine. The fall of Jerusalem, and the end therewith of national existence, rather added to than detracted from the authority of these strange governments; the latter ceased only in the reign of the Emperor Theodosius, while the former continued, it is said, in the royal line of David, until the close of the eleventh century, after which the dominion passed wholly into the hands of the Rabbinical aristocracy, from whom it has come down to the present day. The phrase "in the dispersion" was common in the time or our Lord; the Jews wondered whether He would "go unto the dispersion amongst the Gentiles" (John 7:35, and see Note there). . . .

Verse 1. - SALUTATION. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. (On the person who thus describes himself, see the Introduction.) It is noteworthy that he keeps entirely out of sight his natural relationship to our Lord, and styles himself simply "a bond-servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ." That, and that alone, gave him a right to speak and a claim to be heard. Δοῦλος is similarly used by St. Paul in Romans 1:1; Philippians 1:1; Titus 1:1 by St. Peter in 2 Peter 1:1; and by St. Jude ver. 1. It is clearly an official designation, implying that his office is one "in which, not his own will, not the will of other men, but only of God and of Christ, is to be performed" (Huther). To the twelve tribes, etc. Compare the salutation in Acts 15:23, which was also probably written by St. James: "The apostles and the elder brethren unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch, and Syria, and Cilicia, greeting."

(1) Ξαίρειν is common to both, and not found elsewhere in apostolic greet-tugs. (It is used by Ignatius in the opening of all his epistles except that to the Philadelphians.)

(2) The letter in the Acts is addressed to Gentile communities in definite regions; St. James's Epistle, to Jews of the dispersion. So also his contemporary Gamaliel wrote "to the sons of the dispersion in Babylonia, and to our brethren in Media, and to all the dispersion of Israel" (Frankel, 'Monatsschrift,' 1853, p. 413). Ταῖς δώδεκα φύλαις (cf. δωδεκάφυλον in Acts 26:7; Clem., 'Rom,' l, § 55; 'Prefer. Jacob.,' c.i.). Such expressions are important as tending to show that the Jews were regarded as representing, not simply the tribes of Benjamin and Judah, but the whole nation, including those so often spoken of as "the lost tribes" (cf. 1 Esdr. 7:8). Διασπορᾷ. The abstract put for the concrete. It is the word used by the LXX. for the "dispersion" (2 Macc. 1:27; Jud. 5:19; cf. Deuteronomy 28:25, etc.), i.e. the Jews "so scattered among the nations as to become the seed of a future harvest" (Westcott on St. John 7:35). (On the importance of the dispersion as preparing the way for Christianity, see the 'Dictionary of the Bible,' vol. 1. p. 44:1.) It was divided into three great sections:

(1) the Babylonian, i.e. the original dispersion; . . .

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
James,
Ἰάκωβος (Iakōbos)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 2385: The same as Iakob Graecized; Jacobus, the name of three Israelites.

a servant
δοῦλος (doulos)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 1401: (a) (as adj.) enslaved, (b) (as noun) a (male) slave. From deo; a slave.

of God
Θεοῦ (Theou)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 2316: A deity, especially the supreme Divinity; figuratively, a magistrate; by Hebraism, very.

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

of [the] Lord
Κυρίου (Kyriou)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 2962: Lord, master, sir; the Lord. From kuros; supreme in authority, i.e. controller; by implication, Master.

Jesus
Ἰησοῦ (Iēsou)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 2424: Of Hebrew origin; Jesus, the name of our Lord and two other Israelites.

Christ,
Χριστοῦ (Christou)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 5547: Anointed One; the Messiah, the Christ. From chrio; Anointed One, i.e. The Messiah, an epithet of Jesus.

To the
Ταῖς (Tais)
Article - Dative Feminine Plural
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

twelve
δώδεκα (dōdeka)
Adjective - Dative Feminine Plural
Strong's 1427: Twelve; the usual way in which the Twelve apostles of Jesus are referred to. From duo and deka; two and ten, i.e. A dozen.

tribes
φυλαῖς (phylais)
Noun - Dative Feminine Plural
Strong's 5443: A tribe or race of people. From phuo; an offshoot, i.e. Race or clan.

in
ἐν (en)
Preposition
Strong's 1722: In, on, among. A primary preposition denoting position, and instrumentality, i.e. A relation of rest; 'in, ' at, on, by, etc.

the
τῇ (tē)
Article - Dative Feminine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

Dispersion:
Διασπορᾷ (Diaspora)
Noun - Dative Feminine Singular
Strong's 1290: From diaspeiro; dispersion, i.e. the Israelite resident in Gentile countries.

Greetings.
Χαίρειν (Chairein)
Verb - Present Infinitive Active
Strong's 5463: A primary verb; to be 'cheer'ful, i.e. Calmly happy or well-off; impersonally, especially as salutation, be well.


Links
James 1:1 NIV
James 1:1 NLT
James 1:1 ESV
James 1:1 NASB
James 1:1 KJV

James 1:1 BibleApps.com
James 1:1 Biblia Paralela
James 1:1 Chinese Bible
James 1:1 French Bible
James 1:1 Catholic Bible

NT Letters: James 1:1 James a servant of God (Ja Jas. Jam)
Hebrews 13:25
Top of Page
Top of Page