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‍Scripture and Tradition

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‍“Can Faith Save Him?”

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‍Exploring James 2:14

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‍   Gary Hoge

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‍The Greek text of James 2:14 is,

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‍Τί τὸ ὄφελος, ἀδελφοί μου, ἐὰν πίστιν λέγῃ τίς ἔχειν, ἔργα δὲ μὴ ἔχῃ; μὴ δύναται ἡ πίστις σῶσαι αὐτόν;

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‍The New King James Version translates it like this:

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‍What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?

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‍Some Christians would answer that last question in the affirmative. “Yes, of course faith can save him! We are justified by faith alone, sola fide.” But that is an impossible interpretation. In this verse, the Greek grammar requires a negative answer, because the last phrase of the verse (shown in bold text) is explicitly presented as a rhetorical question. In English you can’t be sure when a question is rhetorical except by context, but in Greek such questions begin with the word “μὴ” (pronounced “may”). Such a question is always expected to be answered, “No.” In the introduction to the New American Standard Bible (NASB), it says,

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‍In the rendering of negative questions introduced by the particle më (which always expects the answer, “No”) the wording has been altered from a mere, “Will he not do this?” to a more accurate, “He will not do this, will he?”¹

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‍An example of this type of Greek construction is John 10:21, which, in Greek, is,

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‍μὴ    δαιμόνιον   δύναται    τυφλῶν    ὀφθαλμοὺς   ἀνοῖξαι

‍not    demon       is able       blind           eyes         to open?

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‍Note that the question begins with the word “μὴ”. In accordance with their principles of translation, the NASB translators rendered this verse, “A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind, can he?” James 2:14 is of the same grammatical construction:

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‍μὴ    δύναται      ἡ   πίστις     σῶσαι    αὐτόν

‍not    is able     (the) faith    to save    him?

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‍As you can see, this question also begins with the particle “μὴ,” and therefore, expects the answer, “No.” Thus, the NASB translators should have rendered it, “Faith cannot save him, can it?” in accordance with their own principles of translation. But unfortunately it seems that their sola fide theology would not allow them to do so. Instead, they rendered it, “Can that faith save him?”

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‍They changed the meaning of the verse from a rhetorical question about whether faith can save him (“Faith can’t save him, can it?”) to an evaluation of the quality of his faith (“Can that faith save him?”). The New International Version (NIV) goes even farther and translates it as, “Can such faith save him?”

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‍As you’ve seen, that’s not what James was trying to say. I think he would have agreed that we are saved by faith (as opposed to the Jewish ceremonial Law), but not by faith alone. Faith alone, if it is not “perfected” by works (James 2:13), is dead. 

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‍As John Henry Newman wrote, “Faith alone can make works living; works alone can make faith living. Take away either, and you take away both; – he alone has faith who has works, – he alone has works who has faith.”²

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^‍1New American Standard Bible, “Principles of Translation,” (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960).

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^‍2John Henry Newman, Sermon: “The New Works of the Gospel,” 1840.