Epistula Iacobi

Iacobi, chapter 1, Vulgate and King James Version

Chapter 1 Vulgate

   1 Iacobus, Dei et Domini Iesu Christi servus, duodecim tribu bus, quae sunt in dispersione, salutem.
   2 Omne gaudium existimate, fratres mei, cum in tentationibus variis incideritis,
   3 scientes quod probatio fidei vestrae patientiam operatur;
   4 patientia autem opus perfectum habeat, ut sitis perfecti et integri, in nullo deficientes.
   5 Si quis autem vestrum indiget sapientia, postulet a Deo, qui dat omnibus affluenter et non improperat, et dabitur ei.
   6 Postulet autem in fide nihil haesitans; qui enim haesitat, similis est fluctui maris, qui a vento movetur et circumfertur.
   7 Non ergo aestimet homo ille quod accipiat aliquid a Domino,
   8 vir duplex animo, inconstans in omnibus viis suis.
   9 Glorietur autem frater humilis in exaltatione sua,
   10 dives autem in humilitate sua, quoniam sicut flos feni transibit.
   11 Exortus est enim sol cum ardore et arefecit fenum, et flos eius decidit, et decor vultus eius deperiit; ita et dives in itineribus suis marcescet.
   12 Beatus vir, qui suffert tentationem, quia, cum probatus fuerit, accipiet coronam vitae, quam repromisit Deus diligentibus se.
   13 Nemo, cum tentatur, dicat: "A Deo tentor"; Deus enim non tentatur malis, ipse autem neminem tentat.
   14 Unusquisque vero tentatur a concupiscentia sua abstractus et illectus;
   15 dein concupiscentia, cum conceperit, parit peccatum; peccatum vero, cum consummatum fuerit, generat mortem.
   16 Nolite errare, fratres mei dilectissimi.
   17 Omne datum optimum et omne donum perfectum de sursum est, descendens a Patre luminum, apud quem non est transmutatio nec vicissitudinis obumbratio.
   18 Voluntarie genuit nos verbo veritatis, ut simus primitiae quaedam creaturae eius.
   19 Scitis, fratres mei dilecti. Sit autem omnis homo velox ad audiendum, tardus autem ad loquendum et tardus ad iram;
   20 ira enim viri iustitiam Dei non operatur.
   21 Propter quod abicientes omnem immunditiam et abundantiam malitiae, in mansuetudine suscipite insitum verbum, quod potest salvare animas vestras.
   22 Estote autem factores verbi et non auditores tantum fallentes vosmetipsos.
   23 Quia si quis auditor est verbi et non factor, hic comparabitur viro consideranti vultum nativitatis suae in speculo;
   24 consideravit enim se et abiit, et statim oblitus est qualis fuerit.
   25 Qui autem perspexerit in lege perfecta libertatis et permanserit, non auditor obliviosus factus sed factor operis, hic beatus in facto suo erit.
   26 Si quis putat se religiosum esse, non freno circumducens linguam suam sed seducens cor suum, huius vana est religio.
   27 Religio munda et immaculata apud Deum et Patrem haec est: visitare pupillos et viduas in tribulatione eorum, immaculatum se custodire ab hoc saeculo.

Source: Bibliorum Sacrorum Editio, Sacrosanti Oecumenici Concilii Vaticani II, Ratione Habita, Iussu Pauli PP. VI Recognita, Auctoritate Ioannis Pauli PP. II Promulgata, Editio Typica Altera

King James Version

   1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.
   2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
   3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
   4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
   5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
   6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
   7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
   8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
   9 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:
   10 But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
   11 For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.
   12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
   13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
   14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
   15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
   16 Do not err, my beloved brethren.
   17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
   18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
   19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
   20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
   21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
   22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
   23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
   24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
   25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
   26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.
   27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.