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James 1 1 Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from? Is it not from your passions 2 that make war within your members? 你们中间的战争是从那里来的？争端是从那里来的？岂不是从你们肢体中战斗的私欲来的吗？ 2 You covet but do not possess. You kill and envy but you cannot obtain; you fight and wage war. You do not possess because you do not ask. 你们贪恋，若得不到，于是便要凶杀；你们嫉妒，若不能获得，于是就要争斗，起来交战。你们得不到，是因为你们不求； 3 You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 你们求而不得，是因为你们求的不当，想要浪费在你们的淫乐中。 4 Adulterers! 3 Do you not know that to be a lover of the world means enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wants to be a lover of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 淫乱的人啊！你们不知道：与世俗友好，就是与天主为仇吗？所以谁若愿意作世俗的朋友，就成了天主的仇敌。 5 Or do you suppose that the scripture speaks without meaning when it says, ＂The spirit that he has made to dwell in us tends toward jealousy＂? 4 ‘天主以嫉妒爱慕他在我们内所安置的神灵，’或者你们以为圣经的这句话是白说的吗？ 6 But he bestows a greater grace; therefore, it says: ＂God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.＂ 5 但他还赐更大的恩宠呢！为此说：‘天主拒绝骄傲人，却赏赐恩宠于谦逊人。’ 7 So submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 所以，你们要服从天主，对抗魔鬼，魔鬼就必逃避你们； 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you of two minds. 你们要亲近天主，天主就必亲近你们。罪人们，你们务要洁净你们的手；三心两意的人，你们务要清洁你们的心！ 9 Begin to lament, to mourn, to weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. 你们要感到可怜，要悲哀，要哭泣；让你们的喜笑变成悲哀，欢乐变成忧愁。 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. 你们务要在上主面前自谦自卑，他必要举扬你们。 11 Do not speak evil of one another, brothers. Whoever speaks evil of a brother or judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law. 6 If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 弟兄们，你们不要彼此诋毁。诋毁弟兄或判断自己弟兄的，就是诋毁法律，判断法律；若是你判断法律，你便不是守法者，而是审判者。 12 There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save or to destroy. Who then are you to judge your neighbor? 只有一位是立法者和审判者，就是那能拯救人，也能消灭人的天主；然而你是谁，你竟判断近人？ 13 7 Come now, you who say, ＂Today or tomorrow we shall go into such and such a town, spend a year there doing business, and make a profit＂— 好！现在你们说：＂今天或明天，我们要往这城和那城去，在那里住一年，作买卖获利。＂ 14 you have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow. 8 You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears. 其实，关于明天的事，你们还不知道；你们的生命是什么？你们原来不过是一股蒸气，出现片刻，以后就消失了。 15 Instead you should say, ＂If the Lord wills it, 9 we shall live to do this or that.＂ 你们倒不如这样说：＂上主若愿意，我们就可以活着，就可以作这事或者那事。＂ 16 But now you are boasting in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 可是现在，你们却猖狂自夸，这样的自夸，都是邪恶的。 17 So for one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, it is a sin. 10 所以人若知道该行善，却不去行，这就是他的罪了。 Footnotes(注解) 1 [1-12] The concern here is with the origin of conflicts in the Christian community. These are occasioned by love of the world, which means enmity with God (4). Further, the conflicts are bound up with failure to pray properly (cf Matthew 7:7-11; John 14:13; 15:7; 16:23), that is, not asking God at all or using God's kindness only for one's pleasure (James 4:2-3). In contrast, the proper dispositions are submission to God, repentance, humility, and resistance to evil (James 4:7-10). 2 [1-3] Passions: the Greek word here (literally, ＂pleasures＂) does not indicate that pleasure is evil. Rather, as the text points out (James 4:2-3), it is the manner in which one deals with needs and desires that determines good or bad. The motivation for any action can be wrong, especially if one does not pray properly but seeks only selfish enjoyment (James 4:3). 3 [4] Adulterers: a common biblical image for the covenant between God and his people is the marriage bond. In this image, breaking the covenant with God is likened to the unfaithfulness of adultery. 4 [5] The meaning of this saying is difficult because the author of Jas cites, probably from memory, a passage that is not in any extant manuscript of the Bible. Other translations of the text with a completely different meaning are possible: ＂The Spirit that he (God) made to dwell in us yearns (for us) jealously,＂ or, ＂He (God) yearns jealously for the spirit that he has made to dwell in us.＂ If this last translation is correct, the author perhaps had in mind an apocryphal religious text that echoes the idea that God is zealous for his creatures; cf Exodus 20:5; Deut 4:24; Zechariah 8:2. 5 [6] The point of this whole argument is that God wants the happiness of all, but that selfishness and pride can make that impossible. We must work with him in humility (James 4:10). 6 [11] Slander of a fellow Christian does not break just one commandment but makes mockery of the authority of law in general and therefore of God. 7 [13-17] The uncertainty of life (James 4:14), its complete dependence on God, and the necessity of submitting to God's will (James 4:15) all help one know and do what is right (James 4:17). To disregard this is to live in pride and arrogance (James 4:16); failure to do what is right is a sin (James 4:17). 8 [14] Some important Greek manuscripts here have, ＂You who have no idea what tomorrow will bring. Why, what is your life?＂ 9 [15] If the Lord wills it: often in piety referred to as the ＂conditio Jacobaea,＂ the condition James says we should employ to qualify all our plans. 10 [17] It is a sin: those who live arrogantly, forgetting the contingency of life and our dependence on God (James 4:13-16), are guilty of sin. |
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