King James Version · Under Rome
James 1
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, a and of , to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your worketh . But let have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack , let him ask of , that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in , nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of . A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. is the man that endureth : for when he is tried, he shall receive the of life, which hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is , I am of : for cannot be with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is , when he is drawn away of his own , and enticed. Then when hath conceived, it bringeth forth : and , when it is finished, bringeth forth . Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of of his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to : For the of man worketh not the of . Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to your . But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of , and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his , but deceiveth his own , this man’s religion is . Pure religion and undefiled before and is this, To visit and in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Under Rome, 63 BC to AD 100 ›
Judea as a client kingdom and then a province. Roads, garrisons, taxes, crucifixion, and a common Greek language that let a message travel the empire faster than any before it.
- Rome
- The republic tears itself apart in civil war and comes out as an empire under Augustus. What follows is two centuries of relative peace across the whole Mediterranean, enforced by legions and paid for by taxes, with safe roads and safe sea lanes. Every one of Paul's journeys depends on that.
- Judea
- Governed first through Herod the Great, a client king of enormous ability and enormous brutality who rebuilds the temple into one of the wonders of the ancient world, then directly by Roman prefects. Crucifixion is the standard penalty for sedition and is used often and publicly.
- The wider world
- Greek is spoken from Spain to Syria, which means a letter written in Corinth can be read in Rome without translation. Jewish communities already exist in most major cities, which is where the first Christian preaching lands. Mystery religions, imperial cult, and philosophy all compete in the same marketplace.
- Further afield
- The Han dynasty rules China and trades silk westward along routes that touch the Roman world at second hand. In Britain the Roman conquest begins within a decade of the crucifixion.