World English Bible · Under Rome
James 4
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Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don't they come from your pleasures that war in your members? You , and don't have. You and , and can't obtain. You fight and make war. You don't have, because you don't ask. You ask, and don't receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You and adulteresses, don't you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward ? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of . Or do you think that the says in , " who lives in us yearns jealously"? But he gives more . Therefore it says, " resists the proud, but gives to the humble." Be subject therefore to . Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to , and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you . Purify your , you double-minded. , mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of , and he will exalt you. Don't speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against and judges . But if you judge , you are not a doer of but a judge. Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to and to destroy. But who are you to judge another? Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow let's go into this city and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit." Yet you don't know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. For you ought to say, "If wills, we will both live, and do this or that." But now you in your boasting. All such boasting is evil. To him therefore who knows to do good and doesn't do it, to him it is .
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. 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.