There is one lawgiver and judge: this lawgiver and judge is God. That God is judge is a common teaching in the Bible (Gen 18.25; Psa 82.1, 8; Rom 3.6; Heb 12.23). The Bible also says that God is the lawgiver (Psa 9.21 in the Septuagint; compare also Jer 9.13). The statement in Greek is literally “one there is the lawgiver and judge,” with focus and emphasis on the oneness of God. God alone is the lawgiver. He alone is not under any law. He alone is judge. In translation it may be desirable to make it clear that God is the lawgiver and judge, and at the same time to place emphasis on the oneness of God; for example, “God is the only lawgiver and judge” (Good News Translation) or “There is only one lawgiver and judge—God.”

James is obviously not saying that there should not be any lawgiver or judge in the world. He is emphasizing that God the lawgiver is the one and only true judge who can carry out his verdict, and that his verdict counts. In order to bring out this point clearly, we may say, for example, “God is the one who gave this law of love, and he is the one who judges us according to it.”

As the Lord of life and death, God is able to save and to destroy. That God can kill and make alive is a recurring theme in the Bible (Deut 32.39; 1 Sam 2.6; Matt 10.28) In saying this James may be suggesting that those who judge others condemn themselves. We are reminded of Paul’s rebuke of the “superior” Jews seeking to pass judgment on the Gentiles: “… for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself…” (Rom 2.1; NRSV). Here James is talking about God’s absolute power to determine a person’s eternal destiny, either salvation or condemnation. The verb is able refers to God’s power and so may be rendered as “… has power to…” (Goodspeed). In some languages to save and to destroy may be too abstract, and therefore the translator may have to supply objects to make the actions more concrete; for example, “to save life [or, people] or destroy it [or, them]” (Revised English Bible), or even “to save us or destroy us,” or “to save our lives or kill us.” In some languages the construction to save and to destroy is more naturally rendered as “both to save and to destroy,” while in others it may be better to express the construction as showing an alternative relationship, “either to save or to destroy” (so Translator’s New Testament).

In translating this sentence translators may wish to follow the Good News Translation rendering for the following reasons. First, it makes clear the information that is not stated directly, namely that God is the lawgiver and judge. Secondly, it makes the participial expression “he who is…” a separate sentence, making it easier to understand and to translate into languages not accustomed to using this type of construction. Thirdly, it uses the word “alone” in the second sentence, in addition to the word “only” in the first sentence, to bring out the force of the Greek word “one” that appears as the first word in the sentence for emphasis.

But who are you that you judge your neighbor?: in closing the section James uses a rhetorical question to express scorn with some element of sarcasm. The purpose of this question is to bring shame to those guilty of passing judgment on their neighbors, for to pass judgment on a neighbor is to overstep due bounds; it steals God’s authority. The force of who are you…? may be rendered “Who do you think you are…?” (Good News Translation), “How can you…?” (Phillips), or “What right do you have to…?” (Contemporary English Version). If we wish to bring out the aspect of scorn more clearly, we may try to render the rhetorical question as an emphatic statement; for example, “You certainly have no right to…!” The word neighbor can be taken in the general sense of “fellow man” (so Barclay) or in the more restricted sense of “fellow believer.” See the discussion in 2.8.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:
• God is the one who gave this law, and he will judge us according to it. He alone has the power to save us or destroy us. So you certainly have no right to condemn your fellow Christians.

Quoted with permission from Loh, I-Jin and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Letter from James. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .