γινώσκοντες ὅτι τὸ δοκίμιον ὑμῶν τῆς πίστεως κατεργάζεται ὑπομονήν.
3because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
The Greek that is translated in English as “endurance” (or “patience”or “perseverance”) is translated in Tzotzil as “(good) strength of heart(s).” (Source: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation July, 1967, p. 5ff.)
In Isthmus Zapotec it is translated as “learning not to lose patience.” (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
Following are a number of back-translations of James 1:3:
Translations of the Greek pistis and its various forms that are typically translated as “faith” in English (itself deriving from Latin “fides,” meaning “trust, faith, confidence, reliance, credence”) and “believe” (from Old English belyfan: “to have faith or confidence in a person”) cover a wide range of approaches.
“Since belief or faith is so essentially an intimate psychological experience, it is not strange that so many terms denoting faith should be highly figurative and represent an almost unlimited range of emotional ‘centers’ and descriptions of relationships, e.g. ‘steadfast his heart’ (Chol), ‘to arrive on the inside’ (Chicahuaxtla Triqui), ‘to conform with the heart’ (Uab Meto), ‘to join the word to the body’ (Uduk), ‘to hear in the insides’ (or ‘to hear within one’s self and not let go’ — Nida 1952) (Laka), ‘to make the mind big for something’ (Sapo), ‘to make the heart straight about’ (Mitla Zapotec), ‘to cause a word to enter the insides’ (Lacandon), ‘to leave one’s heart with’ (Baniwa), ‘to catch in the mind’ (Ngäbere), ‘that which one leans on’ (Vai), ‘to be strong on’ (Shipibo-Conibo), ‘to have no doubts’ (San Blas Kuna), ‘to hear and take into the insides’ (Kare), ‘to accept’ (Pamona).”
One evening, though, Bobby began to ask questions. We were sitting around a fire. The light flickered over him. His face was serious.
‘How can I walk on Jesus’ trail?’ he asked. ‘No Motilone [speakers of Barí] has ever done it. It’s a new thing. There is no other Motilone to tell how to do it.’
I remembered the problems I had had as a boy, how it sometimes appeared impossible to keep on believing in Jesus when my family and friends were so opposed to my commitment. That was what Bobby was going through.
‘Bobby,’ I said, ‘do you remember my first Festival of the Arrows, the first time I had seen all the Motilones gathered to sing their song?’ The festival was the most important ceremony in the Motilone culture.
He nodded. The fire flared up momentarily and I could see his eyes, staring intently at me.
‘Do you remember that I was afraid to climb in the high hammocks to sing, for fear that the rope would break? And I told you that I would sing only if I could have one foot in the hammock and one foot on the ground?’
‘Yes, Bruchko.’
‘And what did you say to me?’
He laughed. ‘I told you you had to have both feet in the hammock. ‘You have to be suspended,’ I said.’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘You have to be suspended. That is how it is when you follow Jesus, Bobby. No man can tell you how to walk His trail. Only Jesus can. But to find out you have to tie your hammock strings into Him, and be suspended in God.’
Bobby said nothing. The fire danced in his eyes. Then he stood up and walked off into the darkness.
The next day he came to me. ‘Bruchko,’ he said, ‘I want to tie my hammock strings into Jesus Christ. But how can I? I can’t see Him or touch Him.’
‘You have talked to spirits, haven’t you?’
‘Oh,’ he said. ‘I see now.’
The next day he had a big grin on his face. ‘Bruchko, I’ve tied my hammock strings into Jesus. Now I speak a new language.’
I didn’t understand what he meant. ‘Have you learned some of the Spanish I speak?’
He laughed, a clean, sweet laugh. ‘No, Bruchko, I speak a new language.’
Then I understood. To a Motilone, language is life. If Bobby had a new life, he had a new way of speaking. His speech would be Christ-oriented.
“[The missionary translator] Lancelot Threlkeld learned that Awabakal, like many Australian languages, made no distinction between knowing and believing. Of course the distinction only needs to be made where there are rival systems of knowing. The Awabakal language expressed a seamless world. But as the stress on ‘belief’ itself suggests, Christianity has always existed in pluralist settings. Conversion involves deep conviction, not just intellectual assent or understanding. (…) Translating such texts posed a great challenge in Australia. Threlkeld and [his indigenous colleague] Biraban debated the possibilities at length. In the end they opted not to introduce a new term for belief, but to use the Awabakal ngurruliko, meaning ‘to know, to perceive by the ear,’ as distinct from knowing by sight or by touch.”
What does losing feathers have to do with faith? [The translator] explained that there is a species of bird in his area that, upon hatching its eggs, loses its feathers. During this molting phase, the mother bird is no longer able to fly away from the nest and look for food for her hungry hatchlings. She has to remain in the nest where she and her babies are completely dependent upon the male bird to bring them food. Without the diligent, dependable work of the male bird, the mother and babies would all die. This scenario was the basis for the word for faith in his language.
“Luba-Katanga word for ‘Faith’ in its New Testament connotation is Twi tabilo. This word means ‘echo,’ and the way in which it came to be adapted to the New Testament meaning gives a very good idea of the way in which the translator goes to work. One day a missionary was on a journey through wild and mountainous country. At midday he called his African porters to halt, and as they lay resting in the shade from the merciless heat of the sun. an African picked up a stone and sent it ricocheting down the mountain-side into the ravine below. After some seconds the hollow silence was broken by a plunging, splashing sound from the depths of the dark river-bed. As the echo died away the African said in a wondering whisper ‘Twi tabilo, listen to it.’ So was a precious word captured for the service of the Gospel in its Luba Christian form. Twi tabilo — ‘faith which is the echo of God’s voice in the depths of human sinful hearts, awakened by God Himself, the answer to his own importunate call.’ The faith that is called into being by the divine initiative, God’s own gift to the responsive heart! (Source: Wilfred Bradnock in The Bible Translator 1953, p. 49ff. )
The Venda term u tenda, lutendo. This term corresponds to the terms ho dumela (Southern Sotho), and ku pfumela (Tsonga) that have been used in these translations of the Bible, and means “to assent,” “to agree to a suggestion.” It is important to understand this term in the context of the character of the people who use it.
The way in which the Venda use this term reveals much about the priority of interpersonal relationships among them. They place a much higher priority on responding in the way they think they are expected to respond than on telling the truth. Smooth interpersonal relationships, especially with a dominant individual or group, take precedence over everything else.
It is therefore regarded as bad form to refuse directly when asked for something one does not in fact intend to give. The correct way is to agree, u tenda, and then forget about it or find some excuse for not keeping to the agreement. Thus u tenda does not necessarily convey the information that one means what one says. One can tenda verbally while heartily disagreeing with the statement made or having no intention whatsoever to carry out what one has just promised to do. This is not regarded as dishonesty, but is a matter of politeness.
The term u sokou tenda, “to consent reluctantly,” is often used for expressing the fatalistic attitude of the Venda in the face of misfortune or force which he is unable to resist.
The form lutendo was introduced by missionaries to express “faith.”
According to the rules of derivations and their meanings in the lu-class, it should mean “the habit of readily consenting to everything.” But since it is a coined word which does not have a clearly defined set of meanings in everyday speech, it has acquired in church language a meaning of “steadfastness in the Christian life.” Una lutendo means something like “he is steadfast in the face of persecution.” It is quite clear that the term u tenda has no element of “trust” in it. (…)
In “The Christian Minister” of July 1969 we find the following statement about faith by Albert N. Martin: “We must never forget that one of the great issues which the Reformers brought into focus was that faith was something more than an ‘assensus,’ a mere nodding of the head to the body of truth presented by the church as ‘the faith.’ The Reformers set forth the biblical concept that faith was ‘fiducia.’ They made plain that saving faith involved trust, commitment, a trust and commitment involving the whole man with the truth which was believed and with the Christ who was the focus of that truth. The time has come when we need to spell this out clearly in categorical statements so that people will realize that a mere nodding of assent to the doctrines that they are exposed to is not the essence of saving faith. They need to be brought to the understanding that saving faith involves the commitment of the whole man to the whole Christ, as Prophet, Priest and King as he is set forth in the gospel.”
We quote at length from this article because what Martin says of the current concept of faith in the Church is even to a greater extent true of the Venda Church, and because the terms used for communicating that concept in the Venda Bible cannot be expected to communicate anything more than “a mere nodding of assent”. I have during many years of evangelistic work hardly ever come across a Venda who, when confronted with the gospel, would not say, Ndi khou tenda, “I admit the truth of what you say.” What they really mean when saying this amounts to, “I believe that God exists, and I have no objection to the fact that he exists. I suppose that the rest of what you are talking about is also true.” They would often add, Ndi sa tendi hani-hani? “Just imagine my not believing such an obvious fact!” To the experienced evangelist this is a clear indication that his message is rejected in so far as it has been understood at all! To get a negative answer, one would have to press on for a promise that the “convert” will attend the baptism class and come to church on Sundays, and even then he will most probably just tenda in order to get rid of the evangelist, whether he intends to come or not. Isn’t that what u tenda means? So when an inexperienced and gullible white man ventures out on an evangelistic campaign with great enthusiasm, and with great rejoicing returns with a list of hundreds of names of persons who “believed”, he should not afterwards blame the Venda when only one tenth of those who were supposed to be converts actually turn up for baptismal instruction.
Moreover, it is not surprising at all that one often comes across church members of many years’ standing who do not have any assurance of their salvation or even realise that it is possible to have that assurance. They are vhatendi, “consenters.” They have consented to a new way of life, to abandoning (some of) the old customs. Lutendo means to them at most some steadfastness in that new way of life.
The concept of faith in religion is strange to Africa. It is an essential part of a religion of revelation such as Christianity or Islam, but not of a naturalistic religion such as Venda religion, in which not faith and belief are important, but ritual, and not so much the content of the word as the power of it.
The terms employed in the Venda Bible for this vital Christian concept have done nothing to effect a change in the approach of the Venda to religion.
It is a pity that not only in the Venda translation has this been the case, but in all the other Southern Bantu languages. In the Nguni languages the term ukukholwa, “to believe a fact,” has been used for pisteuo, and ukholo, the deverbative of ukukholwa, for pistis. In some of the older Protestant translations in Zulu, but not in the new translation, the term ithemba, “trust”, has been used.
Some languages, including Santali, have two terms — like English (see above) — to differentiate a noun from a verb form. Biswạs is used for “faith,” whereas pạtiạu for “believe.” R.M. Macphail (in The Bible Translator 1961, p. 36ff. ) explains this choice: “While there is little difference between the meaning and use of the two in everyday Santali, in which any word may be used as a verb, we felt that in this way we enriched the translation while making a useful distinction, roughly corresponding to that between ‘faith’ and ‘to believe’ in English.”
Likewise, in Noongar, koort-karni or “heart truth” is used for the noun (“faith”) and djinang-karni or “see true” for the verb (“believe”) (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).
See also this devotion on YouVersion .
Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Faith (Word Study) .
Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).
(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
The reason why Christians are told to consider “trials” as an occasion for happiness is that they may become the means through which better Christian qualities may develop.
For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness is a participial phrase in Greek. The participle “knowing” has a causal force, giving the reason for “joy,” and so most modern translations have brought this out. “Knowing” in biblical usage is more than mere intellectual perception; it is something that is gained through daily experience in life; and so it may be translated as “for you have found out that…” or “for you have ascertained that….”
There are several problems in the phrase the testing of your faith. The first is the meaning of testing. The Greek word for testing here is different from the word discussed above in verse 2. The word here is sometimes used for “testing” the purity or genuineness of gold or silver. It appears elsewhere in the New Testament only in 1 Peter 1.6-7, where Peter speaks about “various trials” (verse 6) to prove “the genuineness of faith” (verse 7). In 1 Peter the focus seems to be on the result of testing, namely “the proven genuineness or test-worthiness of faith.” Some interpreters are of the opinion that the same focus is in view in the present context and have rendered it accordingly; for example, “your faith is proved” (Translator’s New Testament [Translator’s New Testament]—as reflected also in its translational notes on this verse). However, most translations take the word in the sense of the means of testing, namely “various trials” by which faith is tested. It is probably for this reason that Good News Translation renders the word also as “trials,” even though in Greek it is different from the one used in verse 2.
The second problem has to do with the rather abstract and ambiguous construction the testing of your faith. Obviously we have here a case of objective genitive; “faith” is the object “tested.” We can therefore restructure the phrase as “when your faith succeeds in facing such trials” (Good News Translation), or “when faith has passed through the ordeal of testing” (Barclay). Note that the word faith here, as in verse 6, does not mean acceptance of or giving intellectual assent to the teachings of the church. Rather, in agreement with the predominant meaning used elsewhere in the New Testament, it means a confident trust in Jesus Christ. So this clause may also be translated as “when you have passed through such trials [or, difficulties] and you still believe [in Jesus] as strongly as before.”
The word produces has the meaning of “brings about,” “works,” “achieves,” “develops.” It indicates that the “faith” that can withstand “trials” is bound to “produce” some positive result, namely the ability to endure. Steadfastness is the intended result of this “testing” process. In Greek the word steadfastness, rendered “endurance” by King James Version and “the ability to endure” by Good News Translation, does not mean a passive submission to circumstances as the English word “endurance” tends to suggest. It is rather an active quality that enables a person to persevere steadfastly through the most difficult and trying circumstances. This is the same word used in 5.11 to describe Job’s steadfastness in spite of most distressing disasters. In Rom 5.4 Paul identifies “endurance” as the heroic quality that “produces character” (RSV). In certain languages this will be expressed idiomatically; for example, “have a heart [or, liver] that endures,” or even “have a big heart.” This quality of “steadfastness,” “fortitude” (New English Bible), and “perseverance” (New International Version) is the direct result of the ability of faith withstanding testing and “trials.” For this reason produces steadfastness is rendered as “the result is the ability to endure” (Good News Translation), or more graphically as “the result is the ability to pass the breaking-point and not to break” (Barclay). It may also be rendered “going all the way without falling [or, giving in].”
An alternative translation model for this verse may be:
• For when you have found out [or, experienced] that you have passed through such trials [or, difficulties] and you still believe in Jesus as strongly as before, the result will be that you will be able to continue on without falling [or, giving in].
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 .
1:3
This verse describes in more detail how Christians should think about the tests of their faith.
1:3a
because you know that: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as because you know introduces the basis for the command in 1:2a. James told his fellow believers to rejoice when they face trials (1:2a–b) because such trials have good effects. Trials develop perseverance in the person who is tested (1:3c).
This word also implies that James’ readers already understood that when their faith was tested, the result would be perseverance. So James was reminding them of this truth.
Some other ways to translate this are:
because you(plur) realize
-or-
because you understand
-or-
because you are aware
-or-
You know that (Contemporary English Version)
In some languages, it is more natural to put the basis before the command (1:2a). See the General Comment on 1:2–3 at the end of 1:3c for an example.
you: The pronoun you is plural and refers to all the readers.
1:3b
the testing of your faith: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as testing refers to the process of testing to prove that something was genuine. Here the phrase probably refers to persecution that tests whether a person was really loyal to Jesus as God’s Messiah. Because of persecution, some Jewish Christians were tempted to abandon their faith in Christ and return to their Jewish religion.
Some other ways to translate this phrase are:
when your faith is tested (New Living Translation (2004 Revision))
-or-
these troubles test your faith (New Century Version)
-or-
when you have difficulties and you(plur) continue to believe/trust in Jesus/God
-or-
when you are tested and you prove that you are loyal to Jesus
your faith: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as faith refers to trusting in Jesus, relying on him, and being committed to him. It is based on the belief that Jesus is the Messiah and that he could save them from their sins.
Some other ways to translate this word are:
your(plur) trust in Jesus
-or-
your loyalty/commitment to Jesus
If it is more natural to translate this word as a verb, do so. For example:
whether you(plur) truly trust Jesus
-or-
that you really believe
-or-
if you are loyal to Jesus
1:3c
develops perseverance: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as develops perseverance means “produces the ability to continue to do something despite difficulties.” In this context, it means “produces/increases the ability to continue to believe firmly, even when difficulties arise.”
Some other ways to translate this phrase are:
produces endurance (NET Bible)
-or-
you learn to endure (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
teaches you to continue/persist
-or-
teaches you patience
If there is an idiom in your language to express this idea, consider using it here.
General Comment on 1:2–3
In some languages, it is more natural to give the basis for the command (1:3) first, and then give the command itself (1:2). For example:
3aYou know that 3bthe testing of your faith 3cdevelops perseverance. 2aSo, my brothers, consider it pure joy, 2bwhen you encounter trials of many kinds.
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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.
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