---
title: "James 1 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/james/1/
description: "The benefit of tribulations. Prayer with faith. God is the author of all good, but… James 1 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# James 1

James 1 is chapter 1 of 5 in the Letter of James. Here are all 27 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> The benefit of tribulations. Prayer with faith. God is the author of all good, but not of evil. We must be slow to anger and not hearers only, but doers of the word. Of bridling the tongue and of pure religion.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## James 1 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. James, servant of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes of the dispersion, greetings.
2. My brothers, when you have fallen into various trials, consider everything a joy,
3. knowing that the proving of your faith exercises patience,
4. and patience brings a work to perfection, so that you may be perfect and whole, deficient in nothing.
5. But if anyone among you is in need of wisdom, let him petition God, who gives abundantly to all without reproach, and it shall be given to him.
6. But he should ask with faith, doubting nothing. For he who doubts is like a wave on the ocean, which is moved about by the wind and carried away;
7. then a man should not consider that he would receive anything from the Lord.
8. For a man who is of two minds is inconstant in all his ways.
9. Now a humble brother should glory in his exaltation,
10. and a rich one, in his humiliation, for he will pass away like the flower of the grass.
11. For the sun has risen with a scorching heat, and has dried the grass, and its flower has fallen off, and the appearance of its beauty has perished. So also will the rich one wither away, according to his paths.
12. Blessed is the man who suffers temptation. For when he has been proven, he shall receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him.
13. No one should say, when he is tempted, that he was tempted by God. For God does not entice toward evils, and he himself tempts no one.
14. Yet truly, each one is tempted by his own desires, having been enticed and drawn away.
15. Thereafter, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. Yet truly sin, when it has been consummated, produces death.
16. And so, do not choose to go astray, my most beloved brothers.
17. Every excellent gift and every perfect gift is from above, descending from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change, nor any shadow of alteration.
18. For by his own will he produced us through the Word of truth, so that we might be a kind of beginning among his creatures.
19. You know this, my most beloved brothers. So let every man be quick to listen, but slow to speak and slow to anger.
20. For the anger of man does not accomplish the justice of God.
21. Because of this, having cast away all uncleanness and an abundance of malice, receive with meekness the newly-grafted Word, which is able to save your souls.
22. So be doers of the Word, and not listeners only, deceiving yourselves.
23. For if anyone is a listener of the Word, but not also a doer, he is comparable to a man gazing into a mirror upon the face that he was born with;
24. and after considering himself, he went away and promptly forgot what he had seen.
25. But he who gazes upon the perfect law of liberty, and who remains in it, is not a forgetful hearer, but instead a doer of the work. He shall be blessed in what he does.
26. But if anyone considers himself to be religious, but he does not restrain his tongue, but instead seduces his own heart: such a one’s religion is vanity.
27. This is religion, clean and undefiled before God the Father: to visit orphans and widows in their tribulations, and to keep yourself immaculate, apart from this age.

## James 1 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Jacobus, Dei et Domini nostri Jesu Christi servus, duodecim tribubus, quæ sunt in dispersione, salutem.
2. Omne gaudium existimate fratres mei, cum in tentationes varias incideritis:
3. scientes quod probatio fidei vestræ patientiam operatur.
4. Patientia autem opus perfectum habet: ut sitis perfecti et integri in nullo deficientes.
5. Si quis autem vestrum indiget sapientia, postulet a Deo, qui dat omnibus affluenter, et non improperat: et dabitur ei.
6. Postulet autem in fide nihil hæsitans: qui enim hæsitat, similis est fluctui maris, qui a vento movetur et circumfertur:
7. non ergo æstimet homo ille quod accipiat aliquid a Domino.
8. Vir duplex animo inconstans est in omnibus viis suis.
9. Glorietur autem frater humilis in exaltatione sua:
10. dives autem in humilitate sua, quoniam sicut flos fœni transibit;
11. exortus est enim sol cum ardore, et arefecit fœnum, et flos ejus decidit, et decor vultus ejus deperiit: ita et dives in itineribus suis marcescet.
12. Beatus vir qui suffert tentationem: quoniam cum probatus fuerit, accipiet coronam vitæ, quam repromisit Deus diligentibus se.
13. Nemo cum tentatur, dicat quoniam a Deo tentatur: Deus enim intentator malorum est: ipse autem neminem tentat.
14. Unusquisque vero tentatur a concupiscentia sua abstractus, et illectus.
15. Deinde concupiscentia cum conceperit, parit peccatum: peccatum vero cum consummatum fuerit, generat mortem.
16. Nolite itaque errare, fratres mei dilectissimi.
17. Omne datum optimum, et omne donum perfectum desursum est, descendens a Patre luminum, apud quem non est transmutatio, nec vicissitudinis obumbratio.
18. Voluntarie enim genuit nos verbo veritatis, ut simus initium aliquod creaturæ ejus.
19. Scitis, fratres mei dilectissimi. Sit autem omnis homo velox ad audiendum: tardus autem ad loquendum, et tardus ad iram.
20. Ira enim viri justitiam Dei non operatur.
21. Propter quod abjicientes omnem immunditiam, et abundantiam malitiæ, in mansuetudine suscipite insitum verbum, quod potest salvare animas vestras.
22. Estote autem factores verbi, et non auditores tantum: fallentes vosmetipsos.
23. Quia si quis auditor est verbi, et non factor, hic comparabitur viro consideranti vultum nativitatis suæ in speculo:
24. consideravit enim se, et abiit, et statim oblitus est qualis fuerit.
25. Qui autem perspexerit in legem perfectam libertatis, et permanserit in ea, non auditor obliviosus factus, sed factor operis: hic beatus in facto suo erit.
26. Si quis autem putat se religiosum esse, non refrenans linguam suam, sed seducens cor suum, hujus vana est religio.
27. Religio munda et immaculata apud Deum et Patrem, hæc est: visitare pupillos et viduas in tribulatione eorum, et immaculatum se custodire ab hoc sæculo.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- CCC ¶ 2737: Filial Trust ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 2633: Prayer of Petition ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 2847: "And Lead Us not into Temptation" ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 212: I Believe in God ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 2642: Prayer of Praise ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 1972: The New Law or the Law of the Gospel ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 2208: The Family and Society ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## The saints

- “Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring.” — St. Catherine of Siena, Letter to Raymond of Capua, 1375 (On this theme: verse 12)
- “Virtue is nothing without the trial of temptation, for there is no conflict without an enemy, no victory without strife.” — St. Leo the Great, Sermon 22 on the Nativity, c. 441 (On this theme: verse 12)
- “Everything is grace.” — St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Story of a Soul, ch. 10, 1897 (On this theme: verse 17)
- “Let your actions never belie your words.” — St. Jerome, Letter 52 to Nepotian, 394 (On this theme: verse 22)

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 2: The word temptation, in this epistle, is sometimes taken for trials by afflictions or persecutions, as in this place: at other times, it is to be understood, tempting, enticing, or drawing others into sin.
- Verse 18: That is, a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Wed, Jun 30, 2027 (computed): Wednesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time — Alleluia, James 1:18
- Sat, Jul 24, 2027 (computed): Saturday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time — Alleluia, James 1:21bc
- Mon, Jul 26, 2027 (computed): Sts. Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary — Alleluia, James 1:18
- Sun, Aug 29, 2027 (computed): Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time — Second Reading, James 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27; Alleluia, James 1:18

6 more dates through December 31, 2028, in the [liturgical calendar](https://blessbible.app/calendar/).

Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).