--- title: "James: Summary & All 5 Chapters · Bless" url: https://blessbible.app/bible/james/ description: "The Letter of James, a wisdom letter in 5 chapters. Bp. Challoner’s summary of all 5 chapters, and the full text free." --- New Testament # The Letter of James The Letter of James is the twentieth of the 27 books of the New Testament: 5 chapters and 108 verses. [Start reading: James 1](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/1/) [1](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/1/) [2](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/2/) [3](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/3/) [4](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/4/) [5](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/5/) ## About James About James · Wisdom letter James is the New Testament's wisdom book: short, blunt paragraphs on trials, favoritism toward the rich, the untamable tongue, quarrels, presumption about tomorrow, and withheld wages. Tradition identifies the author as James, the brother of the Lord and leader of the Jerusalem church, writing to Jewish believers scattered abroad. It was written to demolish the idea that faith can live without works — faith without works is dead — and its instruction that the sick call the presbyters for anointing grounds a sacrament of the Church. *James in Bless* | | | |---|---| | Testament | New Testament — book 20 of 27, 66 of 73 in the Bible | | Canon | Protocanonical (in every Christian canon) | | Chapters | 5 | | Verses | 108, as Bless numbers them | | Latin | Clementine Vulgate, every chapter | | Bp. Challoner | Summaries of all 5 chapters · 6 notes | | Catechism | 24 paragraphs cite it | Chapter by chapter ## All 5 chapters, *in brief.* Bishop Richard Challoner’s summary of each chapter, from his revision of the Douay-Rheims (1749–52). Open a chapter for the full text. 1. ### [James 1](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/1/) 27 verses 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. 2. ### [James 2](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/2/) 26 verses Against respect of persons. The danger of transgressing one point of the law. Faith is dead without works. 3. ### [James 3](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/3/) 18 verses Of the evils of the tongue. Of the difference between the earthly and heavenly wisdom. 4. ### [James 4](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/4/) 17 verses The evils that flow from yielding to concupiscence and being friends to this world. Admonitions against pride, detraction and the like. 5. ### [James 5](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/5/) 20 verses A woe to the rich that oppress the poor. Exhortations to patience and to avoid swearing. Of the anointing the sick, confession of sins and fervour in prayer. Bp. Richard Challoner · chapter summaries In the comments ## What the saints *said.* 10 quotations from 10 saints linked to passages of James in Bless. Each names the work it comes from. [St. Gregory the Great](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-gregory-the-great/) · on [James 2:26](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/2/#v26) On this verse > The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great things. But when it ceases to act, it ceases to exist. Homilies on the Gospels, 30, c. 591 [St. Catherine of Siena](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-catherine-of-siena/) · on [James 1:12](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/1/#v12) On this theme > Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring. Letter to Raymond of Capua, 1375 [St. Leo the Great](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-leo-the-great/) · on [James 1:12](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/1/#v12) On this theme > Virtue is nothing without the trial of temptation, for there is no conflict without an enemy, no victory without strife. Sermon 22 on the Nativity, c. 441 [St. Thérèse of Lisieux](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-therese-of-lisieux/) · on [James 1:17](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/1/#v17) On this theme > Everything is grace. Story of a Soul, ch. 10, 1897 [St. Jerome](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-jerome/) · on [James 1:22](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/1/#v22) On this theme > Let your actions never belie your words. Letter 52 to Nepotian, 394 [St. Ignatius of Loyola](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-ignatius-of-loyola/) · on [James 2:17](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/2/#v17) On this theme > Love ought to manifest itself in deeds rather than in words. Spiritual Exercises, 230, 1548 ### 4 more, on the chapter pages - [James 2:17](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/2/#v17) St. Vincent de Paul - [James 4:8](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/4/#v8) St. Ambrose - [James 4:8](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/4/#v8) St. Isidore of Seville - [James 5:20](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/5/#v20) St. Rose of Lima Coming up ## Read at *Mass.* From October 29, 2026 to October 28, 2027, James is read at the principal Mass on 8 days in the US calendar. The next 8 readings: | Date | Celebration | Reading | Citation | |---|---|---|---| | [Wed, Jun 30, 2027](https://blessbible.app/calendar/2027/06/30/) computed | Wednesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time | Alleluia | [James 1:18](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/1/) | | [Sat, Jul 24, 2027](https://blessbible.app/calendar/2027/07/24/) computed | Saturday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time | Alleluia | [James 1:21bc](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/1/) | | [Mon, Jul 26, 2027](https://blessbible.app/calendar/2027/07/26/) computed | Sts. Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary | Alleluia | [James 1:18](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/1/) | | [Sun, Aug 29, 2027](https://blessbible.app/calendar/2027/08/29/) computed | Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time | Second Reading | [James 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/1/) | | [Sun, Aug 29, 2027](https://blessbible.app/calendar/2027/08/29/) computed | Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time | Alleluia | [James 1:18](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/1/) | | [Sun, Sep 5, 2027](https://blessbible.app/calendar/2027/09/05/) computed | Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time | Second Reading | [James 2:1-5](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/2/) | | [Sun, Sep 12, 2027](https://blessbible.app/calendar/2027/09/12/) computed | Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time | Second Reading | [James 2:14-18](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/2/) | | [Sun, Sep 19, 2027](https://blessbible.app/calendar/2027/09/19/) computed | Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time | Second Reading | [James 3:16—4:3](https://blessbible.app/bible/james/3/) | Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish. [Previous book The Letter to the Hebrews](https://blessbible.app/bible/hebrews/) [Next book The First Letter of Peter](https://blessbible.app/bible/1-peter/)