---
title: James 2:23
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/james-2-23/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/james-2-23.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: James 2:23
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# James 2:23

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called a friend of God.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "and the scripture was fulfilled that says: 'Abraham put faith in Jehovah, and it was counted to him as righteousness,' and he came to be called Jehovah's friend."

## JW Usage

Read as confirming the works-completion reading of 2:22 — Genesis 15:6 was "fulfilled" only when Abraham offered Isaac, so the original credit of righteousness was provisional until matched by a corresponding work. The Watchtower also leans on the verse to anchor the divine name in the New Testament: NT Greek manuscripts read theos ("God"), but the NWT inserts Jehovah here as a quotation of the Hebrew of Genesis 15:6.

## Protestant Usage

The verb plēroō — "fulfilled" — is the same word used when a prophecy is fulfilled by visible events. James is not saying Abraham's righteousness was credited at Genesis 22; he is saying the credit declared at Genesis 15:6 was visibly fulfilled, displayed, and confirmed when Abraham obeyed. The crediting precedes the obedience by decades. That order is fatal to any reading that makes the works contribute to the legal standing. Reformed preaching has always used Genesis 15:6 the way Paul does in Romans 4 and Galatians 3 — Abraham was justified by faith before circumcision, before the offering, before any work. James simply adds: and that faith was alive enough to show itself thirty years later.

## NWT Issue

The Greek text reads episteusen Abraam tō theō — "Abraham believed God" — and ends with philos theou — "God's friend." The NWT replaces theos with "Jehovah" in both places, even though the Tetragrammaton is not in any surviving Greek manuscript of James. The justification offered is that James is quoting Genesis 15:6 (Hebrew YHWH); the cost is that the ordinary reader cannot tell from the New Testament text where "Jehovah" is in the Greek and where it has been imported. The same translation policy is applied across the New Testament more than two hundred times.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [James 2:22-24 — 'Not by Faith Alone'](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/james2-22-completed-by-works.md) — eteleiōthē, pistei monon, and the vindication reading [Salvation]