That’s right! There’s no book of James in the original New Testament.

As a rule of thumb you could call the Old Testament the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament the Greek Scriptures. But in actuality, the Old Testament was written in four languages: Aramaic, Chaldean, Greek, and Hebrew. Plus, there are reasons to believe that the New Testament was first written in Hebrew then translated to Greek.

Nevertheless, the King James and all the other translations of the New Testament are based on Greek manuscripts and writings. Unfortunately, much was lost in the translations. In fact, over 1,000 errors occur in The King James translation, one being the book of “James”.

According to the Greek Bible, the book’s name is “Iakoboy” which is pronounced “Ya’akov”. Ya’akov is the Greek and Hebrew way of pronouncing the name ‘Jacob’. Thus, the book of James is really the book of Jacob.

There is a couple of theories on how this name change took place:

Theory #1: Some claim that as the word James was translated from language to language, or even its development within a language, its spelling and pronunciation often changed. Beyond the Greek and the Hebrew, this word went through several stages of the Latin language (i.e., Old Latin, New Latin, and Late Latin). There were further influences of the word through the tribes that overran Western Europe in the fourth and fifth centuries. In England the Anglos, Saxons, and Jutes overlaid their language on top of the Latin and Celtic (two dialects: Brythonic and Goidelic) amalgamation as they conquered much of England between the fifth and seventh centuries. Than the Norman/Vikings, overlaid their language upon all of the above during the eleventh and twelfth centuries!

In short, ‘something got lost in the translation’!

Theory #2: King James I was a Christian and wanted the Bible translated so that the common man could read and understand it. As a result, several contractors bid for the translation job. One, to top the others, said he would even name a book after the king (an offer the good king couldn’t refuse). So the king commissioned the contractor, authorizing the said version, thus it became the Authorized KJV we use today.

Comments: I sort of like the second theory! But bottom-line, the book of James is really the book of Jacob, which you can easily substantiate.

My Bible of choice happens to be the ‘Complete Jewish Bible’ by David H. Stern, which is comprised of both Old and New Testaments. Instead of the book of James it has the book of Ya’akov! I also like the ‘Complete Jewish Bible’ because it doesn’t tamper with the Hebrew names of people, places, and things.

The way I see it, if a Spanish family names their son Edwardo and the kid begins attended school in the US of A, the teacher doesn’t have the right to change the kid’s name to Edward because this is America! I can see kids calling him Edward or Eddie … but officially changing his name, No!

When you think about it, changing Jewish sounding names to English sounding names could have an anti-Semitic connotation.

One of the hardest truths I had to come to terms with was the precious name of Jesus! I’ve been asking for in..., closing prayers in..., and praising in the precious name of Jesus’ all my born-again life, to find out that that’s not His name. His name is really Yeshua!

I know; I know…if you’re anything like me and if hearing this for the first time you may find this news devastating! But, don’t take me at my word; check it out!

After getting over the initial shock I began ending some of my prayers in the name of Yeshua. I gradually worked my way up to around 50% of my prayers. Now I’m up to about 75% but to get to this point took around 5 years.

Edwin Beckford
December 2003