05_Biblica_Aletti_Layout 1 01/04/14 12:04 Pagina 90 90 JEAN-NOËL ALETTI tator to base his entire interpretation on the arrangement is T. Kot. The dispositio that he thinks must be accepted is concentric, in its entirety and in its sub-units, as the following chart indicates 8: 14 faith without works 15 the brother lacking food Faith without works vv. 14-18 16 one says to them, Go in peace ! 17 without giving the things needed 18 you who have faith, I who have works Resembling demons v. 19 20 faith without works = barren 21 Abraham allusion to Gen 22,9-10 22 you see that faith = made perfect by works Works of faith vv. 20-26 23 citation of Gen 15,6 24 you see that justification = by works 25 Rahab allusion to Jos 2,9-11 26 faith without works = death Thus, the thought turns upon v. 19, the semantic center of the pas- sage, which is for this reason entitled “Works and Demonic Faith” 9. What is striking about this reading is its failure to take into consid- eration the particles that denote the argumentation. If it is true that the adversative coordinating conjunction in v. 20 (de,) can indicate the beginning of an opposing unit in v. 19, it is clear, on the other hand, that v. 18 cannot conclude the unit that would be constituted by vv. 14-18: a conclusion never begins with an adversative particle (in Greek, avlla,), and, what is more, v. 18 introduces the proofs con- stituted by the examples in vv. 19-25: the imperative “show me” (deixon moi) and the future “I will show you” (soi dei,xw) clearly /, indicate that proofs are going to be furnished and that they will be examples 10. In short, v. 18 begins an argumentative unit. And if, as all admit, Jas 2,14-26 is an argumentation, then the latter is the cri- 8 I am using, by reducing it to its simplest expression, the summary table of KOT, Jacques, 112. 9 KOT, Jacques, 103. 10 In Greek, paradei,gmata. One will note, of course, that the Greek root is also the same.