According to the dictionaries, ὁλόκληρος (cf. ὁλοκληρία), which appears
only one other time in the NT, means first ‘whole’ or ‘complete’, then ‘without
defect’ or ‘blameless’, although often one can scarcely distinguish the two
senses. The word, otherwise applied to this or that virtue, is a near synonym
of τέλειος. The LXX four
times uses ὁλόκληρος to translate שלם or מתים, words also translated by τέλειος, and Philo, Abr. 47, says that ‘the perfect one (τέλειος) is complete (ὁλόκληρος) from the beginning’. So the appearance of ὁλόκληρος and τέλειος together is expected, and it is otherwise
well-attested.
Originally ὁλόκληρος seems to have
had a physical application, and in Philo, Sacr.
33, and Josephus, Ant. 3.228, it
refers to sacrificial offerings. But Greek literature, including the LXX, shows
a transfer to moral excellence.
(Dale C. Allison Jr., A Critical and
Exegetical Commentary on The Epistle of James [International Critical
Commentary; New York: Bloomsbury, 2013], 158-59)
