James 3:13-18

13–18.

BUT BESIDES THE EFFECT AND DANGERS OF SPEECH, THE TOPIC OF TEACHING SUGGESTS ANOTHER POINT—THE POSSESSION AND USE OF WISDOM. HENCE THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE TRUE WISDOM AND THE FALSE WISDOM

13–18. Another line of thought, also springing from the topio of teaching (James 3:1), is the right use of wisdom and knowledge (James 3:13), contrasted with a perverted use of them (James 3:14). Then follows a description of the false wisdom (James 3:15-16) and the true wisdom (James 3:17-18).

For a further treatment of σοφία in its N.T. sense, and of the distinction here drawn by St James between ἡ ἄνωθεν σοφία and that designated as ἐπίγειος, ψυχική, δαιμονιώδης, see Introduction, p. xxxviii. Here it will suffice to say that ἡ ἄνωθεν σοφία is that beautiful conception of wisdom or Chokmah, which had sprung up among the Jews after the return from Babylon, and which is embodied chiefly in the books of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Proverbs and Job. By the contrasted earthly σοφία appears to be meant not Hellenic or Græco—Roman philosophy, degraded though it was on its practical side at this epoch, but rather the principles of the Zealots—that conception of the kingdom of God and consequent plan of life which Josephus himself terms a φιλοσοφία (Ant. XVIII. 1. 1) and which by its passionate and misguided zeal and mundane view of the destiny of Israel precisely answers to this description.