James 4:4

The omission of μοιχοὶ καί is supported by א* AB and some important versions. Old Latin fornicatores, Vulgate adulteri. The words are included in אcKLP and later authorities.

4. μοιχαλίδες, for the omission of μοιχοὶ καί see crit. notes. The address is still to men. But the feminine form and the abruptness of the appeal indicate scorn and indignation. Comp. the Homeric expression: Ἀχαιΐδες οὐκέτʼ Ἀχαιοί, Il. II. 235, and Virgil’s “O vere Phrygiae neque enim Phryges,” Aen. IX. 617. The feminine μοιχαλίδες is accounted for partly because the image present to St James’ mind is that which is most frequent in the O.T., the wife’s unfaithfulness to her husband, partly because the lapse into pleasure even though accompanied by crimes of violence is essentially effeminate. It is for this association of sins that the prophet Amos rebukes the women of Israel—“the kine of Bashan,” δαμάλεις τῆς Βασανίτιδος, Amos 4:1 f. Juvenal too has noted the same moral fact, softness and cruelty go together: Juv. Sat. VI. 219 ff., Pone crucem servo, &c. Tischendorf ad loc. illustrates this use of the feminine form by the word ποταγωγίδες employed by Aristotle and Plutarch in the sense of μηνυταί, informers, who were probably men not women.

οἴδατε, note the late form here and comp. ἴστε, James 1:19.

ἡ φιλία τοῦ κόσμου ἔχθρα τοῦ θεοῦ ἐστίν. Comp. Matthew 6:24 οὐδεὶς δύναται δυσὶ κυρίοις δουλεύειν … οὐ δύνασθε θεῷ δουλεύειν καὶ μαμωνᾷ, Matthew 12:30 ὁ μὴ ὢν μετʼ ἐμοῦ κατʼ ἐμοῦ ἐστίν, καὶ ὁ μὴ συνάγων μετ ἐμοῦ σκορπίζει, Romans 8:7 τὸ φρόνημα τῆς σαρκὸς ἔχθρα εἰς θεόν … οἱ δὲ ἐν σαρκὶ ὄντες θεῷ�.

ὃς ἐὰν οὖν βουληθῇ κ.τ.λ. Even the very wish for the world’s friendship constitutes enmity with God. It is a thought essentially akin to the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount: see especially Matthew 5:22; Matthew 5:28.