James 3:1-12. Sins of Speech, and their condemnation 1. _be not many masters_ Better, "_do not_ BECOME, or DO NOT GET INTO THE WAY OF BEING _many_ TEACHERS." The English word "master," though perhaps conveying the idea of a "schoolmaster" in the sixteenth century, and therefore used in all the versi... [ Continue Reading ]
_we offend all_ The word is the same as that in ch. James 2:10. See note there. _a perfect man …_ One who has attained the fulness of moral growth, as in 1 Corinthians 14:20; Hebrews 5:14, the same word denotes that of physical growth. Control of speech is named, not as in itself constituting perfe... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold, we put bits in the horses" mouths_ The thought of man's power over brute creatures and natural forces, and of his impotence in the greater work of self-government, present a singular parallelism to that of the well-known chorus in the _Antigone_of Sophocles. (332 350): Many the forms of li... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold also the ships_ General as the thought is, we may perhaps connect it, as we have done ch. James 1:6, with personal recollections of storms on the Galilean lake. It will be seen that this also has its counterpart in Sophocles. The two images are brought together by a writer more within St Jam... [ Continue Reading ]
_and boasteth great things_ The Greek verb is a compound word, which does not occur elsewhere, but is used not unfrequently by Philo. The fact is not without interest, as indicating, together with the parallelisms just referred to, St James's probable acquaintance with that writer. _how great a mat... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity_ The last words are in apposition with the subject, not the predicate, of the sentence. The tongue is described as emphatically THAT WORLD we should perhaps say, that _microcosm_ OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS. As uttering all evil thoughts and desires, no element... [ Continue Reading ]
_every kind of beasts_ Better, EVERY NATURE. This was, probably, intended by the translators, as being the old meaning of the word "kind," as in the "kindly fruits" ("natural products") of the Litany. So Chaucer, "A beautie that cometh not _of kinde_," _Rom. of Rose_, 2288, i. e. that is not natural... [ Continue Reading ]
_but the tongue can no man tame_ There is a special force in the Greek tense for "tame", which expresses not habitual, but momentary action. St James had learnt, by what he saw around him, and yet more, it may be, by personal experience, that no powers of the "nature of man" were adequate for this p... [ Continue Reading ]
_Therewith bless we God, even the Father …_ Many of the better MSS. give "the Lord" instead of "God". The fact dwelt on comes in to illustrate the strange inconsistency, even of men who professed faith in God, in their use of speech. General as the words are, they pointed, we may believe, especially... [ Continue Reading ]
_these things ought not so to be_ The verb, strictly. speaking, denotes not so much a state, as the coming into a state: _these things ought not to occur in this way_.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Doth a fountain_ The Greek gives the article, THE FOUNTAIN, as more emphatically generalising the question. _send forth at the same place_ Both verb and noun in the Greek are more vivid. Our word SPURT or GUSH, if it could be used transitively, would answer to the former; our MOUTH, or "source", o... [ Continue Reading ]
_Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries?_ The comparison here also has an eminently local character. The court-yard of well-nigh every house had its vine and fig-tree (2 Kings 18:31). The Mount of Olives supplied the other feature. The idea, as a whole, is parallel to that of Matthew 7:16... [ Continue Reading ]
The false Wisdom and the true 13. _Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you?_ The adjective corresponding to "endued with knowledge" (literally KNOWING or _understanding_) is not found elsewhere in the New Testament, but occurs in the LXX. of Deuteronomy 1:13; Deuteronomy 1:15; Deuteron... [ Continue Reading ]
_But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts_ Better, _envy and_ RIVALRY. The latter substantive, formed from a word which means a "day-labourer", expresses primarily the temper of competition that characterised the class, and then more generally, faction and party-spirit of any kind. It... [ Continue Reading ]
_This wisdom descendeth not from above_ St James returns to the thought of chap. James 1:5, that true wisdom was the gift of God, coming, like every other good and perfect gift, from above (ch. James 1:17). But this was not "the wisdom" of which the "many teachers" of the party of the Circumcision w... [ Continue Reading ]
_envying and strife_ Better, as before, ENVY AND RIVALRY. See note on James 3:14. _there is confusion and every evil work_ On the first word see note on James 3:8. It describes here the chaotic turbulence of such an assembly as that indicated in the preceding verse. Comp. Proverbs 26:28, where the... [ Continue Reading ]
_But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable_ The sequence is that of thought, not of time. It is not meant, i. e. that purity is an earlier stage of moral growth in wisdom than peace, but that it is its foremost attribute. The "purity" indicated is especially that of chastity of... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace_ It is commonly said that "the fruit of righteousness" means "the fruit which is righteousness." The analogy of a like structure, however, in Luke 3:8 ("worthy fruits of repentance"), Ephesians 5:9 ("the fruit of the Spirit"), and other passages, is i... [ Continue Reading ]