James 3:5

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 matter a little fire kindleth The form of the Greek is somewhat more emphatic. A little fire kindles how great a mass of timber. The word translated "matter" means primarily "a forest wood in growth;" and with this meaning, which is adopted in the Vulgate "silvam", the illustration would stand parallel to Homer's simile:

"As when a spark scarce seen will set ablaze

The illimitable forest."

Iliadii. 455.

So in Virgil, Georg. ii. 303, we have a fuller description of the spark which, dropped at hazard, kindles the bark, and the branches, and the foliage:

"And as in triumph seizes on the boughs,

And reigns upon the throne of pine-tree tops,

And wraps the forest in a robe of flame."

The word, however, had gradually passed into the hands of the metaphysicians, and like the Latin materia, which originally meant "timber" (a meaning still traceable in the name of Madeira, "the well-timberedisland"), had come to mean matter as distinct from form, and then passing back, with its modified meaning, into common use, had been used for a pile, or heap of stuff, or materials of any kind. On the whole then, while admitting the greater vividness of the Homeric similitude, St James is likely to have meant a mass of materials rather than a forest. Comp. Proverbs 16:27, and Sir 28:10, where we have exactly the same comparison. The Authorised Version may be accordingly received as not far wrong. Here again it may be noted that Philo employs the same similitude to illustrate the growth of goodness in the soul: "As the smallest spark will, if duly fanned, kindle a vast pyre, so is the least element of virtue capable of growth till the whole nature of the man glows with a new warmth and brightness," (Philo, de Migr. Abr.p. 407). But he also frequently uses the comparison in reference to the rapid extension of evil.