James 1:17

א*B have the curious error τροπῆς�.

17. πᾶσα δόσις, κ.τ.λ. Note the hexameter rhythm here, πᾶσα … τέλειον; for similar instances see Hebrews 12:13; John 4:35.

δόσις, strictly an act of giving. Comp. Philippians 4:15 οὐδεμία μοι ἐκκλησία ἐκοινώνησεν εἰς λόγον δόσεως καὶ λήψεως, where, as Bp Light-foot notes, δόσεως καὶ λήψεως are used in the technical sense of ‘credit and debit.’ In the classics δόσις appears to signify the thing given, a gift, according to the lexicons, but in many of the examples quoted the active sense is still apparent, e.g. Hom. Od. VI. 208, δόσις δʼ ὀλίγη τε, φίλη τε, δόσις may well signify a giving rather than a gift, and this original and proper signification gives a real distinction between δόσις and δώρημα, which is lost if δόσις is rendered ‘a gift’ and becomes synonymous with δώρημα. δόσις is the act or mode of giving, which may be right or wrong, and δώρημα is the gift itself.

The position of ἀγαθή and τέλειον gives the force of an adverbial clause; if it be good or perfect it is a divine gift.

ἄνωθέν ἐστιν. This is rightly regarded as the predicate rather than ἄνωθέν ἐστιν καταβαῖνον. See however Winer, III. xlv. 5, where the second view is supported. ἄνωθεν from above, from heaven. See ch. James 3:15; James 3:17 and John 3:31; John 19:11, and comp. Colossians 3:1 τὰ ἄνω ζητεῖτε. Philo de Profug. T. r. p. 571. 2 speaks of σοφίαν ἄνωθεν ὀμβρηθεῖσαν�ʼ οὐρανοῦ.

τοῦ πατρὸς τῶν φώτων, the Father of lights. Primarily perhaps the Creator of the heavenly bodies, but also in a wider sense Father and Creator of light in all its manifestations; Giver of all gifts, spiritual, intellectual and moral, beauty of nature and excellence of art. For this use of the plural denoting the parts of which a whole is made up, comp. προφυλάττεσωαι ψύχη ἢ θάλπη, attacks of cold and heat, Xen. Mem. I. 4. 13. So in Latin: artes, Art in its various forma, works of art; regna the various elements in the regnum &c.

Although the expression τοῦ πατρὸς τῶν φώτων cannot be precisely parallelled, the association of light with the idea of God may be abundantly illustrated: the first creative word of God is “Let there be light,” Genesis 1:3; comp. Isaiah 45:6-7 “I am Jehovah, there is none else, that form light and create darkness”: ἐγώ ὁ κατασκευάσας φῶς καὶ ποιήσας σκότος. So in the manifestation of Jehovah the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the son shall be sevenfold as the light of seven days, Isaiah 30:26. Comp. also ἐν τῷ φωτί σου ὀψόμεθα φῶς, Psalms 35:9; σὺ κατηρτίσω ἥλιον καὶ σελήνην, Psalms 73:16; καὶ�, Malachi 4:2. In 1 John 1:5 God is absolutely φῶς, and in Hebrews 1:3 Christ is regarded as the effulgence (ἀπαύγασμα) from the Father. So in Wis 7:26 σοφία is described as being ἀπαύγασμα φωτὸς�.

παρʼ ᾦ οὐκ ἔνι π., with whom there is no possibility of change. Lit. ‘there is no room for.’ See Lightfoot on Galatians 3:28, who agrees with Winer (P. II. § xiv. p. 96) that ἔνι is not a contraction for ἔνεστι, but a form of ἐν or ἐνί with the accent thrown back as ἕπι, πάρα, &c. See also Colossians 3:11.

παραλλαγή, transmission from one condition to another, change, as π. κάλλους πρὸς αἶσχος, Arr. Epict. II. 23. 32. So here perhaps simply change from light to darkness, in which case the predominant thought both in this and the following expression would be absolute brightness, the negation of darkness—rather than absolute immutability, the negation of change. The context of the passage however suggests that παραλλαγή may be here used in a scientific sense, or at any rate in a way suggestive of the scientific term parallax. It is true that no instance is cited of such a use of παραλλαγή before the date of this Epistle, but neither is there an instance cited of παράλλαξις used in this sense earlier than Proclus, who, c. A.D. 440, wrote a paraphrase on a work of the astronomer Ptolemy (fl. A.D. 139), and the Modern Greek term for parallax appears to be παραλλαγή, not παράλλαξις. See Sophocles, Modern Greek Lexicon sub voc. This may represent a very ancient usage.

Parallax “may be defined in the most general way as the difference between the directions of a body as seen from two different points,” or, “apparent change in position produced by movement of the earth.” Newcomb’s Popular Astronomy, pp. 165 and 206. “The parallax of the sun was calculated, though erroneously, by Aristarchns c. 250 B.C. and Hipparchus 162–127 B.C., a calculation adopted by Ptolemy and adhered to for twelve centuries.” Young’s Text-Book of General Astronomy, § 666. The thought therefore would be familiar in St James’ tune. Moreover he was writing to men living in regions where astronomy had flourished from a remote antiquity. That astronomical phrases were known to the Greek-speaking Jew in the post-exile period appears from various passages in the LXX. αὐτὸς γάρ μοι ἔδωκεν τῶν ὄντων γνῶσιν�, ἀρχὴν καὶ τέλος καὶ μεσότητα χρόνων, τροπῶν�, ἐνιαυτῶν κύκλους καὶ�, Wisdom of Solomon, Wis 7:17; καὶ καθʼ ὥραν γεννημάτων ἡλίου τροπῶν καὶ�, Deuteronomy 33:14; ἐπίστασαι δὲ τροπὰς οὐρανοῦ, ἢ τὰ ὑπʼ οὐρανὸν ὁμοθυμαδὸν γινόμενα; Job 38:33.

In the Book of Enoch, ch. lxxi., there is an elaborate treatise on the laws and movements of the heavenly bodies, and the expression ‘Father of the lights’ finds a parallel in such phrases as: ‘The seasons, the years, and the days, Uriel shewed me; the angel whom the Lord of glory appointed over all the luminaries of heaven in heaven, and in the world,’ &c. ch. lxxiv.
If this view of the meaning of παραλλαγή be accepted, the expression would indicate the immutability of the Eternal Father, and the thought would be intensified by the results of modern science, according to which “the apparent displacement of the fixed stars, due to parallax, is so minute as to elude our investigation.” The παραλλαγή of the stars indeed is incalculable; with the Father of the lights παραλλαγή is inconceivable.

It is difficult to decide with certainty between these two possible senses of παραλλαγή. It is in favour of the first that the same thought of light and darkness would be retained in both expressions—παραλλαγή and τροπῆς�. The second introduces the further thought of unchangeableness.

τροπή, turning or revolution, or perhaps the setting of a heavenly body. The genitive τροπῆς denotes occasion or cause.

ἀποσκίασμα is the shadow projected from one body on to another, or in any way caused by the movements of a body.

Hence τροπῆς� is either (1) the shadow of night caused by the rotation of the earth, or, in popular phrase, by the setting of the sun (comp. οὔθʼ ὁπότʼ ἂν στείχῃσι πρὸς οὐρανὸν� | οὔθʼ ὅτʼ ἂν ἂψ ἐπὶ γαῖαν�ʼ οὐρανόθεν προτράπηται· | ἀλλʼ ἐπὶ νὺξ ὀλοὴ τέταται δειλοῖσι βροτοῖσιν, Od. XI. 17–19; τροπαὶ ἠελίοιο, ib. xv. 404, which Eustathius interprets of the west, τὰ δυτικὰ μέρη, the region of sunset): or (2) the shadow of eclipse caused by the revolution of a planet or its moons: a far more frequent occurrence in some parts of the celestial system than in the experience of our own planet: e.g. “The inner satellite of Jupiter and also the two next inside of it are eclipsed at every revolution, i.e. once in every eighteen hours,” Newcomb’s Practical Astronomy, p. 210. The created luminaries suffer eclipse by projected shadow or darkness by turning from the source of light: with the Father of lights there is absolutely undimmed and continuous splendour: “the shadows vanish in the light of light.” Tennyson.

Schleusner, following some of the Greek interpreters, takes ἀποσκίασμα as equivalent to ἴχνος, and renders it ne levissimum quidem mutationis vestigium, ‘not a trace or vestige of change.’ There is however no authority for this use of the word ἀποσκίασμα, and by this rendering the important conception of darkness or overshadowing, as a defect in the mundane luminaries, is lost. So also O. L. renders modicum obumbrationis, vicissitudinis obumbratio.