James 4:5

the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? The words present a two-fold difficulty: (1) They are quoted as Scripture, and yet no such words are found either in the Canonical or even in the Apocryphal Books of the Old Testament. (2) It is by no means clear what they mean in themselves, or what is their relation to the context. If we can determine the latter point, it may, perhaps, help us in dealing with the former, (a) The better MSS., it may be noted, to begin with, give a different reading of the first words: The Spirit which he planted (or made to dwell) in us. If we adopt this reading, it makes it all but absolutely certain that what is predicated of the Spirit must be good, and not, as the English version suggests, evil. (b) The Greek word for "lusteth" conveys commonly a higher meaning than the English, and is rendered elsewhere by "longing after" (Romans 1:11; Philippians 1:8; Philippians 2:26; 2 Corinthians 9:14), or "earnestly desiring" (2 Corinthians 5:2), or "greatly desiring" (2 Timothy 1:4). New Testament usage is accordingly in favour of giving the word such a meaning here. The verb has no object, but it is natural to supply the pronoun "us." Taking these datawe get as the true meaning of the words, The Spirit which He implanted yearns tenderly over us. (c) The words that remain, "to envy," admit of being taken as with an adverbial force. "In a manner tending to envy," enviously. The fact that "envy" is elsewhere in the New Testament and elsewhere condemned as simply evil, makes its use here somewhat startling. But the thought implied is that the strongest human affection shews itself in a jealousy which is scarcely distinguishable from "envy." We grudge the transfer to another of the affection which we claim as ours. We envythe happiness of that other. In that sense St James says that the Spirit, implanted in us, yearns to make us wholly His and is satisfied with no divided allegiance. He simply treats the Greek word for "envy" as other writers treated the word "jealousy," which though commonly viewed as evil, was yet treated at times as a parable of the purest spiritual affection (2 Corinthians 11:2; Galatians 4:17-18). The root-idea of the passage is accordingly identical with that of the jealousy of God over Israel as His bride (Jeremiah 3:1-11; Ezekiel 16; Hosea 2:3), of His wrath when the bride proved faithless. Those who had been addressed as "adulteresses" (James 4:4), were forgetting this. All that they read of the love or jealousy of God was to them as an idle tale. For "in vain" read idly, emptily.

There remains the question, in what sense does St James give these words as a quotation from "the Scripture"? No words at all like them in form are found anywhere in the Old Testament, and we have to suppose either (1) that they were cited from some lost book that never found a place in the Hebrew Canon, a supposition, which, though not absolutely impossible, is yet in a very high degree unlikely; or, which seems the more probable explanation, that St James having in his mind the passages above referred to, and many others like them, and finding them too long for quotation, condensed them into one brief pregnant form, which gave the essence of their meaning. A like manner of quoting as Scripture what we do not find in any extant book, is found in Clement of Rome (c. 46), "It has been written, -Cleave to the saints, for they who cleave to them shall be sanctified." " As points of detail it may be noted (1) that the Greek word for "yearning" or "longing" occurs in the LXX. version of Deuteronomy 32:11, and is followed in James 4:13-17 by an account of the manner in which the love so shewn had been turned to jealousy by the sins of Israel; and (2) that Genesis 6:5, as in the LXX., "My spirit shall not abide for ever with men," may have suggested the "indwelling" of which the first member of the sentence speaks.

I have given, what seems on the whole, the most tenable explanation of a passage which is admitted on all hands to be one of extreme difficulty. It does not seem desirable to discuss other interpretations at any length, but two or three may be very briefly noticed. (1) The words have been rendered "The Spirit (i. e. the Holy Spirit) that dwelleth in us lusteth against envy," the contrast being assumed to be parallel to that between the works of the Spirit and those of the flesh in Galatians 5:17. There is no sufficient authority, however, for giving this meaning to the preposition. (2) The "spirit" has been referred to man's corrupt will, as "lusting to envy," in its bad sense, but the description of the Spirit as "implanted" or "dwelling" in us, is against this view. (3) In concurrence with the last interpretation, the question "Do ye think that the Scripture speaks in vain?" has been referred to what precedes the statement, that the friendship of the world is enmity with God; but this is at variance with the usual way in which quotations from the Old Testament are introduced in the New.