Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

James 1:26-27

Although these verses are organically connected with the preceding section, they are self-contained, and deal with another aspect of religion. While the earlier verses, 19 b 25, emphasise the need of doing as well as hearing, these speak of self-control in the matter of the tongue. At the same time it must be confessed that these verses would stand at least equally as well before James 3:1 ff. δοκεῖ : the danger of regarding the appearance of religion as sufficient was the greater inasmuch as it was characteristic of a certain type of “religious” Jew, cf. Matthew 6:1-2; Matthew 6:5; Matthew 6:16; it must not, however, be supposed that this represented the normal type; the fact that the need of reality in religion is so frequently insisted upon by the early Rabbis shows that their teaching in this respect was the same as that of this writer. θρησκός : Hatch, as quoted by Mayor, describes θρησκεία as “religion in its external aspect, as worship or as one mode of worship contrasted with another”; this agrees exactly with what has just been said. θρησκός does not occur elsewhere in the N.T. nor in the Septuagint. χαλιναγωγῶν : (B reads χαλινων). Not found elsewhere in the N.T. or in the Septuagint; χαλινός is used in Psalms 31 (Heb. 32):9 in the Septuagint, as well as in the versions of Aquila and Quinta; for the thought cf. Psalms 38 (Heb. 39):2, 140 (Heb. 141):3, though the word is not used in either of these last two passages. Mayor quotes the interesting passage from Hermas, Mand., xii. 1. ἐνδεδυμένος τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν τὴν ἀγαθὴν μισήσεις τὴν πονηρὰν ἐπιθυμίαν καὶ χαλιναγωγήσεις αὐτήν. γλῶσσαν ἑαυτοῦ; the reference is to the threefold misuse of the tongue, slander, swearing and impure speaking; see Ephesians 5:3-6.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

James 1:26-27

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