ff. These verses reveal an appalling state of moral depravity in these _Diaspora_ congregations; strife, self-indulgence, lust, murder, covetousness, adultery, envy, pride and slander are rife; the conception of the nature of prayer seems to have been altogether wrong among these people, and they ap... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐπιθυμεῖτε καὶ οὐκ ἔχετε …: It must be confessed that these verses are very difficult to understand; we have, on the one hand, lusting and coveting, murdering and fighting; and, on the other hand, praying. Murdering and fighting are the means used in order to obtain that which is coveted; yet in the... [ Continue Reading ]
αἰτεῖτε … αἰτεῖσθε : There does not seem to be any difference in meaning between the active and middle here: “If the middle is really the stronger word, we can understand its being brought in just where an effect of contrast can be secured, while in ordinary passages the active would carry as much w... [ Continue Reading ]
μοιχαλίδες : the weight of evidence is strongly in favour of this reading as against μοιχοὶ καὶ μοιχαλίδες. The depraved state of morals to which the whole section bears witness must in part at least have been due to the wickedness and co-operation of the women, so that there is nothing strange in t... [ Continue Reading ]
ἡ γραφὴ λέγει πρὸς φθόνον …: this attributing of personality to Scripture is paralleled, as Lightfoot points out (Galatians 3:8), by the not uncommon Jewish formula of reference מה ראה “Quid vidit”. According to Lightfoot the singular γραφὴ in the N.T. “always means a _particular passage_ of Scriptu... [ Continue Reading ]
μείζονα δὲ δίδωσιν χάριν : these words further emphasise the developed doctrine of the Spirit referred to above; they point to the nature of divine grace, which is almost illimitable. These verses, 5, 6, witness in a striking way to the Christian doctrine of grace, and herein breathe a different spi... [ Continue Reading ]
ὑποτάγητε οὖν τῷ θεῷ : _Cf._ Hebrews 12:9, οὐ πολὺ μᾶλλον ὑποταγησόμεθα τῷ πατρὶ τῶν πνευμάτων καὶ ζήσομεν. It is not a question of subjection either to God or the devil, but rather one of the choice between self-will and God's will; it is the proud spirit that has to be curbed. ἀντίστητε δὲ τῷ διαβ... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐγγίσατε τῷ θεῷ, καὶ ἐγγίσει ὑμῖν : here, again, we have what to Christian ears sounds rather like a reversal of the order of things; we should expect the order to be that expressed in such words as, “Ye did not choose me, but I chose you” (John 15:16). The words before us seem to be a quotation (in... [ Continue Reading ]
ταλαιπωρήσατε : ἅπ. λεγ. in N.T. _cf._ Micah 2:4; Jeremiah 4:13; “undergo hardship”; it was a recognised tenet in Jewish theology that self-inflicted punishment of any kind was a means of reconciliation, _e.g._, in _Mechilta_, 76 _a_, the words of Psalms 89:32 (33 in Heb.), _I will visit their trans... [ Continue Reading ]
Μὴ καταλαλεῖτε ἀλλήλων, ἀδελφοί, etc.: this speaking against one another must be taken together with the judging of one another; it is a question of deciding who is and who is not observing the _Torah_; some of the brethren were evidently arrogating to themselves the right of settling what did and w... [ Continue Reading ]
The subject of these verses, speaking against and judging others, is the same as that of the section James 2:1-13; they follow on quite naturally after James 4:12-13 of that chapter, while they have nothing to do with the context in which they now stand. They constitute a weaving together of several... [ Continue Reading ]
εἷς ἐστιν νομοθέτης καὶ κριτής; the words are intended to show the arrogant impertinence of those who were judging their neighbours on a misinterpretation of the Law. The word νομοθέτης does not occur elsewhere in the N.T., though νομοθετέω and νομοθεσία do; _cf._ Psalms 27:11. ὁ δυνάμενος σῶσαι καὶ... [ Continue Reading ]
Ἄγε : this expression of disapproval occurs only here and in James 5:1 in the N.T.; although it is used here and there in the Septuagint, it is the rendering of different Hebrew words; one may compare, though it is not the equivalent of ἄγε, the Aramaic expression of disapproval ייא לכון (“Ah you!”... [ Continue Reading ]
James 4:13-17 form an independent section entirely unconnected with what precedes or follows. The section is very interesting as giving a picture of the commercial _Diaspora_ -Jew. The Jews of the Dispersion had, from the outset, to give up agricultural pursuits; since for the most part they congreg... [ Continue Reading ]
οἵτινες οὐκ ἐπίστασθε τὸ τῆς αὔριον : “Ye are they that know not …”; it is the contrast between the ignorance of men, with the consequent incertitude of all that the morrow may bring forth, and the knowledge of God in accordance with Whose will (_cf._ ἐὰν ὁ κύριος θελήσῃ in the next verse) all thing... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀντὶ τοῦ λέγειν ὑμᾶς : “A classical writer would rather have said δέον λέγειν or οἵτινες βέλτιον ἂν εἷπον ” (Mayor). ἐὰν ὁ κύριος θελήσῃ : _Cf. Berachoth_, 17 _a_, “It is revealed and known before Thee that our will is to do Thy will” (quoted by Taylor, _op. cit._, p. 29); _cf._ John 7:17, ἐάν τις θ... [ Continue Reading ]
νῦν δὲ : “but now,” _i.e._, as things are; _cf._ 1 Corinthians 14:6, νῦν δὲ, ἀδελφοί, ἐὰν ἔλθω … καυχᾶσθε ἐν ταῖς ἀλαζονίαις ὑμῶν : those vauntings were, of course, not on account of following out their own will in despite of the divine will, but because of the thoughtlessness which did not take God... [ Continue Reading ]
Although this verse may be regarded as standing independent of what has preceded, and as being in the form of a more or less inexact quotation, it is quite permissible to take it with what has gone before. Those to whom the words have been addressed had, to some extent, erred through thoughtlessness... [ Continue Reading ]