Vincent's Word Studies in the NT

James 3:5

Boasteth great things [μ ε γ α λ α υ χ ε ι]. The best texts separate the compound, and read megala aujcei, of course with the same meaning. Aujcei, boasteth, only here in New Testament.

How great a matter a little fire kindleth [η λ ι κ ο ν π υ ρ η λ ι κ η ν υ λ η ν α ν α π τ ε ι]. The word ulh (only here in New Testament) means wood or a forest, and hence the matter or raw material of which a thing is made. Later, it is used in the philosophical sense of matter - "the foundation of the manifold" - opposed to the intelligent or formative principle nouv, mind. The authorized version has taken the word in one of its secondary senses, hardly the philosophical sense it would seem; but any departure from the earlier sense was not only needless, but impaired the vividness of the figure, the familiar and natural image of a forest on fire. So Homer :

"As when a fire Seizes a thick - grown forest, and the wind Drives it along in eddies, while the trunks Fall with the boughs amid devouring flames." Iliad, 11, 156.

Hence, Rev., rightly, " Behold how much wood or how great a forest is kindled by how small a fire.

This, too, is the rendering of the Vulgate : quam magnum silvam.

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Vincent's Word Studies in the NT

James 3:5

Old Testament

New Testament