Bitterness (πικρία)
‘Bitter’ means lit. [Note: it. literally, literature.] ‘biting’ (A. S. [Note: . S. Anglo-Saxon.] bîtan, ‘to bite’), and πικρός, ‘sharp’ (from the same root as pungo, ‘pike,’ ‘peak’), τ ὸ πικρόν, as that which has an acrid, pungent taste, is opposed to τ ὸ γλυκύ (James 3:11). In LXX [Note: XX Septuagint.] πικρία is often used to translate רֹאשׁ, a bitter and poisonous plant, which is always used figuratively. Moses says that the man or woman, family or tribe, that turns from Jahweh will be ‘a root that beareth gall and wormwood’ (ῥ ίζα ἄ νω φύουσα ἐ ν χολ ῇ κα ὶ πικρί ᾳ, Deuteronomy 29:18). There is an echo of this saying in Hebrews 12:15, where any member of the Church who introduces wrong doctrines or practices, and so leads others astray, becomes a ‘root of bitterness springing up’ (ῥ ίζα πικρίας ἄ νω φύουσα); and there may be another echo of it in Acts 8:23 (RVm [Note: Vm Revised Version margin.]), where Peter predicts that Simon Magus will ‘become gall (or a gall root) of bitterness’ (ε ἰ ς χολ ὴ ν πικρίας ὁ ρ ῶ σε ὄ ντα) by his evil influence over others, if he remains as he now is. but χολ ὴ ν πικρίας may be a genitive of apposition and the Apostle may mean that Simon is even now ‘in Bitterkeit, Bosheit, Feindseligkeit, wie in Galle’ (H. J. Holtzmann, Apostelgeschichte 3, 1901, ad loc.). In Romans 3:14 bitterness of speech is joined with cursing, and in Ephesians 4:31 πικρία is an inward disposition (cf. ζ ῆ λον πικρόν, James 3:14) which all Christians are to put away in order that they may be ‘kind one to another, tender-hearted.’
James Strahan.