James (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) by Dan G. McCartney

Author:Dan G. McCartney [McCartney, Dan G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL006070, REL006100
ISBN: 9781441206466
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2009-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

Additional Notes

3:1–12. Even more than in James 1, the literary flow of the beginning of James 3 is marked by a chain of catchwords that, though hardly noticeable in English translation, is conspicuous in Greek: πολλοί . . . πολλά (3:1–2); πταίομεν . . . πταίει (3:2); χαλιναγωγῆσαι . . . χαλινούς (3:2–3); μετάγομεν . . . μετάγεται (3:3–4); τηλικαῦτα . . . ἡλίκον . . . ἡλίκην (3:4–5); πῦρ . . . πῦρ . . . (3:5–6); φλογίζουσα . . . φλογιζομένη (3:6); φύσις . . . φύσει (3:7); δαμάζεται καὶ δεδάμασται . . . δαμάσαι (3:7–8). In addition, the phrase ὅλον τὸ σῶμα recurs in 3:2, 3, 6.

The apparent disjuncture of 3:1–2a from 3:2b–12 leads Dibelius (1975: 182) to suppose that 3:2b–12 originally existed separately as a treatise on the problems of control of the tongue, and that the redactor somewhat awkwardly put it here in the context of discussing why few should be teachers. But the catena noted above begins in 3:1, not 3:2b, and one ought not to impose literary criteria of Western logical arrangement on an Eastern Mediterranean document. As noted in the introduction and elsewhere, the structure, like that of 1 John and 2 Peter, is cyclothematic, not linear. Even if Dibelius is right, 3:2b–12 meant something to the final redactor, and it is this final contextual meaning of the extant document, not an “original” meaning of a hypothetical one, that we are seeking.

3:1. The negative particle μή negates the verb γίνεσθε, but it is placed before πολλοί to highlight it (MHT 3:287). The verb γίνεσθε is imperative and equivalent to the command “be” (see the commentary on 1:22–25). Hence, “Not many of you should be. . . .”

“Inasmuch as you know” translates the participle εἰδότες as causal. Compare Hort (1909: 67): “knowing as ye already do.” Presumably, it indicates knowledge that the church has as part of its tradition (cf. Rom. 5:3; 6:9; 1 Cor. 15:58; 2 Cor. 4:14; Eph. 6:8).

3:2. The word for “man” here (ἀνήρ) is the term commonly used to mean a male adult. Nevertheless, the opening conditionality “if someone” indicates that James is thinking of persons generally, not just adult males, and other uses of ἀνήρ in the letter confirm this (see the second additional note on 1:8).

3:2. Many important manuscripts (most notably א [original hand], C, and 33 [apparently]) read δυνάμενος instead of the preferable reading δυνατός. The meaning is virtually identical: having the power to control is the same as being able to control.

3:3. The reading εἰ δέ adopted here, as in NA27, is uncertainly attested, as also is the case with the variant reading ἴδε. Both ει δέ and ἴδε were pronounced similarly (though with different accentuation), which may account for the variation, and Mayor (1897: 104–6)[29] makes a strong case for the originality of ἴδε based on the reading ΕΙΔΕ ΓΑΡ in א (the γάρ supposedly indicating that ΕΙΔΕ was read as an imperative rather than as two words). However, ἴδε is never used elsewhere in James; he prefers the equivalent ἰδού (3:4, 5; 5:4, 7, 9, 11).

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