The Letter of James by McKnight Scot;

Author:McKnight, Scot;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL067000 Religion / Christian Theology / General
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

7.1.2. James’s Instruction (4:14–17)

Now that he has sketched the sin of presumption on the part of merchants, James begins his instruction (4:14–17). First, the span of life is not in our control (4:14); second, instead of the merchant living under the providence and guidance of the Lord (4:15), he is living in arrogance (4:16). Finally, James offers a dual conclusion that simultaneously warns and exhorts (4:17).

7.1.2.1. The Brevity of Life (4:14)

The merchants presume upon God for travel, safety, business, and profits. James counters their presumption with a stern reminder of the brevity of life, a reminder that evokes what he said in 1:9–11. Rhetorically James opens up with a word that leads to a suddenly incomplete thought, but the translations struggle to make it clear and readable English. The NRSV reads “Yet” and the TNIV “Why.” The Greek sentence, however, begins with the indefinite personal pronoun (masculine) “whoever.”28 But a verb does not follow—instead, James moves to “you do not even know what tomorrow will bring.” One might translate, “I don’t care who you are” or “Whoever you might be, it doesn’t matter …” because “you do not even know.…” C. F. D. Moule suggested the “whoever” functions here as a mild adversative: “whereas actually.”29

The merchants, in spite of their presumption, “do not even know what tomorrow will bring.” This translation is clear and is probably an accurate rendering of the Greek, but the Greek itself is messy. It begins with “you do not even know,” and this is the clear part. The verb is one of mental apprehension (epistamai, related to our word “epistemology”).30 Abraham trusted God “not knowing where he was going” (Heb 11:8), but the presumptuous merchants were not trusting God and still thought they knew where they were going, what they would do, and that they would profit. The grammar next becomes elliptical, and it is even possible that we are to read two clauses together: “You do not even know what your life will be tomorrow.” But, because so many early manuscripts add a “for” between “will bring” and “What is your life?” and because this early instinctual reading of the text functions at least as commentary, it is most likely that “What is your life?” is a separate sentence. That means we have to deal with “You do not even know what tomorrow will bring.” And the problem here is the Greek:

to

tēs

aurion

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