God’s being tempted, but of God’s tempting. Rev. gives this in margin. “Azeipaotos only here in New Testament.
Neither tempteth he (secpaver Se adtds). The A. V. fails to render avros: “ He himself tempteth no man.” So Rev.
14. Drawn away (é£eAKopevos). Only here in New Testa- ment. This and the following word are metaphors from hunt- ing and fishing. Drawn away, as beasts are enticed from a safecovert into a place beset with snares. Note the present participle, as indicating the progress of the temptation: “is being drawn away.”
Enticed (dedeafowevos). As a fish with bait. Also the present participle. See on 2 Pet. ii. 14.
15. The lust. Note the article, omitted in A. V. The peculiar lust of his own.
Hath conceived (cvAXaPodca). Lit., having conceived.
Bringeth forth (réxret). Metaphor of the mother. Rev., beareth.
When it is finished (azoreXeceica). Better, Rev., when it is full grown. Not when the course of a sinful life is com- pleted; but when sin has reached its full dévelopment.
Bringeth forth (azroxver). A different verb from the pre- ceding, bringeth forth. Rey. has rendered rixres, beareth, in order to avoid the repetition of bringeth forth. The verb is used by James only, here and at ver. 18. The image is inter- preted in twoways. Lither (1) Sin, figured as female, is already pregnant with death, and, when full grown, bringeth forth death (so Rev., and the majority of commentators). “ The har- lot, Lust, draws away and entices the man. The guilty union is committed by the will embracing the temptress: the con- sequence is that she beareth sin. . . . Then ¢he sin, that
730 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. L
particular sin, when grown up, herself, as if all along pregnant with it, bringeth forth death” (Alford). Or (2) Sin, figured as male, when it has reached maturity, becomes the begetter of death. So the Vulgate, generat, and Wyce., gendereth. I am inclined to prefer this, since the other seems somewhat forced. It has the high endorsement of Bishop Lightfoot. There is a suggestive parallel passage in the ‘‘ Agamemnon” of Aeschylus,
751-771:
“ There is a saying old, Uttered in ancient days, That human bliss, full grown, Genders, and dies not childless : And, for the coming race, Springs woe insatiate from prosperity. But I alone Cherish within my breast another thought. The impious deed Begets a numerous brood alike in kind; While households ruled by right inflexible Blossom with offspring fair. Insolence old In men depraved begetteth insolence, Which springs afresh from time to time As comes the day of doom, and fresh creates In Ate’s dismal halls Fierce wrath from light, Unhallowed Daring, fiend invincible, Unconquered, with its parents’ likeness stamped.”
The magnificent passage in Milton’s “ Paradise Lost,” ii., 760— 801, is elaborated from these verses of James.
17. The first words of this verse form a hexameter line, thus: Ilaca $0\cts aya\9} xai| wav $0\pnua rélNevov.
Such verses, or parts of verses, occur occasionally in the New Testament. Sometimes they are quotations from the Greek poets; sometimes the writer’s words unconsciously fall into metrical form. Poetical quotations are confined to Paul, Acts pvil, 28.5.) Corsxv. 33: Titi) 12,
Cu. I.] THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF JAMES. 731
Every good gift and every perfect gift (see Greek above). The statement that these gifts are from God is in pursuance of the idea that God does not tempt men to evil. The gifts of God are contrasted with the evil springing from man’s lust. Two words are used for gift. Adcvs occurs only here and Philip. iv. 15; there in an active sense; but here passive, as in Prov. xxi. 14 (Sept.). Aapnua is found Rom. v.16. It enlarges slightly upon the other word in emphasizing the gift as free, large, full ; an idea which is further developed in ver. 18, of his own will. The Rev., rather awkwardly, endeavors to bring out the distinction by the word boon, for which the American Revis- ers insist on retaining gift. Boon originally means a petition ; favor being a secondary and later sense, as of something given in response to a petition. The word is of Scandinavian origin, and the meaning favor seems to indicate a confusion with the Latin bonus, good; French, bon.