g—I1.
435
ο aA - ὕψει αὐτοῦ, 1Ο. ὃ δὲ "πλούσιος ἐν τῇ " ταπεινώσει ὶ αὐτοῦ, Stuy Matt.
ὡς "ἄνθος χόρτου" “ παρελεύσεται.
b—b Isa. xl. 6, 7; 1 Pet. i. 24; cf. Ps. cii. 4, 11; Job xiv. ο.
a απο XXill. 12. II. ἀνέτειλεν γὰρ ὃ ἥλιος z Jer. ix.23. a Cf. Heb.
X. 34. ο Cf.1 Cor. vii. 31.
Ίπιστει 137.
seek to interpret them without reading in something that is not there, especially as the writer (or writers) of this Epistle is not as a rule ambiguous in what he says; in fact, one of the characteristics of the Epistle is the straightforward, transparent way in which things are put. Regarded from this point of view, these verses simply contain a wholesome piece of advice to men to do their duty in that state of life unto which it shall please God to call them ; if the poor man becomes wealthy, there is nothing to be ashamed of, he is to be congratulated ; if the rich man loses his wealth, he needs comfort,—after all, there is something to be thankful for in escaping the temptations and dangers to which the rich are subject; and, as the writer points out later on in ii. 1 ff., the rich ave oppressors and cruel,—a fact which (it is well worth remembering) was far more true in those days than in these.
Ver.g. καυχάσθω: it is noticeable that this word is only used in the Pauline Epistles, with the exception in this verse and in iii. 14, iv. 16; it is used, generally, in a good sense, as here and iii 14, though not in iv. 16.—6 ἀδελφός: see note on ver. 2.—rawetvds: cf. Luke i. 52, refers to the outward condition of a man, and corresponds to the Hebrew
Ἵ and DY, which like ταπεινός, can
refer both to outward condition and char- acter; the latter is the meaning attaching to tam. iniv.6. In Sir. xi. 1 we read: σοφία ταπεινοῦ ἀνύψωσεν κεφαλήν, καὶ ἐν μέσῳ μεγιστάνων καθίσει αὐτόν. Cf. Sir. x. 31 (Hebrew).
Ver. το. 6 πλούσιος: equally a “ brother” ; cf. the whole section ii. I-13 Ρε]ονν.--ὧς ἄνθος xdprov...: these words, together with ἐξήρανεν τὸν χόρ- τον, etc., in the next verse, are adapted from the Sept. of Isa. xl. 5-8, . . . καὶ εἶπα τί βοήσω: Πᾶσα σὰρξ χόρτος, καὶ πᾶσα δόξα ἀνθρώπον ὡς ἄνθος χόρτου " ἐξηράνθη ὁ χόρτος καὶ ὁ ἄνθος ἐξέπεσεν, τὸ δὲ ῥῆμα τοῦ Θεοῦ ἡμῶν μένει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, which differs somewhat from the Hebrew. It is an interesting instance of the loose way in which scriptural texts were made use of without regard to their original meaning; the prophet refers to πᾶσα σάρξ, whereas in the
verse before us the writer makes the words refer exclusively to the rich, cf. the words at the end of the next verse, οὕτως καὶ 6 πλούσιος ἐν ταῖς πορείαις αὐτοῦ μαρανθήσεται. To the precise Western mind this rather frée use of Scripture (many examples of it occur in the Gospels) is sometimes apt to cause sur- prise; but it is well to remember that this inexactness is characteristic of the oriental, and does not strike him as in- exact ; what he wants in these cases is a verbal point of attachment which will illustra the subject under discussion; what the words originally refer to is, to him, immaterial, as that does not come into consideration. χόρτος in its original sense means “an enclosure” in which cattle feed, then it came to mean the grass, etc., contained in the enclosure, cf. Matt. vi. 31.--παρελεύσεται: equally true of rich and poor, cf. Mark xili. 31 for the transient character of all things, see also iv. 14 of this Epistle. Ver.t1. ἀνέτειλεν: the “genomic” aorist, #.¢., expressive of what always happens; it gives a ‘‘ more vivid state- ment of general truths, by employing a distinct case or several distinct cases in the past to represent (as it were) all possible cases, and implying that what has occurred is likely to occur again under similar circumstances” (Moulton, Ρ- 135, quoting Goodwin) ; he adds, “ the gnomic aorist . . . need not have been denied by Winer for Jas. i. 11 and 1 Pet. i, 24”. The ΚΕΝ. gives the present, in accordance with the English idiom, but clearly the Greek way is the more exact; the same applies to Hebrew, though this particular verb does not occur in the cor- responding passage in either the Septua- gint or the Massoretic text; an example may, however, be seen in Nah. iii. 17. 6 ἥλιος ἀνέτειλεν, Kai ἀφήλατο, Kal οὐκ ἔγνω τὸν τόπον αὐτῆς (see Ε.Υ.).- σὺν τῷ καύσωνι; the east wind which came from the Syrian desert, it was a hot wind which parched the vegetation and blighted the foliage of the trees; the