Ver. 3. εἰ δὲ: this is the best at- tested reading, but see Mayor’s admirable note in favour of the reading ἴδε yap.— τῶν ἵππων: “The genitive is here put in an emphatic place to mark the comparison. It belongs both to χαλινούς and to στόματα, probably more to the former as distinguishing it from the human bridle, so we have ἄχρι τῶν χαλινῶν τῶν ἵππων, Apoc. xiv. 20, ἐπὶ
---θ.
τὸ σῶμα αὐτῶν µετάγομεν.'
ὄντα καὶ ὑπὸ ἀνέμων σκληρῶν” ἐλαυνόμενα, ἃ πηδαλίου ὅ ὅπου ἡ | ὁρμὴ Ἰ τοῦ εὐθύνοντος βούλεται ὅ 5:
τως ὃ καὶ ἡ γλῶσσα μικρὸν µέλος ἐστὶν καὶ 19 μεγάλα “ αὐχεῖ.' ἡλίκον 11 πῦρ ἡλίκην ὕλην ἀνάπτει - 6. Kail ἡ γλῶσσα 15 ' πῦρ,]" ὁ
1 μεταγομεν αυτων A, 13.
3 Ῥτ. tam 7; σκληρων ανεµων AL, curss.
2 ede 24.
451
4. ἰδοὺ” καὶ τὰ πλοῖα, τηλικαῦτα 35 Acts
σαν - XXvii. 40. μετάγεται ὑπὸ ἐλαχίστου { Acts xiv.s5. ο. ἘΡΕΣ ΣΙ, 5. OU- 4; xxiii. σον οδο ΕΜΕΣ ὑπ ἰδοὺ σκοπο «1 Cf. 1. 26; Prov. xvi. 27; Sir. viii. 8; cf. Prov. xii. 18, xv. 1, 2
3 Pr. τα Ἑ.
5—5 Et ubicumque diriguntur volumptate eorum qui eas gubernant 77. 6 Add αν ACKLP, curss., Thl., Oec., Tregmg, rec.
“Om. η oppy 5.
Ῥωσαντως A, 5.
ὃ βουληται ACKP; βονληθη 13. 10—10 µεγαλανχει SC?KL, curss., ΤΗΙ., Occ.
11 ολιγον ΑΙΟ2ΚΙ,, curss., Syrr., Sah., Copt., Arm., Aeth., pusillum 77.
120m. 4}.
14 Weiss punctuates: πυρ.
τὸν χαλινὸν τοῦ ἵππου, Zech. xiv. 20. Cf. Ps. xxxii. 9” (Mayor). Knowling draws attention to Philo who “ speaks ot the easy way in which the horse, the most spirited of animals, is led when bridled, De Mundi Ofif., p. τοῖ "---καὶ ὅλον τὸ σῶμα...: Cf. what was said in the preceding verse.
Ver. 4. τηλικαῦτα: Cf. 2 Cor. i. 10; Heb. ii. 3; Rev. xvi. 18, the only other N.T. passages in which the word occurs.—37 ySahiov:; only elsewhere in N.T. in Acts xxvii. 40.—6 pp : only elsewhere in the N.T. in Acts xiv. 5, used there, however, in the sense of a rush of people. The graphic picture in this verse gives the impression that the writer gives the result of personal observation.
Ver. 5. ἡ γλῶσσα.. .: For this idea of the independent action of a mem- ber_ of the body taken as though person- ality were attached to it see Matt. v. 29, 30, Xv. το; it is quite in the Hebrew style, cf. in the O.T. the same thing in connec- tion with anthropomorphic expressions. Moffatt (Expository Times, xiv. p. 568) draws attention to Plutarch’s essay, De Garrulitate, το, where the union of similar nautical and igneous metaphors (as in Jas. iii. 4-6) is found; “the moralist speaks first of speech as beyond control once it is uttered, like a ship which has broken loose from its anchorage. But in the following sentence, he comes nearer to the idea of James by quoting from a fragment of Euripides these lines :—
Μικροῦ yap ἐκ λαμπτῆρος ᾿Ιδαῖον λέπας
Πρήσειεν ἄν τις" καὶ πρὸς ἄνδρ᾽ εἰπὼν éva,
Πύθοιντ᾽ ἂν ἀστοὶ πάντες.᾽---
13 ΤΊ, punctuates thus: αναπτει η yAwooa,.
καὶ μεγάλα αὐχεῖ: am. hey. in N.T.; the same would apply to the alter- native reading (see critical note above) μεγαλαυχεῖ. In Sir. xlviii, τὸ we have, καὶ ἐμεγαλαύχησεν ὑπερηφανίᾳ αὐτοῦ. Mayor most truly remarks: ‘ There is no idea of vain boasting, the whole argument turns upon the reality of the power which the tongue possesses”; this fully bears out what has been implied above, that this section has for its object the attempt to pacify the bitterness which had arisen in certain Synagogues of the Diaspora owing to controversies aroused by the harangues of various “ teachers ”.—i 80% ἡλίκον wip ἡλίκην ὕλην ava- πτει: at the risk of being charged with fancifulness the surmise may be per- mitted as to whether this picture was not suggested by the sight of an excited audi- ence in some place of meeting ; when an Eastern audience has been aroused to a high pitch, the noise of tongues, and gesticulation of the arms occasioned by the discussion following upon the oration which has been delivered, might most aptly be compared to a forest fire; the tongue of one speaker has set ablaze all the inflammable material which contro- versy brings into being. The possibility that the writer had something of this kind in his mind should not be altogether ex- εἰαάεά.---ἀνάπτει occurs in the N.T. else- where only in Luke xii. 49; Taylor (quoted by Mayor) says: ‘‘On_ fires kindled by the tongue see Midr. Rabb. on Lev. (xiv. 2) xvi. where the words are almost the same as those in St. James, quanta incendia lingua excitat ! ”