James 4:14 ποία

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Jonathan Robie
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James 4:14 ποία

Post by Jonathan Robie »

James 4:13-15 wrote:Ἄγε νῦν οἱ λέγοντες· Σήμερον ἢ αὔριον πορευσόμεθα εἰς τήνδε τὴν πόλιν καὶ ποιήσομεν ἐκεῖ ἐνιαυτὸν καὶ ἐμπορευσόμεθα καὶ κερδήσομεν· οἵτινες οὐκ ἐπίστασθε τὸ τῆς αὔριον ποία ἡ ζωὴ ὑμῶν· ἀτμὶς γάρ ἐστε ἡ πρὸς ὀλίγον φαινομένη, ἔπειτα καὶ ἀφανιζομένη· ἀντὶ τοῦ λέγειν ὑμᾶς· Ἐὰν ὁ κύριος θελήσῃ, καὶ ζήσομεν καὶ ποιήσομεν τοῦτο ἢ ἐκεῖνο.
Abbott-Smith suggests that ποία here is a form of πόα: grass, herb. For the above verse, it says: "James 4:14 (where, however, it is usually taken to be fem. of ποῖος; but v. MM, xx)."

OK, that caught me by surprise, I had assumed it was a feminine of ποῖος, but here are some places it has that meaning:
Malachi 3:2 wrote:καὶ τίς ὑπομενεῖ ἡμέραν εἰσόδου αὐτοῦ ἢ τίς ὑποστήσεται ἐν τῇ ὀπτασίᾳ αὐτοῦ διότι αὐτὸς εἰσπορεύεται ὡς πῦρ χωνευτηρίου καὶ ὡς πόα πλυνόντων
Jeremiah 2:22 wrote:ἐὰν ἀποπλύνῃ ἐν νίτρῳ καὶ πληθύνῃς σεαυτῇ πόαν κεκηλίδωσαι ἐν ταῖς ἀδικίαις σου ἐναντίον ἐμοῦ λέγει κύριος
OK, so I assumed he was right. Then I checked BDAG, and saw this:
BDAG wrote:ποία ... grass, herb, weed; this meaning was formerly assumed at tmies for Js 4:14 Exp. 7th ser, 10, 566); but ποία in that passage is better taken as the fem. of ποῖος (1aγ). -- DELG s.f. πόα. M-M.
In ποῖος (1aγ), Danker tells us this is to be taken as an indirect question, not a direct question (which would be (1aβ)).

Here is an example of this usage in a direct question:
Luke 6:32 wrote:Καὶ εἰ ἀγαπᾶτε τοὺς ἀγαπῶντας ὑμᾶς, ποία ὑμῖν χάρις ἐστίν;
Here is an example of this usage in an indirect question:
John 12:33 wrote:τοῦτο δὲ ἔλεγεν σημαίνων ποίῳ θανάτῳ ἤμελλεν ἀποθνῄσκειν.
All three interpretations seem plausible to me. What evidence is there that one of these is the better interpretation than the others?
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
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Tony Pope
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Joined: July 14th, 2011, 6:20 pm

Re: James 4:14 ποία

Post by Tony Pope »

Jonathan Robie wrote:
BDAG wrote:ποία ... grass, herb, weed; this meaning was formerly assumed at times for Js 4:14 (Exp. 7th ser, 10, 566); but ποία in that passage is better taken as the fem. of ποῖος (1aγ). -- DELG s.f. πόα. M-M.
This proposal does not seem to have convinced many commentators, as far as I am aware. After some searching I found the original discussion in Expositor of 1910 at https://archive.org/stream/expositor191 ... 6/mode/2up
I suggest it labours under two difficulties: the variant spelling; and the context, in that if this is a metaphor it is odd that James does not develop it as he does the immediately following one about the ἀτμίς (steam or puff of smoke).
Jonathan Robie wrote:In ποῖος (1aγ), Danker tells us this is to be taken as an indirect question, not a direct question (which would be (1aβ)).
Bauer classified it as an indirect question but wrote that a direct question is also possible. I do not see there is any way of being certain which it is, but it is worth noting that James is not at all averse to using direct questions. There seems to be a slight difference of meaning. The indirect question seems to lend itself more easily to the interpretation that the traders will be alive tomorrow but they don't know what state they will be in. ("You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow") The direct question seems to imply they don't know if they will be alive at all ("You do not know about tomorrow. What is your life like?"), which links better with the following context.
Perhaps it should also be mentioned that many editors have favoured the alternative text ποία γὰρ ἡ ζωὴ ὑμῶν; — a reading that appears first in Papyrus 100 (3rd/4th c.) That reading can obviously not be interpreted as an indirect question.
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