[B-Greek] PEIRASMOS - need references

Jonathan Robie jonathan.robie at datadirect.com
Thu Aug 14 14:57:37 EDT 2003


I have been asked to lead a Sunday School class this quarter, and while I 
am deciding whether I have time to do it, I am preparing some of the first 
lessons to get a feel for the work involved. This class starts with James, 
and I ran smack dab into that word PEIRASMOS in the first chapter. I could 
use some good articles on this subject - does anyone have recommendations? 
I have read the Spicq article on the word, but was not able to find Jeffrey 
Gibson's article on the same subject.

Written in the introduction of a letter addressed to the twelve tribes of 
the Diaspora,  this word seems to refer to 'testing' or 'trials', in the 
sense of 'persecution':

James 1:2-3 PASAN CARAN HGHSASQE, ADELFOI MOU, hOTAN PEIRASMOIS PERIPESHTE 
POIKILOIS, GINWSKONTES hOTI TO DOKIMION hUMWN THS PISTEWS KATERGAZETAI 
hUPOMONHN.

In verses 13-14, though, the word PEIRASMOS seems to be linked to a 
person's desires, which lead him astray:

James 1:13-15 MHDEIS PEIRAZOMENOS LEGETW hOTI APW QEOU PEIRAZOMAI; hO GAR 
QEOS APEIRASTOS ESTI KAKON, PERAZEI DE AUTOS OUDENA. hEKASTOS DE PEIRAZETAI 
hUPO THS IDIAS EPIQUMIAS EXELKOMENOS KAI DELEAZOMENOS; EITA hH EPIQUMIA 
SULLABOUSA TIKTEI hAMARTIAN, hH DE hAMARTIA APOTELESQEISA APOKUEI QANATON.

Especially the close linkage to the phrase EXELKOMENOS KAI DELEAZOMENOS, 
drawing the person out and baiting them, seems to refer to enticing someone 
or tempting them. In verses 2-3, PIERASMOS seems to refer to the ability to 
endure in the face of trials, in 13-15 it seems to refer to the ability to 
avoid being hooked like a fish by acting on our own appetites.

To me, this indicates that the word PEIRASMOS refers to testing, which may 
include testing either by persecution or temptation.

But this disagrees with Jeffrey Gibson's conclusions in the following email:
http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/archives/97-07/0150.html

>The question I wish to raise now is, Is this really what James is
>saying? In an often cited, but seemingly little used article
>entitled "The Meaning of APEIRASTOS in James 1:13" (NTS [24], pp.
>386-392) Peter Davids makes what I think is an ultimately
>convincing case that hO GAR QEOS APEIRASTOS ESTIN should actually
>be taken as saying not "for God cannot be tempted" but "for God is
>not to be put to the test". This interpretation seems to work well
>not only linguistically, thematically, and grammatically, but
>contextually, since James seems to be intent here to give reasons
>why the believer who experiences PEIRASMOS and fails the test
>should place the blame for this failure on God who wishes us all
>good gifts. THAT would be to do challenge God's faithfulness.
 >

>And yet it puzzels me because it does not seem to take into account
>what function KAKOWN ("evils", genitive plural) has within the
>verse.
>
>To save Davids, I propose the following solution: That KAKWN goes
>not with hO GAR QEOS APEIRASTOS ESTIN but with the following
>phrase PEIRAZEI DE AUTOS OUDENA, and therefore allows James 1.13b
>to say "for God himself puts no one to the test (by means) of
>evils" or "with the intent of evil resulting"? The advantages of
>taking KAKWN as linked with PEIRAZEI DE AUTOS OUDENA and with this
>meaning are (1) that it allows PEIRAZW to retain the meaning it
>characteristic of its usage elsewhere, namely, "test faithfulness
>or integrity" not "tempt/solicit to evil", and (2) it relieves us
>not only of having to say that here in James we find the first
>known instance of PEIRAZW being used with the sense "tempt/solicit
>to evil), but also of the conundrum of how much James 1:13 seems to
>stand in contradiction with both the rest of James and the massive
>biblical witness that God frequently "tests" people.

I am trying to weigh the two interpretations against each other. If the 
root meaning of PEIRAZW is to test, and it could include either testing by 
persecution or testing by temptation, then I do not see the conflicts that 
seem to motivate Jeffrey. Am I missing something?

Are there other passages or references in Greek literature that clearly 
require the meaning 'temptation'?

Jonathan 




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