[B-Greek] PROS FQONON James4:5
Iver
iver_larsen at sil.org
Tue Sep 16 02:52:56 EDT 2003
Richard,
This is an interesting and of course difficult and disputed verse. Let me
offer some thoughts, whether original or not.
First, I think we need to see v. 5 in the context of v. 4 (and all preceding
verses in the chapter) before looking at v. 6:
v. 4 MOICALIDES, OUK OIDATE hOTI hH FILIA TOU KOSMOU ECQRA TOU QEOU ESTIN...
v. 5 H DOKEITE hOTI KENWS hH GRAFH LEGEI:
> PROS FQONON EPIPOQEI TO PNEUMA hO KATWiKISEN EN hHMIN
>
> How is it best to understand the phrase PROS FQONON?
<snip>
> "Enviously longs."
Yes.
Although the statement is introduced as if it was a quote from the OT, there
is no such passage, so it must be a summary of OT teaching about God's
feelings of jealousy towards anything that takes our devotion away form him.
The verb EPIPOQEW is used a number of times in the GNT, always in a positive
sense of "longing (to experience something good)". Neither the words "lust"
or "yearn" are helpful glosses here, IMO. The usual contextual background in
these instances is love and affection coupled with a wish for further
fellowship.
I take God to be the implied subject of the verb which makes TO PNEUMA the
object.
TO PNEUMA can hardly be the human spirit or the breath of life from Gen 2:7
(LXX uses PNOH, not PNEUMA here). It is more likely the Holy Spirit that
comes to indwell every believer. (John 20:22, Eph 3:16-17).
The previous verses talk about a war between two opposing forces, similar to
Gal 5: Bad desires that have their origin in FILIA TOU KOSMOU, and good
desires that have their origin in God and the Holy Spirit. James seems to be
saying that a Christian cannot serve two masters at the same time: the world
and God, echoing the words of Jesus. If you leave your devotion to God and
become devoted to the world, you are adulterous. James calls such people
MOICALIDES in line with OT terminology. It is from this background that the
expression "towards jealousy" comes in. God longs for the full devotion of
his people, and is jealous of any other "god" (Mammon or whoever) who gets
the devotion of his people. So, I would take the prepositional phrase as an
adverbial phrase that describes God's longing. He longs very much, even to
the extent of (PROS) being jealous.
>
> If PROS FQONON is best considered as an adverb, what might be the
> object of EPIPOQEI?
Grammatically, the object seems to be TO PNEUMA, but something appears to be
implied from the word "longing". God longs to see and experience the work
and fruit of that holy Spirit whom he made to dwell in us and whose task is
to counteract the works of the flesh.
>
> And, given the resolution of PROS FQONON, how might the whole of
> verse 5 be understood in relation to verse 6 which completes the sentence.
I wouldn't say that v. 6 completes the sentence (contra NIV). v. 6 adds a
new aspect (DE) to the war between the bad desires of the flesh and the good
longing of God for the work of the Spirit in us to be seen and be effected.
If we are humble and devoted to God, he will give us grace, and that power
of grace is greater than the power of the attraction of the world that
occupies the proud/selfish people.
Those were my thoughts, briefly stated,
As for translation, I have not found a single English version that I
consider to give the correct meaning, assuming of course, that my exegesis
is correct.
My own idiomatic translation that makes some implicit information explicit,
would be something like:
"It is not without reason when the Scriptures say that God is jealously
longing to see that the spirit that he caused to live in us is making us
faithful and loyal towards him."
Iver Larsen
SIL translation consultant
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