[B-Greek] Jam 3:7 FUSIS
Benjamin Pehrson
benjamin_pehrson at sil.org
Wed Mar 16 08:36:20 EDT 2011
This verse is part of a series of echoes and allusions to the creation and
re-creation (flood) narratives in Genesis. The verse in question here
parallels Genesis 1:26 and 9:2-3, in which God gave the animals into the
hands of humanity. The apparent redundancy of the present and perfect tenses
of DAMAZW "tame" reflects those two events in Genesis. In this light, I
would not understand the taming of animals in James 3 as hyperbole.
Rather than indicating humanity's general dominion over the animal kingdom
in the past and present, the present and perfect tenses of DAMAZW denotes
the present process of taming animals by humans and the fact that this order
was already established at creation. Since James has already alluded
repeatedly to the account of Noah in this passage, the submission of animals
in the renewed world after the flood is likely in view as well as their
submission in the original creation of Gen. 1-2. Humanity occupies the
highest place in the creation order recorded in Genesis. Yet, James suggests
that the wild nature of the tongue (and the human heart) is disparate from
the nature of all other "species" of God's creation. No one among humanity
is able to tame it. Thus, while I believe it is a fair translation of FUSIS
to use "species" for both the animals and the human species that tames them
in 3:7, what James is really talking about within the larger context here is
the "nature" of humanity and our inability to tame the tongue.
And--in order to not stray too far from the purposes of the B-Greek list
here--let me point out that the key word in 3:8 is ANQRWPWN. As Steve Runge
was pointing out about the bracketed text in the current discussion of Rev
21:3, here in Jas. 3:8 it is ANQRWPWN that is a right dislocation. This,
however, is not a right dislocation of a whole noun phrase, but of the
genitive modifier ANQRWPWN, modifying OUDEIS, which lies on the other side
of the verb. The addition of ANQRWPWN here at the end of the clause should
not be understood simply as an idiomatic way of saying "no one". It is truly
adding new salient information. It is not that no one is able to tame the
tongue, but no one of humanity. It should remind us of Jesus' saying that
PARA ANTHRWPOIS TOUTO ADUNATON ESTIN, PARA DE THEW PANTA DUNATA (Mt. 19:26).
And it is only because it is new and salient that James can go on to decry
the pattern of duplicitous speech in the community. Otherwise, how could
James expect the impossible of his audience?
I have written a thesis on the allusions to Noah in James 3:1-12, if anyone
would like to receive a PDF of that.
Benjamin Pehrson
Trainer in Advanced Biblical Studies
Ukarumpa Training Center
Papua New Guinea
-----Original Message-----
From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Iver Larsen
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 2:53 PM
To: Oun Kwon
Cc: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Jam 3:7 FUSIS
----- Original Message -----
From: Oun Kwon
To: Iver Larsen
Cc: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: 15. marts 2011 21:48
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Jam 3:7 FUSIS
taming and has tamed all animal species.
>
<clipped>
Since The human being as a species has not, in fact, 'tamed every
species' (or 'every kind' - KJV) of animal kingdom, should I take
the expression 'every' as rhetorical hyperbole?
-------------------------
Yes, definitely. That is very common, especially in a book like James that
reveals an underlying Hebrew thought pattern. English versions recognize
that by
saying "every kind of" or "all kinds of".
Iver Larsen
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