Vincent Word Studies - James 1:17 - 1:17

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Vincent Word Studies - James 1:17 - 1:17


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

The first words of this verse form a hexameter line, thus:

Πᾶσα δό|σις ἀγα|θὴ καὶ| πᾶν δῶ|ρημα τέ|λειον.

Such verses, or parts of verses, occur occasionally in the New Testament. Sometimes they are quotations from the Greek poets; sometimes the writer's words unconsciously fall into metrical form. Poetical quotations are confined to Paul, Act 17:28; 1Co 15:33; Tit 1:12.

Every good gift and every perfect gift (see Greek above)

The statement that these gifts are from God is in pursuance of the idea that God does not tempt men to evil. The gifts of God are contrasted with the evil springing from man's lust. Two words are used for gifts. Δόσις occurs only here and Phi 4:15; there in an active sense; but here passive, as in Proverbs 21:14: (Sept.). Δῶρημα is found Rom 5:16. It enlarges slightly upon the other word in emphasizing the gift as free, large, full; an idea which is further developed in Jam 1:18, of his own will. The Rev., rather awkwardly, endeavors to bring out the distinction by the word boon, for which the American Revisers insist on retaining gift. Boon originally means a petition; favor being a secondary and later sense, as of something given in response to a petition. The word is of Scandinavian origin, and the meaning favor seems to indicate a confusion with the Latin bonus, good; French, bon.

Perfect

Enlarges upon good, bringing out more distinctly the moral quality of the gift.

And cometh down (καταβαῖνον)

A present participle, to be construed with ἄνωθεν ἐστιν, is from above. Lit., is coming down, from above. As usual, this union of the participle with the finite verb denotes something habitual. Render, descendeth from above. Compare Jam 3:15.

Father of lights (τοῦ πατρὸς τῶν φώτων)

Lit., the lights, by which are meant the heavenly bodies. Compare Psalms 135:7 (Sept.); and Jeremiah 4:23 (Sept.). God is called “the Father of the lights,” as being their creator and maintainer. Compare Job 38:28; Psa 8:3; Amo 5:8.

Is no variableness (ἔνι)

Abbreviated from ἔνεστι, is in. Stronger than the simple is, and denoting inherence or indwelling. Rev., can be.

Variableness (παραλλαγὴ)

Better, Rev., variation. The word is not used, as some suppose, in a technical, astronomical sense, which James' readers would not have understood, but in the simple sense of change in the degree or intensity of light, such as is manifested by the heavenly bodies. Compare Plato, “Republic,” vii., 530: “Will he (the astronomer) not think that the heaven and the things in heaven are framed by the Creator in the most perfect manner? But when he reflects that the proportions of night and day, or of both, to the month, or of the month to the year, or of the other stars to these and to one another, are of the visible and material, he will never fall into the error of supposing that they are eternal and liable to no deviation (οὐδὲν παραλλάττειν) - that would be monstrous.”

Shadow of turning (τροπῆς ἀποσκίασμα)

This is popularly understood to mean that there is in God not the faintest hint or shade of change, like the phrase, a shadow of suspicion. But the Greek has no such idiom, and that is not James' meaning. Rev., rightly, renders, shadow that is cast by turning; referring still to the heavenly orbs, which cast shadows in their revolution, as when the moon turns her dark side to us, or the sun is eclipsed by the body of the moon.