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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - James 3:13 - 3:13
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Wise and endued with knowledge (σοφός καὶ ἐκπισπήμων)
A rendering needlessly verbose, yet substantially correct. Probably no very nice distinction was intended by the writer. It is somewhat difficult to fix the precise sense of σοφός, since there is no uniformity in its usage in the New Testament. In classical Greek it primarily means skilled in a handicraft or art. Thence it runs into the sense of clever, in matters of common life, worldly wise. Then, in the hands of the philosophers, it acquires the sense of learned in the sciences; and, ironically, abstruse, subtle, obscure, like the English cunning, which originally meant knowing or skilful, and is often used in that sense in the English Bible (see Gen 25:27; 1Sa 16:16).
In the New Testament σοφός is used - 1. In the original classical sense, skilled in handicraft (1Co 3:10). 2. Accomplished in letters, learned (Rom 1:14, Rom 1:22; 1Co 1:19, 1Co 1:26; 1Co 3:18). So of the Jewish theologians and doctors (Mat 11:25), and of Christian teachers (Mat 23:34). 3. In a practical sense, of the practice of the law of piety and honesty; so Eph 5:15, where it is joined with walking circumspectly, and 1Co 6:5, where it is represented as the quality adapted to adjust differences in the church. 4. In the higher, philosophical sense, of devising the best counsels and employing the best means to carry them out. So of God, Rom 16:27; 1Ti 1:17; Jud 1:25; 1Co 1:25. In this passage the word appears to be used in the sense of 3: practical wisdom in pious living.
Ἐπιστήμων occurs only here in the New Testament. In classical Greek it is often used like σοφός, in the sense of skilled, versed; and by the philosophers in the higher sense of scientifically versed, in which sense it is opposed by Plato to δοξαστής, a mere conjecturer. In this passage σοφός would seem to be the broader, more general, and perhaps more dignified term of the two, as denoting the habit or quality, while ἐπιστήμων indicates the special development and intelligent application of the quality to particular things. The Rev., wise and understanding, gives the distinction, on the whole, as nearly as is necessary.
Conversation (ἀναστροφῆς)
See on 1Pe 1:15.
Meekness of wisdom
On meekness, see on Mat 5:5. The meekness which is the proper attribute of wisdom.
“Knowledge is proud that she has learned so much,
Wisdom is humble that she knows no more.”