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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - James 3:7 - 3:7
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Kind (φύσις)
Wrong. James is not speaking of the relation between individual men and individual beasts, but of the relation between the nature of man and that of beasts, which may be different in different beasts. Hence, as Rev., in margin, nature.
Beasts (θηρίων)
Quadrupeds. Not beasts generally, nor wild beasts only. In Act 28:4, Act 28:5, the word is used of the viper which fastened on Paul's hand. In Peter's vision (Act 10:19; Act 11:6) there is a different classification from the one here; quadrupeds being denoted by a specific term, τετράποδα, four-footed creatures. There θηρία includes fishes, which in this passage are classed as ἐναλίων, things in the sea.
By mankind (τῇ φύσει τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ)
Rather, by the nature of man, φύσις, as before, denoting the generic character. Every nature of beasts is tamed by the nature of man. Compare the fine chorus in the “Antigone” of Sophocles, 343-352:
“The thoughtless tribe of birds,
The beasts that roam the fields
The brood in sea-depths born,
He takes them all in nets,
Knotted in snaring mesh,
Man, wonderful in skill.
And by his subtle arts
He holds in sway the beasts
That roam the fields or tread the mountain's height
And brings the binding yoke
Upon the neck of horse with shaggy mane,
Or bull on mountain crest,
Untamable in strength.”