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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - James 1:13 - 1:13
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Let no one say (mēdeis legetō). Present active imperative, prohibiting such a habit.
When he is tempted (peirazomenos). Present passive participle of peirazō, here in evil sense of tempt, not test, as in Mat 4:1. Jam 1:12-18 give a vivid picture of temptation.
I am tempted of God (apo theou peirazomai). The use of apo shows origin (apo with ablative case), not agency (hupo), as in Mar 1:13, of Satan. It is contemptible, but I have heard wicked and weak men blame God for their sins. Cf. Pro 19:3; Sirach 15:11f. Temptation does not spring “from God.”
Cannot be tempted with evil (apeirastos kakōn). Verbal compound adjective (alpha privative and peirazō), probably with the ablative case, as is common with alpha privative (Robertson, Grammar, p. 516), though Moulton (Prolegomena, p. 74) treats it as the genitive of definition. The ancient Greek has apeiratos (from peiraō), but this is the earliest example of apeirastos (from peirazō) made on the same model. Only here in the N.T. Hort notes apeiratos kakōn as a proverb (Diodorus, Plutarch, Josephus) “free from evils.” That is possible here, but the context calls for “untemptable” rather than “untempted.”
And he himself tempteth no man (peirazei de autos oudena). Because “untemptable.”