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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - James 1:6 - 1:6
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
In faith (en pistei). Faith here “is the fundamental religious attitude” (Ropes), belief in God’s beneficent activity and personal reliance on him (Oesterley).
Nothing doubting (mēden diakrinomenos). Negative way of saying en pistei (in faith), present passive participle of diakrinō, old verb to separate (krinō) between (dia), to discriminate as shown clearly in Act 11:12, Act 15:9, but no example of the sense of divided against oneself has been found earlier than the N.T., though it appears in later Christian writings. It is like the use of diamerizomai in Luk 11:18 and occurs in Mat 21:21; Mar 11:23; Act 10:20; Rom 2:4; Rom 4:20; Rom 14:23. It is a vivid picture of internal doubt.
Is like (eoiken). Second perfect active indicative with the linear force alone from eikō to be like. Old form, but in N.T. only here and Jam 1:23 (a literary touch, not in lxx).
The surge of the sea (kludōni thalassēs). Old word (from kluzō to wash against) for a dashing or surging wave in contrast with kuma (successive waves), in N.T. only here and Luk 8:24. In associative instrumental case after eoiken. In Eph 4:14 we have kludonizō (from kludōn), to toss by waves.
Driven by the wind (anemizomenōi). Present passive participle (agreeing in case with kludōni) of anemizō, earliest known example and probably coined by James (from anemos), who is fond of verbs in ̇izō (Mayor). The old Greek used anemoō. In Eph 4:14 Paul uses both kludonizō and peripherō anemōi. It is a vivid picture of the sea whipped into white-caps by the winds.
Tossed (ripizomenōi). Present passive participle also in agreement with kludōni from ripizō, rare verb (Aristophanes, Plutarch, Philo) from ripis (a bellows or fire-fan), here only in N.T. It is a picture of “the restless swaying to and fro of the surface of the water, blown upon by shifting breezes” (Hort), the waverer with slight rufflement.