Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - James 1:8 - 1:8
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Man (anēr). Instead of anthrōpos (general term) in Jam 1:7, perhaps for variety (Ropes), but often in James (Jam 1:12, Jam 1:23; Jam 2:2; Jam 3:2), though in other Epistles usually in distinction from gunē (woman).
Double-minded (dipsuchos). First appearance of this compound known and in N.T. only here and Jam 4:8. Apparently coined by James, but copied often in early Christian writings and so an argument for the early date of James’ Epistle (Moulton and Milligan’s Vocabulary). From dis twice and psuchē soul, double-souled, double-minded, Bunyan’s “Mr. Facing-both-ways.” Cf. the rebuke to Peter (edistasas) in Mat 14:31.
Unstable (akatastatos). Late double compound (alpha privative and katastatos verbal from kathistēmi), in lxx once (Isa 54:11) and in Polybius, in N.T. only here and Jam 3:8. It means unsteady, fickle, staggering, reeling like a drunken man. Surely to James such “doubt” is no mark of intellectuality.