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Jam_3:3. But if we put bridles in the mouths of horses, we turn also their whole body. The clause καὶ ὅλον κ . τ . λ . forms the apodosis to the protasis beginning with εἰ (Pott, Wiesinger, Brückner, Lange, Bouman). Many expositors incorrectly attach this clause to the protasis, whereby Theile regards Jam_3:5 as the apodosis belonging to it, whilst others supply a thought as the apodosis; according to de Wette, this thought is, that “the tongue is not so easily tamed as a horse,” which is wholly unsuitable.[170]
The particle δέ is not, with Theile, to be explained as closely connecting this verse to the following,[171] for here and in Jam_3:4 nothing else than a contrast to Jam_3:2 is to be expressed; it is rather used here even as in chap. Jam_2:15, simply distinguishing the case adduced for comparison from that for the sake of which it is introduced (Wiesinger). By τῶν ἵππων standing first, the view is at once directed to the object by which the sentiment expressed is to be illustrated (comp. Jam_3:4). The genitive depends not on τοὺς χαλινούς (Theile, Lange, and others), but on τὰ στόματα (Oecumenius, Hornejus, Pott, Gebser; Bouman wavers), for on this word the emphasis rests. τοὺς χαλινούς points back to χαλιναγωγῆσαι , Jam_3:2, by which apparently this image was suggested to James.
On the phrase: εἰς τὰ στόματα βάλλειν , comp. in Aelian: χαλινὸν ἵππῳ ἐμβάλλειν .
The words εἰς τὸ πείθεσθαι ἡμῖν αὐτούς are for the purpose of accentuating the governing of the horse by the bridle put into its mouth. The apodosis καὶ ὅλον τὸ σῶμα κ . τ . λ . corresponds to χαλιναγωγῆσαι καὶ ὅλον τὸ σῶμα , Jam_3:2.
μετάγειν ] in the N. T. only here and in Jam_3:4, is = circumagere. The tertium comparationis lies in εἰς τὰ στόματα ; for, as Bengel correctly remarks: in ore lingua est, and οὐ πταίειν ἐν λόγῳ , is identical with the bridling of the tongue in the mouth.
[170] Bede supplies: quanto amplius decet, ut nobis ipsis frenum continentiae in ora mittamus; Lorinus: si hoc in equis contingit, simile quid oportet circa linguam procurari; Hottinger: eodem modo qui linguam coercere potest, toti corpori facile moderabitur.
[171] Theile says: Ita a difficultate linguam moderandi transitus fit ad necessitatem: in memoriam vocatur, exigua saepe esse, quibus ingentia moveantur non solum in bonam (vv. 3, 4), sed maxime etiam in malam partem.