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Jam_3:4. The second comparison is emphatically indicated by ἰδού . καί is either also or even so. Wiesinger prefers the second meaning, which certainly gives to the thought a peculiar emphasis. The participles ὄντα … ἐλαυνόμενα are to be resolved by although. Both participial sentences bring forward the difficulty of guiding the ship, in order to cause the power of the small helm to be recognised. It is possible that in the second clause: καὶ … ἐλαυνόμενα , there is an allusion to the lusts moving man (Bede: venti validi … ipsi appetitus sunt mentium), or “to the temptations ( πειρασμοί ) of the world, coming from without” (Lange).
σκληρός ] is also used of the wind in Pro_27:16 (so also Aelian, de animal, v. 13, ix. 14; Dio Chrysostom, iii. p. 44 C).
The verb μετάγεται united with τὰ πλοῖα is the same as in Jam_3:3. The words ὑπὸ ἐλαχίστου πηδαλίου ] mention by what this guidance takes place. On ὑπό , see chap. Jam_1:14. By the addition of ἐλαχίστου a new point is introduced which is retained in what follows. The superlative is for the purpose of bringing more strongly forward the smallness of the πηδάλιον in contrast to the great ship ( τηλικαῦτα ὄντα ). The counterpart is the little tongue (Jam_3:5).
The addition: whithersoever the desire of the steersman willeth, is not superfluous; it expresses—in opposition to ὑπὸ ἀνέμων ἐλαυνόμενα —the free mastery of him who steers the ship, which he exercises over it by means of the helm, and corresponds to εἰς τὸ πείθεσθαι κ . τ . λ ., Jam_3:3.
ὅπου ] (instead of ὅποι , which does not occur in the N. T.) is found also in the classics united with verbs of motion, particularly with τιθέναι , but also with βαίνειν ; Sophocles, Trach. 40: κεῖνος ὅπου βέβηκεν . By ὁρμή is not to be understood the external impulse, or “the pressure which the steersman exercises” (Erasmus, Semler, Augusti, Stolz, Pott, Theile, Wiesinger), also not “the course of the navigator kept in action by the helm” (Lange); by both of these interpretations a meaning is imposed upon the word foreign to it. It rather indicates, as in Act_14:5 (see Meier in loco), the eager will, the desire of something (in Plato, Phil. p. 35 D, it is used as synonymous with ἐπιθυμία ); thus Bede, Calvin, Grotius, Baumgarten, Gebser, de Wette, and others.
The participle ὁ εὐθύνων indicates him who sits at the helm and directs the ship; it is thus not = ὁ εὐθυντήρ (Grotius, Pott, Schneckenburger). Luther correctly translates it according to its meaning: “whether he wills who governs it.”
For corresponding passages from the classics, see in Wetstein, Gebser, Theile; particularly Aristotle, Quaest. mechan. ii. 5.