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Jam_3:5. Application of the comparison, particularly of the second illustration, μικρόν , pointing back to ἐλαχίστου .
μεγαλαυχεῖν ] which expresses the contrast to μικρόν is not = μεγάλα ἐργάζεσθαι (Oecumenius, Theophylact, Calvin, Laurentius, Pott, Bouman, and others), for the idea of doing is precisely not contained in the word, but it denotes proud conduct in word and behaviour, which has for supposition the performance of great things, and is always used in a bad sense. This certainly does not appear to suit οὕτως , as in the preceding the discourse is not about talking, on which account Lange prefers the reading μεγάλα αὐχεῖ ; but also this expression = “boasteth great things,” does not exclude, but includes that secondary meaning, for why would not James otherwise have written simply μεγάλα ποιεῖ ? But οὕτως is so far not unsuitable, as the performance of great things—as they are spoken of in the foregoing—forms the reason of the boasting of the tongue. On a mere inanis jactatio it is not natural here to think. This first clause already points to what follows, where the destructive power of the tongue is described. This description begins with a figure: “What a fire kindles what a forest.” In justification of the reading ἡλίκον (instead of ὀλίγον ), de Wette (with whom Brückner agrees), translating ἡλίκον πῦρ : “what a great fire,” observes, “that the burning of the forest is contemplated in its whole extent.” But the verb ἀνάπτει , as Wiesinger correctly observes, is opposed to this explanation; also this clause forms the transition from the foregoing to what follows, and therefore must still contain the reference to μικρόν , which certainly is afterwards laid aside. This does not, however, constrain us to the rejection of the reading ἡλίκον (against Wiesinger and Bouman), since this word, which indeed chiefly emphasizes greatness, can also be used to give prominence to smallness; see Pape. The older expositors, according to its meaning, correctly explained the quantus of the Vulgate by quantulus; thus Cajetan., Paes, and others; the same explanation by Lange. If Brückner thinks that it is not appropriate to take ἡλίκον here in this signification, owing to the following ἡλίκην , it is, on the contrary, to be observed that precisely the opposition of the same word in a different signification is entirely in accordance with the liveliness of the sentiment.
On the use of ἡλίκος in the interrogative explanatory sense, see A. Buttmann, p. 217 [E. T. 253]. Erasmus, Laurentius, Grotius, Baumgarten, Augusti explain the word ὕλη by materia, lignorum congeries, as it has in Sir_28:10 the signification of fuel; but the image is evidently much more lively and graphic when ὕλη is retained in its usual meaning: forest. Corresponding descriptions in Homer, Il. xi. 155. Pindar, Pyth. iii. 66; see also Sir_11:32. Philo, de migr. Abrah. 407 A. In Stobaeus it is said: Parva facula cacumen Idae incendi potest.