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Jam_4:6. The words μείζονα δὲ δίδωσιν χάριν are explained from the fact that James already had in his view the passage of the O. T., afterwards quoted, from which these words are taken. The subject is the same as in the former sentence. The comparative does not express the comparison with the blessings which the world gives (Bede: majorem gratiam dat quam amicitia mundi; thus also Tirinus, Gebser, Pott, Winer, Schneckenburger, Kern), or after which those: invidi atque arrogantes, quos reprehendit, Jam_5:2-4 (Bouman), longed for; also it does not indicate “the greater measure of the comforting and satisfying Spirit as related to the longing Spirit” (Lange: “but he gives grace greater than the longing”), but “ μείζονα suggests a comparison with a case in which there is no πρὸς φθόνον ἐπιποθ .” (Wiesinger, so also de Wette); incorrectly Bengel: eo majorem, quo longius recesseris ab invidia.
διό ] = therefore, because it is so (de Wette). ἡ γραφή is to be supplied to λέγει . Kern incorrectly takes λέγει impersonally: it is said. The passage is Pro_3:34, and is verbally quoted according to the LXX., except that here, as also in 1Pe_5:5, ὁ Θεός is put instead of κύριος . The ὑ̔ περήφανοι are those who, whilst they in striving after high things ( τὰ ὑψηλὰ φρονοῦντες , Rom_12:16) will be the friends of the world, are not ready to bear the reproach of Christ. That these are ἐχθροὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ , the scripture confirms by ἀντιτάσσεται .
Opposed to these are the παπεινοί , that is, the lowly, those who τοῖς ταπεινοῖς συναπαγόμενοι , Rom_12:16, seek not the friendship of the world, but humbly bear the cross of Christ. That these are φίλοι τοῦ Θεοῦ the Scripture confirms by δίδωσιν χάριν .[198] Comp Sir_3:19-20.
[198] The difficulty of the passage has induced some expositors to have recourse to arbitrary emendations; thus Erasmus and Grotius explain the words from διὸ λέγει to χάριν as a gloss from 1Pe_5:5. Hottinger (with whom Reiche agrees), on the contrary, is inclined to erase the words from μείζονα to λέγει , and to insert a δέ between ὁ and Θεός . Also Lücke, according to Gebser, considered those words a kind of gloss and error librarii to ἡ γραφὴ λέγει and τοῖς ταπ . δίδ . ver. 6, and that the context is to be thus construed: πρὸς φθόνον … ἐν ὑμῖε ἔ δοκεῖτε ὅτε κενῶς ἡ γρ . λέγει : ὁ Θεὸς ὑπερηφάνοις κ . τ . λ .