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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - James 1:11 - 1:11
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11. ἀνέτειλεν … ἐξήρανεν … ἐξέποσεν … ἀπώλετο. The use of the aorist here is to express the instantaneous effect produced by the καύσων. In English the present tense would be used to express this point of time; but the greater exactness of Greek thought and language places the events in the past. They are past in the very moment of describing them. See Winer P. III. § xl. 1, p. 346, and notes on St Matt. in this series, and compare 1Pe 1:24 ἐξηράνθη ὁ χόρτος καὶ τὸ ἄνθος ἐξέπεσεν. By some grammarians these are cited as instances of the gnomic aorist. See Mayor ad loc. and Burton, N.T. Moods and Tenses, p. 21. Winer however does not recognise this use of the aorist in N.T.
σὺν τῷ καύσωνι. The καύσων is the hot wind or sirocco blowing at sunrise from the Eastern desert. ἐπάξει καὺσωνα ἄνεμον (urentem ventum, V.; Hebr. קָדִים רוּחַ, east wind) ἐκ τῆς ἐρήμου, Hos 13:15. ἀναλήμψεται γὰρ αὐτὸν καύσων, Job 27:21. καὶ ἐγένετο ἄμα τῷ ἀνατεῖλαι τὸν ἥλιον καὶ προσέταξεν ὁ θεὸς πνεύματι καύσωνι συγκαίοντι, Jon 4:8. It was this wind that made the early morning hours so burdensome to the labourers, τοῖς βαστάσασι τὸ βάρος τῆς ἡμέρας καὶ τὸν καύσωνα, Mat 20:12, where see notes.
ἐξέπεσεν. A beautifully exact word to describe the dropping of the petals or corona out of the calyx, as an effect of drought, which would be more strikingly sudden under the hot eastern sun than in a temperate climate like ours.
εὐπρέπεια, here only in N.T. Comp. ἑκ Σιὼν ἡ εὐπρέπεια τῆς ὡραιότητος αὐτοῦ, Psa 50:2. For the general sense of this passage comp. πᾶς ὁ ὑψῶν ἑαυτὸν ταπεινωθήσεται, ὁ δὲ ταπεινῶν ἑαυτὸν ὑψωθήσεται, Luk 14:11. One of the notes of the Kingdom was the exaltation of the poor: 1Sa 2:8; Psa 9:12; Psa 9:18; Psa 72:2; Psa 72:4; Psa 72:12-13; Psa 107:41; Psa 113:7-8. In Isa 25:3 the LXX. version, εὐλογήσει σε ὁ λαὸς ὁ πτωχός, where the Hebr. is ‘the strong people shall glorify thee,’ is suggestive. See also Luk 1:52; Luk 6:20. The Gospel is especially a message to the poor, Mat 11:5. The rich are regarded as synonymous with the wicked, the poor with the righteous. See Isa 53:9; Sir 13:3; Luk 16:19-31. Comp. Psalms 10, 11.
This aspect of the rich and poor respectively is a vein of thought which runs through all the prophetic writings. It is a social result which has ensued in many epochs, when the wealthier class unrestrained by any unselfish principle gave themselves over to every indulgence of pride and passion. It is a view which finds support in some of the words of Christ: εἰ θέλεις τέλειος εἷναι ὕπαγε πώλησόν σου τὰ ὑπάρχοντα καὶ δὸς τοῖς πτωχοῖς καὶ ἕξεις θησαυρὸν ἐν οὐρανοῖς, Mat 19:21. See also Jam 1:23-24. It took effect in the earliest organisation of the Church. Act 2:44; Act 3:6. It was part of the religious thought of the day, as shewn in Essenism and Ebionism, the latter name being derived from a Hebr. word meaning ‘poor.’ One of the great lessons of Christianity has been to teach the responsibility of wealth and its place in the service of Christ, whether by noble use or self-sacrificing abandonment.
ἐν ταῖς πορείαις αὐτοῦ, in his ways, possibly in a literal sense (1) in his journeys for traffic or business, (2) but more probably in the ordinary figurative sense of way or path in the O. T. Comp. κατάρτισαι τὰ διαβήματά μου ἐν ταῖς τρίβοις σου ἴνα μὴ σαλευθῇ τὰ διαβήματά μου, Psa 17:5.