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6. μείζονα δὲ δίδωσιν χάριν. But (God) giveth greater grace. These words are also obscure. Either (a) a larger favour, even than the indwelling Spirit, for He contends against the proud, who represent the φιλία τοῦ κόσμου, and gives grace to the humble who have renounced that friendship, (b) or more grace than the world gives, (c) or more than is lost through hostility to the world.
διὸ λέγει, because of which fact the Spirit of God saith. The quotation which follows is verbatim from Pro 3:34, except that ὁ θεός replaces κύριος of the LXX.: see 1Pe 5:5, where the same quotation is made. It is interesting to comp. Luk 1:51-52 διεσκόρπισεν ὑπερηφάνους διανοίᾳ καρδίας αὐτῶν … καὶ ὕψωσεν ταπεινούς. Note the occurrence of the leading words, ὑπερηφάνους and ταπεινούς. The thought is the same. It is one that entered into that atmosphere of religious life in which the Holy Family lived and which St James shared.
ἀντιτάσσεται, ranges himself against, comp. ἀντιτάξομαι κτενῶν σε, Eur. Phoen. 622: ἀθρόᾳ μὲν οὐδαμοῦ τῇ δυνάμει ἀντετάξαντο, Thuc. IV. 55. It is a word which suggests the image of the Christian warfare so frequent with St Paul. Comp. the formula used in renunciation at Baptism συντάσσομαί σοι Χρίστε· ἀποτάσσομαί σοι Σατανᾶ (Bingham’s Antiq., Vol. IV. xi. vii. § 2), and Act 13:48 ὅσοι ἦσαν τεταγμένοι εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον.