Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1916 edition. Excerpt: ...and "tempted." The temptations intended do not appear to be restricted to those involved in "trials." 13. /jLT)Bevi... Xeyerco. Cf. M etirrfi, Ecclus. s4-15." 7reipa 6iJ vo;. Evidently means (cf. w. 14 ') temptation to sin, not merely external trial. See on Treipao-fwl;, v. 2, and cf. 1 Tim. 6" ek Treipaafibv Ko. iray&a. The excuse shows that the writer is not thinking of a state of religious persecution, with the consequent temptation to complete renunciation of faith in Christ or in God, but rather of ordinary temptation. In the case supposed the person tempted either has yielded, or is on the point of yielding; he is called 6 ireipa6fievo;, instead of 6 ifj, aprd)p, by a kind of euphemism. He excuses himself Terence, Eun. v, 2. 36, quid si hoc quispiam voluit dens i Plaut. Atd. iv, 10. 7, dens impulsor mihifuii. See L. Schmidt, Die Ethik dcr alien Griechen, 1882, i, pp. 230-240. The fact that this idea was so familiar helps to account for the attachment of w.13-18 to a passage (w.uvt) which deals with another sort of jreipaerfuk. The substance of the passage is not original; the freshness consists in the way in which the thought is worked oiit. The suggestion of Pfleiderer (Das Urchristentum', ii, p. 546) that this is polemic against the gnostics has as little foundation as the older references to Essenes, Pharisees, or Simon Magus. The quotations given above prove this. It would be easier (and not unnatural) to think of a Greek popular habit of thought and speech which had affected a Jewish community. The idea of being "tempted," which is the root of the whole passage, also shows that the self-excusing sinner whom James has in mind is no gnostic. air6. The preposition air6, which..."
