James 3:7-8

3:7 For every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and sea creature ¹  is subdued and has been subdued by humankind. ²  3:8 But no human being can subdue the tongue; it is a restless ³  evil, full of deadly poison.

James 5:17

5:17 Elijah was a human being ⁴  like us, and he prayed earnestly ⁵  that it would not rain and there was no rain on the land for three years and six months!

James 1:20

1:20 For human ⁶  anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness. ⁷ 

James 1:10

1:10 But the rich person’s pride should be in his humiliation, because he will pass away like a wildflower in the meadow. ⁸ 

James 2:26

2:26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

James 3:6

3:6 And the tongue is a fire! The tongue represents ⁹  the world of wrongdoing among the parts of our bodies. It ¹⁰  pollutes the entire body and sets fire to the course of human existence – and is set on fire by hell. ¹¹ 

¹ tn Grk (plurals), “every kind of animals and birds, of reptiles and sea creatures.”

² tn Grk “the human species.”

³ tc Most mss (C Ψ 1739^c Ï as well as a few versions and fathers) read “uncontrollable” (ἀκατασχετόν, akatasceton), while the most important witnesses (א A B K P 1739* latt) have “restless” (ἀκατάστατον, akatastaton). Externally, the latter reading should be preferred. Internally, however, things get a bit more complex. The notion of being uncontrollable is well suited to the context, especially as a counterbalance to v. 8a, though for this very reason scribes may have been tempted to replace ἀκατάστατον with ἀκατασχετόν. However, in a semantically parallel early Christian text, ἀκατάστατος (akatastato") was considered strong enough of a term to denounce slander as “a restless demon” (Herm. 27:3). On the other hand, ἀκατάστατον may have been substituted for ἀκατασχετόν by way of assimilation to 1:8 (especially since both words were relatively rare, scribes may have replaced the less familiar with one that was already used in this letter). On internal evidence, it is difficult to decide, though ἀκατασχετόν is slightly preferred. However, in light of the strong support for ἀκατάστατον, and the less-than-decisive internal evidence, ἀκατάστατον is preferred instead.

⁵ tn Although it is certainly true that Elijah was a “man,” here ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") has been translated as “human being” because the emphasis in context is not on Elijah’s masculine gender, but on the common humanity he shared with the author and the readers.

⁶ tn Grk “he prayed with prayer” (using a Hebrew idiom to show intensity).

⁷ tn The word translated “human” here is ἀνήρ (anhr), which often means “male” or “man (as opposed to woman).” But it sometimes is used generically to mean “anyone,” “a person” (cf. BDAG 79 s.v. 2), and in this context, contrasted with “God’s righteousness,” the point is “human” anger (not exclusively “male” anger).

⁸ sn God’s righteousness could refer to (1) God’s righteous standard, (2) the righteousness God gives, (3) righteousness before God, or (4) God’s eschatological righteousness (see P. H. Davids, James [NIGTC], 93, for discussion).

⁹ tn Grk “a flower of grass.”

¹¹ tn Grk “makes itself,” “is made.”

¹² tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

¹³ sn The word translated hell is “Gehenna” (γέεννα, geenna), a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew words ge hinnom (“Valley of Hinnom”). This was the valley along the south side of Jerusalem. In OT times it was used for human sacrifices to the pagan god Molech (cf. Jer 7:31; 19:5-6; 32:35), and it came to be used as a place where human excrement and rubbish were disposed of and burned. In the intertestamental period, it came to be used symbolically as the place of divine punishment (cf. 1 En. 27:2, 90:26; 4 Ezra 7:36).