James 1:19

Living Out the Message

1:19 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters! ¹  Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.

James 3:9

3:9 With it we bless the Lord ²  and Father, and with it we curse people ³  made in God’s image.

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!

[1:19]  ¹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[3:9]  ² tc Most later mss (Ï), along with several versional witnesses, have θεόν (qeon, “God”) here instead of κύριον (kurion, “Lord”). Such is a predictable variant since nowhere else in the NT is God described as “Lord and Father,” but he is called “God and Father” on several occasions. Further, the reading κύριον is well supported by early and diversified witnesses (̲⁰ א A B C P Ψ 33 81 945 1241 1739), rendering it as the overwhelmingly preferred reading.

[3:9]  ³ tn Grk “men”; but here ἀνθρώπους (anqrwpous) has generic force, referring to both men and women.

[5:17]  ³ 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.

[5:17]  ⁴ tn Grk “he prayed with prayer” (using a Hebrew idiom to show intensity).