James 3:8

But no human being can subdue the tongue; it is a restless ¹  evil, full of deadly poison.

biblegateway Jam 3:8

but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

biblegateway Jam 3:8

But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.

biblegateway Jam 3:8

but no one can tame the tongue. It is an uncontrollable evil, full of deadly poison.

biblegateway Jam 3:8

but you can't tame a tongue--it's never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer.

SABDAweb Jam 3:8

But the tongue may not be controlled by man; it is an unresting evil, it is full of the poison of death.

bibleoremus Jam 3:8

but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

biblegateway Jam 3:8

But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

biblegateway Jam 3:8

But no human being can subdue the tongue; it is a restless ¹  evil, full of deadly poison.

¹ 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.