Re: James 1:13

Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Thu, 10 Jul 97 09:13:32 EDT

At 9:13 AM -0400 7/10/97, James H. Vellenga wrote:
>>
>I will cavil with the last phrase. James 1.14 doesn't necessarily say
>that we are being tested _by_ our lusts and desires. It seems
>to me that the hUPO goes better with the present passive
>participles, so that it's better to read
>
> each [person] gets tested [while] being dragged away and
> seduced by his own longings.
>
>One can then draw a distinction between the longings, which
>are dragging us away and seducing us, and whoever or whatever
>is testing us in the midst of that process -- perhaps God.

I'm no careful student of Jacobean syntax, but it just occurred to that this hUPO is odd with EPIQUMIAS; I would expect not a Personal agent but rather an instrumental. Is EPIQUMIA here personified, as Paul does with hAMARTIA?