Re: James 1:13

Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Thu, 10 Jul 1997 09:30:04 -0400

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?

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(704) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/