James 3:7 - Exposition

Fourth illustration , involving a proof of the terrible power of the tongue for evil. All kinds of wild animals, etc., can be tamed and have been tamed: the tongue cannot be. What a deadly power for evil must it therefore be! The famous chorus in Sophocles, 'Antigone,' 1. 332, s eq. , πολλὰ τὰ δεινὰ κοὐδὲν ἀνθώπου δεινότερον πέλει , is quoted by nearly all commentators, and affords a remarkable parallel to this passage. Every kind of beasts , etc.; literally, every nature ( φύσις ) of beasts … hath been tamed by man ' s nature ( τῇ φύσει τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ ); Vulgate, omnis enim natura bestiarum … domita sunt a natura humana. With this fourfold enumeration of the brute creation ("beasts .. birds.., serpents … things in the sea"), cf. Genesis 9:2 , "The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon all the beasts ( θήρια ) of the earth, upon all the fowls ( πέτεινα ) of the heavens, and upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea." Serpents ( ἐρπετά ) would be better rendered, as B.V., creeping things.