ris3n's Apologetics Codex
James 3.9-10
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Passage

James 3.9-10

Book: James · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

7. For every kind of beasts and birds, of creeping things and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed by mankind: 8. but the tongue can no man tame; it is a restless evil, it is full of deadly poison.

9. Therewith bless we the Lord and Father; and therewith curse we men, who are made after the likeness of God: 10. out of the same mouth cometh forth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.

  1. Doth the fountain send forth from the same opening sweet water and bitter? 12. can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a vine figs? neither can salt water yield sweet. (James 3:7-12, ASV)
WEB

7. For every kind of animal, bird, creeping thing, and sea creature, is tamed, and has been tamed by mankind; 8. but nobody can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

9. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the image of God. 10. Out of the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

  1. Does a spring send out from the same opening fresh and bitter water? 12. Can a fig tree, my brothers, yield olives, or a vine figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh water. (James 3:7-12, WEB)
KJV

7. For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: kind: Gr. nature mankind: Gr. nature of man 8. But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

9. Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. 10. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.

  1. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? place: or, hole 12. Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. (James 3:7-12, KJV)
YLT

7. For every nature, both of beasts and of fowls, both of creeping things and things of the sea, is subdued, and hath been subdued, by the human nature, 8. and the tongue no one of men is able to subdue, [it is] an unruly evil, full of deadly poison,

9. with it we do bless the God and Father, and with it we do curse the men made according to the similitude of God; 10. out of the same mouth doth come forth blessing and cursing; it doth not need, my brethren, these things so to happen;

  1. doth the fountain out of the same opening pour forth the sweet and the bitter? 12. is a fig-tree able, my brethren, olives to make? or a vine figs? so no fountain salt and sweet water [is able] to make. (James 3:7-12, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: James (Iakōbos), identified by the great majority of interpreters as the brother of Jesus (Galatians 1:19; Mark 6:3), leader of the Jerusalem church (Acts 15:13; Acts 21:18). He introduces himself simply as "a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ" (James 1:1), never as a relative.
  • Audience: Jewish believers outside Palestine, addressed as "the twelve tribes which are of the Dispersion" (James 1:1). The congregations meet in a synagōgē (James 2:2) and include both poor members and wealthy visitors.
  • Location: Jerusalem, from which James led the mother church.
  • Time period: Date disputed. An early date (c. AD 44-49) would make this the earliest surviving Christian writing; a later one places it before James's death, which Josephus dates to AD 62 (Antiquities 20.200). The letter shows no awareness of the Gentile-circumcision controversy settled in Acts 15, which many take as evidence for the early date.

Theological reading

"Therewith bless we the Lord and Father; and therewith curse we men, who are made after the likeness of God: out of the same mouth cometh forth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be."

One tongue, two uses. James has just said, "the tongue can no man tame; it is a restless evil, it is full of deadly poison" (3:8). Now he shows the contradiction: the same tongue praises God and curses people.

The image of God. The cursing is wrong because those cursed "are made after the likeness of God" (the KJV tags "similitude" as Strong's G3669). The phrase reaches back to creation: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Genesis 1:26). After the flood the image grounds the protection of human life: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: For in the image of God made he man" (Genesis 9:6). To curse the image-bearer while blessing the one whose likeness he bears is a contradiction in worship.

"Ought not so to be." The illustrations follow: "Doth the fountain send forth from the same opening sweet water and bitter? Can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a vine figs?" (3:11-12). Nature does not produce such mixtures. A mouth that does reveals a divided heart, the "doubleminded" condition of 1:8.

Human dignity. The passage grounds human worth in creation, not in usefulness or status. The poor man in vile clothing (2:2) and the person cursed in anger bear the same likeness.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Lexicon:

Passages:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.