ris3n's Apologetics Codex
James 4.5
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Passage

James 4.5

Book: James · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

3. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it in your pleasures. 4. Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God.

5. Or think ye that the scripture speaketh in vain? Doth the spirit which he made to dwell in us long unto envying?

  1. But he giveth more grace. Wherefore the scripture saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. 7. Be subject therefore unto God; but resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:3-7, ASV)
WEB

3. You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it for your pleasures. 4. You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

5. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”?

  1. But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 7. Be subject therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:3-7, WEB)
KJV

3. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. lusts: or, pleasures 4. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

5. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? to envy: or, enviously? to envy: or, enviously

  1. But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. 7. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:3-7, KJV)
YLT

3. ye ask, and ye receive not, because evilly ye ask, that in your pleasures ye may spend [it]. 4. Adulterers and adulteresses! have ye not known that friendship of the world is enmity with God? whoever, then, may counsel to be a friend of the world, an enemy of God he is set.

5. Do ye think that emptily the Writing saith, 'To envy earnestly desireth the spirit that did dwell in us,'

  1. and greater grace he doth give, wherefore he saith, 'God against proud ones doth set Himself up, and to lowly ones He doth give grace?' 7. be subject, then, to God; stand up against the devil, and he will flee from you; (James 4:3-7, 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

"Or think ye that the scripture speaketh in vain? Doth the spirit which he made to dwell in us long unto envying?" This is among the most debated verses in the letter, and the translations show why.

Which scripture? No Old Testament verse reads like the second half of 4:5. Interpreters therefore take "the scripture" either as a summary of a theme found in several places, such as God's jealousy for His people ("Jehovah, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God," Exodus 34:14), or as pointing ahead to the actual quotation in 4:6, from Proverbs 3:34.

Whose longing? The Greek can be read two ways, and the translations divide. The ASV asks whether the human spirit God made to dwell in us "long[s] unto envying," expecting the answer no. The KJV reads "The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy," a statement about the human spirit's bent toward envy. The WEB reads "The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously," taking God (or His Spirit) as the one who longs jealously for the people He has made His own. The difference between the ASV's "which he made to dwell" and the KJV's "that dwelleth" (Strong's G2730) also reflects a small variation in the Greek manuscripts.

What is clear either way. On every reading, the verse stands between a charge of spiritual adultery (4:4) and the promise "But he giveth more grace" (4:6). Whether the longing is God's jealous love or the human spirit's envy, the answer is the same: God gives grace to the humble, and the next verses call for submission to Him (4:7-10). The meaning of the paragraph does not hang on settling the puzzle of one clause.

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

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.