James 4:5 is a most confusing verse.[1] If you happen to have the newer New International Version (translated in 2011) in hand, you will read,
Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he [God] jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us?
Turn to the older NIV (1984), though, and you will instead find these words:
Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?
The difference in meaning between these translations is not insignificant. The verse may be reassuring us of God’s holy jealousy for our spirits, or it may be warning us about our spirits’ censurable propensity toward envy. How could the same version, updated after a quarter century, change so much? Surprised at the difference, you might check other translations, but recourse to them would not solve the problem. It would only add further variations on these two basic options.
There is another difficulty, as well. In the English Standard Version, quotation marks are added:
Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?
This would seem to suggest that a passage from the Old Testament has been quoted. Perhaps you, like me, occasionally come across a quotation like this in the New Testament, do not immediately recognize the phrasing, but assume it is present somewhere earlier in the Bible. Yet do all the research you like, and you will not find an Old Testament passage that says anything quite like “God jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us” or “the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely.”
How are we to explain these two perplexities? What is the right translation, and what “Scripture” is referenced?
Three Attempts to Identify the Unidentified “Scripture”
Let us take the issue of the unidentified “Scripture” in today’s post. Several solutions have been offered by scholars. (1) Some propose that a now-lost writing is being quoted. There is circumstantial evidence for this possibility,[2] and the Greek syntax inclines toward a quotation proper.[3] (2) Among evangelical scholars, probably the commonest solution is to take this as a sweeping summary of a reiterated Old Testament teaching. For example, if divine jealousy is in view, then it might remind us of God’s zeal for his people expressed in any number of passages — but centered on none in particular. It would be like someone today saying, “The Bible declares that God loves sinners.” This is a valid enough biblical sentiment, but no one passage uses those exact words. There is precedent for this elsewhere in the New Testament, as in John 7:38. (3) Still others suggest that what we have not one but two rhetorical questions in Jas 4:5. Assuming the human-envy translation as an example, Jas 4:5 might read, “Or do you think Scripture speaks without reason? Does the spirit he has caused to live in us envy intensely?” The implied answer to the first would be “no” and to the second, “yes.”
A Long Introduction to Proverbs 3:34?
A final option, perhaps the least frequently adopted by commentators, I find to be the strongest. (4) The “Scripture” of Jas 4:5 points ahead to Jas 4:6, when Prov 3:34 is quoted.[4] What we have in Jas 4:5–6a is then a long, preparatory introduction for the quotation in v. 6b: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” This solution was first offered by Craig B. Carpenter.[5] Carpenter noticed that Jas 4:6a, “but he gives greater grace” (μείζονα δὲ δίδωσιν χάριν), is nearly identical in Greek to the second line of the proverb, “but he gives grace to the humble” (ταπεινοῖς δὲ δίδωσιν χάριν). He concluded from this that Jas 4:5–6a is an interpretive paraphrase of Prov 3:34, supplied beforehand to frame the upcoming quotation.
One of the primary objections leveled against Carpenter’s view over the two decades since he published his article is that “Scripture says” is a technical formula that does two things: it introduces a quotation, rather than a general theme, and it does so immediately, rather than after some delay. Were that the case, not only would Carpenter’s position be untenable, so would options (2) and (3) above. This would leave a quotation from a lost source the only viable solution. Considering the specific wording “Scripture says” (ἡ γραφὴ λέγει) in the New Testament, both points do seem to hold. It is always near the Old Testament reference, and with the lone exception of John 7:38, it is a recognizable passage.
This conclusion is, however, a mirage. If you relax either of the constraints, “Scripture says” no longer looks like a stock opening that immediately introduces a quotation. Peer beyond the New Testament into the next generation of early Christian writings, especially 1 Clement (about AD 95) and the Epistle of Barnabas (early second century), and you can find scores of counterexamples. Or look for functional equivalents to “Scripture” and counterexamples can be found in the pages of the New Testament itself. Particularly interesting in this regard is how Paul introduces Psalm 32:1–2 (quoted in Rom 4:7–8) in Rom 4:6: “David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works.” Paul’s introduction to the psalm measures about equal in length to Jas 4:5–6a. Further, just as James seems to paraphrase the quotation by echoing some of the wording, so does Paul. When he speaks of “blessedness” in Rom 4:6, it is an obvious reference to the “blessed” repeated twice in the quotation from Ps 32:1–2.
Given passages such as Rom 4:6, then, it is entirely in keeping with other early Christian writings to see Jas 4:5–6a as one long introduction to Prov 3:34, quoted in Jas 4:6b. This, to my mind, is the most satisfactory explanation of the otherwise mysterious reference to “Scripture.”
Timothy Gabrielson is assistant professor of biblical studies at Sterling College in Kansas and an academic tutor for the BibleMesh Institute.
[1] This post summarizes my article, “Identifying a Mysterious ‘Scripture’: Romans 4:6 as Further Evidence That James 4:5–6 Is a Gloss of Proverbs 3:34,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 83 (2021): 276–93. Occasionally the wording is identical to the published version.
[2] Most frequently, the lost source is thought to be Eldad and Modad, which was an apocryphal expansion of the narrative of Num 11:16–30 (see esp. vv. 26–27). A second-century Christian writing, the Shepherd of Hermas (Vis. 2.3.4), mentions a “book of Eldad and Modad,” and two similarly early Christian works quote a lost source that is often thought to be the same writing (1 Clem. 23.3–4 = 2 Clem. 11.2–4). None of these match Jas 4:5 directly, but in a variety of ways, they are suggestive of it.
[3] The formula that opens the quotation, ἢ δοκεῖτε ὅτι κενῶς ἡ γραφὴ λέγει (“Or do you suppose that vainly Scripture says …”), should, according to the niceties of proper Greek syntax, open direct discourse, that is, a verbatim quotation (as in the ESV). To introduce indirect discourse (as in either version of the NIV), ὅτι (“that”) should be added at the end. It is debatable, however, how strictly these rules were followed by everyday speakers of Greek.
[4] Those who discern two rhetorical questions in Jas 4:5 also frequently think its reference to “Scripture” points ahead to the quotation of Prov 3:34 in Jas 4:6.
[5] Carpenter, “James 4.5 Reconsidered,” New Testament Studies 47 (2001): 189–205.