James 3:13-4:10 and the Language of Envy in Proverbs 3

Abstract

Although a few interpreters have noted in passing numerous verbal links between Jas 3:13–4:10 and LXX Prov 3:21–35, James's passage is regularly read as a polemic against that is most at home within Hellenistic moral literature. I argue that literary and thematic coherence of Jas 3:13–4:10 derives not primarily from Hellenistic topos of (so Luke Timothy Johnson) but from metaleptic interplay with Prov 3:21–35. The explicit appeal to the Scripture in Jas 4:5 and citation of Prov 3:34 in Jas 4:6 indicate that tropes usually interpreted against backdrop of Hellenistic moral literature (friendship, violence, etc.) resonate more naturally within cave of Prov 3. Like many passages in sapiential literature (e.g., Prov 14:1, 19; 4Q416 2 II, 11; 4Q4188, 12; Wis 1:9–12; Sir 9:1–11), Jas 3:13–4:10 foregrounds language of jealousy to expose tragedy of bad ζῆλος. In trying to locate parallels to James's usage in Hellenistic writings, interpreters have failed to appreciate how movement from ζῆλος in Jas 3:14, 16 and 4:2 to φθόνος in 4:5 simply resonates with a description found already in Isocrates: an envious person (φθόνος) is one whose good emulation (ζῆλος) has degenerated into jealous imitation because of unfulfilled desires. More significant than particular semantic choices, then, is that James's usage mimics way Prov v 3:31 links [inline-graphic 01] /ζῆλος with neglect of needy, distorted friendship, and emulation of ways of evil/violent people (Prov 3:27, 29, 31). Using this wisdom motif from Prov 3:21–35 as interpretive lens for Jas 3:13–4:10 lends further support to a growing consensus about notorious interpretive crux in Jas 4:5: (1) that formula in 4:5 does not introduce a citation of an unknown text, and (2) that it is human spirit (rather than God's) that is characterized by envy (φθόνος).