Henry Krabbendam - James - World Evangelical Alliance

656
(2) Reason for One’s Condition (4:2-3)
The reason for the existing condition is fourfold. The translation is designed
to bring this out. This is admittedly somewhat controversial, because it is
open to several possibilities (Dibelius, 218). However, I have chosen the
translation which has increasingly become the majority view. “You lust and
have not, so you murder. You burn with desire to have, and cannot obtain, so
you fight and war. You have not, because you ask not. You ask, and do not
receive, because you ask amiss so that you may squander it upon your lustful
desires.” 316
First, “You lust and have not. So you murder.” The lust (epithumia) of
the flesh, of anxious self-seeking (Burdick, 192), with its accompanying envy
and selfish ambition, is “insatiable” (Calvin, 329), and therefore a tragically
catastrophic “dead-end street” (See also Jam. 1:14-15). It is hardly surprising
that it is the sum and substance of one of the commandments in the Decalogue,
namely the Tenth. Its core is the moral failure to be content, whether
with (1 Tim. 6:6-8) or without (Phil. 3:12) the (bare) necessities of life.
Therefore perpetrators of the sin against this commandment invariably focus
their attention on what they do not (yet) possess, rather than on what they do
possess. When they encounter obstacles, and are stopped dead in their tracks,
they “happily” murder and destroy, irrespective of the ensuing chaos. 317 If
this is the only way to realize their lustful desires, and to reach their goal of
personal pleasure, whether it is money, fame, revenge, etc., they will go this
route (Prov. 1:19; Mk. 15:10). And why would they not? Anything that
comes in between the flesh and the object of its passions, must be neutralized
at any price, and, if needs be, removed and annihilated. Murder, whether as “a
hypothetical eventuality” or “an actual occurrence,” is “the end product”
316 The translation Dibelius, 218, suggests is as follows. “You desire / And you do not have.
You are jealous and envious / And you do not obtain. You fight and strive / And you do not
have because you do not ask. You ask / And you do not receive because you ask with the
wrong motive.” However, he emends the text from “You murder” to “You are jealous,” convinced
that the charge of murder is inconceivable in this context. His proposed emendation
appears forced upon him, because quite clearly “you murder,” preceding “and (you are) envious,”
simply does not fit in his over-all choice of translation. To be sure, it must be granted
that “you murder” (phoneuete) and “you are jealous” (phtoneite) resemble each other in the
Greek, but there is no text-critical indication that the suggested emendation is justified. Dibelius
does score somewhat of a point, however, when he argues that the word “So” before “you
murder” inserted in the more recent translations is not found in the Greek text. Nevertheless I
prefer to add the word “So” with the majority of interpreters, rather than change the text with
Dibelius (See also Cargal, 156-158, who comes to the same conclusion).
317 While, according to Moo, 1985, 140-141, it may seem rather extreme for James to argue
the thesis that envy, conjoined with frustrated lusts and stymied pleasure, goes hand in glove
with actual murder, it is regrettably far from unthinkable in the light of the ample biblical evidence
to this effect (Mk. 15:10; Acts 5:17; 13:45; Phil 3:6).