The Narrow Path Ministries

Which scripture is referred to in James 4:5?

Another possible rendering of verse 5, favored by a number of scholars, would be:

"Do you think that the Scripture speaks in vain?
The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously [over us].

This requires only a change in the punctuation, which is not a feature of the original text. This way of punctuating would suggest that James may not be introducing a particular quotation from the Old Testament, but that he is referring to the generic teaching of the scripture, possibly in many texts.

The passage, in context, would thus read as follows:

4. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

5.Do you think that the Scripture speaks in vain?

The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously [over us].

6. But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:
“ God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”

But what teaching of the Old Testament is he referring to? Could he be referring to that which is quoted in verse 6 (which is Prov.3:34)? That is the only actual quotation from the Old Testament in the proximity, but it does not make a very smooth train of thought.

Or is he referring to the ideas immediately preceding (v.4), where friendship with the world is spiritual adultery? Such language is used of disloyalty to God in many Old Testament passages. If he is saying, "Do you think God is speaking emptily when, in the scriptures, He calls unfaithfulness to Him 'adultery'? It is no less so whether the idol you replace Him with is a graven image, or whether it is the world itself (cf., 1 John 2:15ff)."

That the reference is, in fact, to the matter of God seeing this as adultery would be confirmed by the reference to the Spirit's jealousy over us in the same verse.

Thanks Steve,

The punctuation makes sense, but the flow of the thought seems convoluted. How about something like this:

Do you think that the Scripture speaks in vain?
The spirit that dwells in us lusts with envy, but He gives more grace. Therefore He says:
“God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Alternatively, since the word "graphe" simply means "writings", I initially thought that maybe "scripture" was not the best interpretation and that he was referring to some other writing that has been lost to us.