the Week of Proper 23 / Ordinary 28
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James 3:12
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Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.
Can you get a filly from a cow or a heifer from a mare? Salt water doesn't become fresh by putting it in a clean cup.
Is a fig-tree able to give us olives, my brothers, or do we get figs from a vine, or sweet water from the salt sea?
Can, my brethren, a fig produce olives, or a vine figs? Neither [can] salt [water] make sweet water.
Can a fig tree, my brothers, yield olives, or a vine figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh water.
Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries, or a vine figs? So can no fountain yield salt water and fresh.
Can a fig-tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a vine yield figs? No; and neither can salt water yield sweet.
Can ye figtree, my brethren, beare oliue berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountaine both yeeld salt water & fresh.
My brothers, a fig tree is not able to produce olives, or a vine figs. So neither can a fountain produce both salt and sweet water.
Can the fygge tree, my Brethren, beare oliue beries: ether a vyne beare fygges?
When You Open Your Mouth Don't be in any rush to become a teacher, my friends. Teaching is highly responsible work. Teachers are held to the strictest standards. And none of us is perfectly qualified. We get it wrong nearly every time we open our mouths. If you could find someone whose speech was perfectly true, you'd have a perfect person, in perfect control of life. A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it! It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell. This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can't tame a tongue—it's never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth! My friends, this can't go on. A spring doesn't gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it? Apple trees don't bear strawberries, do they? Raspberry bushes don't bear apples, do they? You're not going to dip into a polluted mud hole and get a cup of clear, cool water, are you?
Can a fig tree, my brothers, produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.
can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a vine figs? neither can salt water yield sweet.
Can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.
Can the fygge tree my Brethren beare olive beries: other a vyne beare fygges?
Can a fig tree, my brothers, yield olives, or a vine figs? Neither [can] salt water yield sweet.
Can the fig-tree, my brethren, bear olive-berries? or a vine, figs? so no fountain [can] yield both salt water and fresh.
is a fig-tree able, my brethren, olives to make? or a vine figs? so no fountain salt and sweet water [is able] to make.
My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree make olives, or can a grapevine make figs? No! And a well full of salty water cannot give good water.
Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters, or a vine produce figs? Neither can a salt water spring produce fresh water.
My brothers, can a fig tree grow olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
Can a fig tree produce olives or a grapevine produce figs? Does fresh water come from a well full of salt water?
Can a fig tree yield olives, my brothers? or a grapevine, figs? Neither does salt water produce fresh.
Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
Can ye figge tree, my brethren, bring forth oliues, either a vine figges? so can no fountaine make both salt water and sweete.
Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olives? Or the vine, figs? likewise also salt water cannot be made sweet.
Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a saltwater spring yield fresh water.
Can a fig tree, my brothers, yield olives, or a vine figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh water.
My brothers, a fig tree cannot produce olives, nor a grapevine figs, can it? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
12 Or can the fig-tree, my brethren, make olives, or the vines figs? thus also [fn] salt waters cannot be made sweet.
Or can the fig-tree, my brethren, bear olives? or the vine, figs? So also salt waters cannot be made sweet.
Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh. [fn]
Does a fig tree produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? No, and you can't draw fresh water from a salty spring.
Can a fig tree give olives or can a grape-vine give figs? A well does not give both good water and bad water.
Can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a vine figs? neither can salt water yield sweet.
Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.
Is it possible, my brethren, for, a fig-tree, to produce, olives, or, a vine, figs? Neither can, salt, water yield, sweet.
Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear grapes? Or the vine, figs? So neither can the salt water yield sweet.
Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
A fig tree is not able, my brothers, to produce olives, or a grapevine figs. Neither can a saltwater spring produce fresh water.
Can the fygge tree, my brethren, beare oliue beries? either a vine beare figges? So can no fountayne geue both salt water and freshe also.
My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree make olives? Or can a grapevine make figs? No, and a well full of salty water cannot give good water.
Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, bear olives, or a vine bear figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.
A fig tree, my friends, cannot bear olives; a grapevine cannot bear figs, nor can a salty spring produce sweet water.
My britheren, whether a fige tre may make grapis, ethir a vyne figus? So nethir salt watir mai make swete watir.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
the fig tree: Isaiah 5:2-4, Jeremiah 2:21, Matthew 7:16-20, Matthew 12:33, Luke 6:43, Luke 6:44, Romans 11:16-18
so: Exodus 15:23-25, 2 Kings 2:19-22, Ezekiel 47:8-11
Reciprocal: Genesis 1:11 - fruit Revelation 3:10 - to try
Cross-References
but he being desirous to clear himself, said to Jesus, but what is meant by our neighbour?
because being ignorant of the justice which is of God, and going about to establish a justification of their own, they have not submitted themselves to that which is of God.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries?.... Every tree bears fruit, according to its kind; a fig tree produces figs, and an olive tree olive berries; a fig tree does not produce olive berries, or an olive tree figs; and neither of them both:
either a vine, figs? or fig trees, grapes; or either of them, figs and grapes:
so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. The Alexandrian copy reads, "neither can the salt water yield sweet water"; that is, the sea cannot yield sweet or fresh water: the Syriac version renders it, "neither can salt water be made sweet": but naturalists say, it may be made sweet, by being strained through sand: the design of these similes is to observe how absurd a thing it is that a man should both bless and curse with his tongue.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Can the fig-tree, my brethren, bear olive-berries? - Such a thing is impossible in nature, and equally absurd in morals. A fig-tree bears only figs; and so the tongue ought to give utterance only to one class of sentiments and emotions. These illustrations are very striking, and show the absurdity of that which the apostle reproves. At the same time, they accomplish the main purpose which he had in view, to repress the desire of becoming public teachers without suitable qualifications. They show the power of the tongue; they show what a dangerous power it is for a man to wield who has not the proper qualifications; they show that no one should put himself in the position where he may wield this power without such a degree of tried prudence, wisdom, discretion, and piety, that there shall be a moral certainty that he will use it aright.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse 12. So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. — For the reading of the common text, which is οὑτως ουδεμια πηγη ἁλυκον και γλυκυ ποιησαι ὑδωρ, so no fountain can produce salt water and sweet, there are various other readings in the MSS. and versions. The word ουτως, so, which makes this a continuation of the comparison in James 3:11, is wanting in ABC, one other, with the Armenian and ancient Syriac; the later Syriac has it in the margin with an asterisk. ABC, five others, with the Coptic, Vulgate, one copy of the Itala, and Cyril, have ουτε ἁλυκον γλυκυ ποιησαι ὑδωρ, neither can salt water produce sweet. In the Syriac and the Arabic of Erpen, it is, So, likewise, sweet water cannot become bitter; and bitter water cannot become sweet. The true reading appears to be, Neither can salt water produce sweet, or, Neither can the sea produce fresh water; and this is a new comparison, and not an inference from that in James 3:11. This reading Griesbach has admitted into the text; and of it Professor White, in his Crisews, says, Lectio indubie genuina, "a reading undoubtedly genuine." There are therefore, four distinct comparisons here:
1. A fountain cannot produce sweet water and bitter.
2. A fig tree cannot produce olive berries.
3. A vine cannot produce figs.
4. Salt water cannot be made sweet. That is, according to the ordinary operations of nature, these things are impossible. Chemical analysis is out of the question.
