James 3:1-12
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- Reading the Text:
- NRSV (with link to Anglicized NRSV) at Oremus Bible Browser.
- Greek Interlinear Bible, ScrTR, ScrTR t, Strong, Parsing, CGTS, CGES id, AV.
- The Bible Gateway: NIV, NASB, CEV, The Message, KJV, etc.
- The Blue Letter Bible - KJV, alternate versions, Greek text with concordance, commentaries.
- The World Wide Study Bible includes commentary, exposition and sermons.
- Historical References, Commentary and
Comparative Texts:
- Comparative World Scriptures from United Communities of Spirit: Slander, Gossip, and Foul Speech.
- Vision II.2, Commandment V.1, Shepherd of Hermas. (c.145)
- Chapter VI, On Patience, Tertullian (c. 202)
- From the
Geneva Notes.
- "Let no man usurp (as most men ambitiously do) authority to judge and censure others harshly."
- From
Matthew Henry's
Commentary.
- "The affairs of mankind are thrown into confusion by the tongues of men."
- From
Wesley's Notes.
- "St. James here, as in several of the following verses, by a common figure of speech, includes himself: we shall receive, - we offend, - we put bits, - we curse - None of which, as common sense shows, are to be interpreted either of him or of the other apostles."
- From the
Commentary on the Whole Bible
(Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, 1871).
- "At first all were allowed to teach in turns. Even their inspired gifts did not prevent liability to abuse, as James here implies: much more is this so when self-constituted teachers have no such miraculous gifts."
- From
The People's
New Testament, B.W. Johnson, 1891.
- "Do not many of you seek to be teachers. The office of public teaching in the church is meant."
- Contemporary Commentary, Studies, and Exegesis:
-
- "Consistently with his previous arguments, James insists that the ideal of discipleship extends even to self-control with regard to casual speech. And that goes double for leaders in the church!"
-
-
"First
Thoughts on Passages on Year B Epistle Passages in the Lectionary,"
Pentecost 15, William
Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.
- "It is salutory to be reminded that communication does things to people, the givers and the receivers. Wisdom is about getting things together, seeing how they connect, and becoming more of a whole person."
-
"Taming
the Tongue,"
The Journey with Jesus: Notes to Myself, Daniel B. Clendenin, Journey
with Jesus Foundation, 2009.
- "With our words we name the world and each other, and at least in some sense our naming creates a genuine reality. Once our speech and narratives take hold, they have a tremendous power and tenacity for good or evil."
-
"Setting Nature on Fire," Halden Doerge, The Ekklesia Project,
2009.
- "We are called to refuse the form of power that is practiced in the ideologies that set nature on fire all around us. The deceitful words of those in power, the words of blessing and cursing from the same mouth, these the words we are called to reject."
- "The Wisdom of James," Robert W. Wall, Baylor University Christian Ethics, 2009. Section on this text, "The Wise Community Talks the Walk," begins on p. 33.
-
- Articles & Background:
-
"Heard
about the Pastor Who...? Gossip as an Ethical Activity," The
Christian Century, 1990.
- "Gossip, as a church activity without malice, may well be, at its best, the moral casuistry of ordinary people, a primary means of congregational bonding, a source of utterly essential moral data about ourselves, an everyday means of investigating communally what it means to be baptized."
- "Mind Your Tongue: Reflections on Christian Conversation," William E. Hulme, Word & World, 1986.
-
"(An)Other
Terrain for Thought: 'Good Gossip'," Mary Leach, Ohio State
University.
- "The very notion of gossip, positioned as it is, outside of if not contrary to normalized, disciplinary philosophical convention, suggests to me a possible route of escape, providing moments to re\think, to re\fuse what we are, to con\test the dominant in order to move to some place which might be named a counter discourse of feminist imaginaries."
- Response: "Where's
the Good?" Suzanne Rice, University of Kansas.
- "Mary's paper invites inquiry into the "kinds of relations constructed when we engage in...gossiping." Her own inquiry focuses mainly on the activity of gossiping itself and on the relations between those who gossip. I hope to contribute to this discussion by examining the relation between the activity of gossip and its content and the relation between gossipers and those about whom they gossip."
-
"Barriers to Willing One Thing: Variety and Great Moments Are Not One
Thing," Chapter 3 in
Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing by Sören Kierkegaard,
1938.
- "But talk takes the name of enthusiasm in vain by proclaiming loudly from the housetop what it should work out in silence. And in the midst of the trivial details of life these enthusiastic words are quickly forgotten."
-
"Heard
about the Pastor Who...? Gossip as an Ethical Activity," The
Christian Century, 1990.
-
Recommended articles
from ATLAS, an online collection of religion and theology journals, are
linked below.
ATLAS Access options are available for academic institutions, alumni of
selected theological schools, and clergy/church offices.
- Culpepper, R. Alan,
"The Power of Words and the Tests of Two Wisdoms," Review and Expositor,
1986.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Hulme, William E.,
"Mind Your Tongue: Reflections on Christian Conversation," Word and
World, 1986.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Marty, Martin E.,
"Keep It to Yourself," The Christian Century, 2005.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Porter, Virgil V., Jr.,
"The Sermon on the Mount in the Book of James, Part 1," Bibliotheca
Sacra, 2005.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Porter, Virgil V., Jr.,
"The Sermon on the Mount in the Book of James, Part 2," Bibliotheca
Sacra, 2005.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Shore, Mary Hinkle,
"Lesson Plans," The Christian Century, 2003.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Stacy, R. Wayne,
"The Power to Bless: James 3:1-12 (A Sermon)," Review and Expositor,
2000.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Talbert, Charles H.,
"James: Teaching Outlines and Selected Sermon Seeds," Review and
Expositor, 2000. (See especially, "On the Tongue," (p. 175.))
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Watson, Duane F.,
"The Rhetoric of James 3:1-12 and a Classical Pattern of Argumentation,"
Novum Testamentum, 1993.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Wenig, Margaret Moers,
"Sacred Speech - Sacred Communities," Reconstructionist, 2002.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Willimon, William H.,
"Heard about the Pastor Who...Gossip as an Ethical Activity," The
Christian Century, 1990.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
- Culpepper, R. Alan,
"The Power of Words and the Tests of Two Wisdoms," Review and Expositor,
1986.
- Reviews:
- Sermons:
- "James: The Tongue," Pastor Edward F. Markquart, Grace Lutheran Church, Seattle, Washington.
- "The Power of Words," John Jewell, 2000.
- With Children:
-
"Watch What You Say!"
-
"Watch What You Say!"
- Drama:
- "Extreme Makeover," Melinda Cousins, dramatix.
- Graphics & Bulletin Materials:
- Hymns and Music:
- Fine Arts Images Linked at The Text This Week's Art Index:
- Movies Linked at The Text This Week's Movie Concordance, with the following themes:
- Study Links and Resources for the Book of James
