Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of James 3:11
Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet [water] and bitter?
11. Doth a fountain ] The Greek gives the article, the fountain, as more emphatically generalising the question.
send forth at the same place ] Both verb and noun in the Greek are more vivid. Our word spurt or gush, if it could be used transitively, would answer to the former; our mouth, or “source”, or “orifice”, to the latter. The comparison was a natural one in a country like Palestine, where springs more or less salt or sulphureous are not uncommon. Most of those on the eastern slope of the hill-country of Judah and Benjamin are indeed brackish. Comp. the sweetening of the spring which supplied the college of the Sons of the Prophets in 2 Kings, 2Ki 2:19, and the symbolic healing of the waters in Eze 47:9.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Doth a fountain send forth at the same place – Margin, hole. The Greek word means opening, fissure, such as there is in the earth, or in rocks from which a fountain gushes.
Sweet water and bitter – Fresh water and salt, Jam 3:12. Such things do not occur in the works of nature, and they should not be found in man.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 11. Doth a fountain send forth – sweet water and bitter?] In many things nature is a sure guide to man; but no such inconsistency is found in the natural world as this blessing and cursing in man. No fountain, at the same opening, sends forth sweet water and bitter; no fig tree can bear olive berries; no vine can bear figs; nor can the sea produce salt water and fresh from the same place. These are all contradictions, and indeed impossibilities, in nature. And it is depraved man alone that can act the monstrous part already referred to.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Ordinarily and naturally; if any such be, it is looked upon as uncouth and prodigious.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. fountainan image of theheart: as the aperture (so the Greek for “place”is literally) of the fountain is an image of man’s mouth. Theimage here is appropriate to the scene of the Epistle, Palestine,wherein salt and bitter springs are found. Though “sweet”springs are sometimes found near, yet “sweet and bitter”(water) do not flow “at the same place” (aperture).Grace can make the same mouth that “sent forth the bitter”once, send forth the sweet for the time to come: as the wood (typicalof Christ’s cross) changed Marah’s bitter water into sweet.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Doth a fountain send forth at the same place,…. “Or hole”; for at divers places, and at different times, as Pliny m observes, it may send forth
sweet [water] and bitter: and it is reported n, there is a lake with the Trogloditae, a people in Ethiopia, which becomes thrice a day bitter, and then as often sweet; but then it does not yield sweet water and bitter at the same time: this simile is used to show how unnatural it is that blessing and cursing should proceed out of the same mouth.
m Nat. Hist. l. 2. c. 103. n Isodor. Hispal. Originum, l. 13. c. 13. p. 115.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The fountain ( ). Old word for spring (Joh 4:14).
Opening (). Old word for fissure in the earth, in N.T. only here and Heb 11:38 (caves).
Send forth (). Present active indicative of , old verb, to bubble up, to gush forth, here only in N.T. The use of shows that a negative answer is expected in this rhetorical question.
The sweet and the bitter ( ). Cognate accusatives with . Separate articles to distinguish sharply the two things. The neuter singular articular adjective is a common way of presenting a quality. is an old adjective (in N.T. only here and Re 10:9f.), the opposite of (from old root, to cut, to prick), in N.T. only here and verse 14 (sharp, harsh).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Doth a fountain, etc. The interrogative particle, mhti, which begins the sentence, expects a negative answer. Fountain has the article, “the fountain,” generic. See Introduction, on James’ local allusions. The Land of Promise was pictured to the Hebrew as a land of springs (Deu 8:7, Deu 11:11). “Palestine,” says Dean Stanley, “was the only country where an Eastern could have been familiar with the language of the Psalmist : ‘He sendeth the springs into the valleys which run among the mountains. ‘ Those springs, too, however short – lived, are remarkable for their copiousness and beauty. Not only not in the East, but hardly in the West, can any fountains and sources of streams be seen, so clear, so full – grown even at their birth, as those which fall into the Jordan and its lakes throughout its whole course from north to south” (” Sinai and Palestine “). The Hebrew word for a fountain or spring is ayin, meaning an eye. “The spring,” says the same author, “is the bright, open source, the eye of the landscape.” 31 Send forth [] . An expressive word, found nowhere else in the New Testament, and denoting a full, copious discharge. Primarily it means to be full to bursting; and is used therefore, of budding plants, teeming soil, etc., as in the charming picture of the sacred grove at the opening of the “Oedipus Coloneus” of Sophocles : “full [] of bay, olive, and vine.” Hence, to burst forth or gush. Though generally intransitive, it is used transitively here.
Place [] . Rather, opening or hole in the earth or rock. Rev., opening. Compare caves, Heb 11:38. The word is pleasantly suggestive in connection with the image of the eye of the landscape. See above. Sweet water and bitter. The readers of the epistle would recall the bitter waters of Marah (Exo 14:23), and the unwholesome spring at Jericho (2Ki 2:19 – 21).
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) Does a fountain head or fountain place spew out of its mouth both sweet and bitter (poison and pure) water? Waters of two, qualities of material? This is a rhetoric question suggesting an affirmative “no”, Mar 7:6; Pro 18:21.
2) The very nature of the question affirms that it is inconsistent for a child of God to spew forth from his mouth a flow of any conversation that would be offensive to God or contradictory to his new nature, which is to have control over his body, Gal 5:25; 1Jn 3:18.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
11 Doth a fountain. He adduces these comparisons in order to shew that a cursing tongue is something monstrous, contrary to all nature, and subverts the order everywhere established by God. For God hath so arranged things which are contrary, that inanimate things ought to deter us from a chaotic mixture, sure as is found in a double tongue. (123)
(123) There is a different reading at the end of the Jas 3:12, adopted by Griesbach, though rejected by Mill and others: οὕτως οὔτε ἁλυχὸν γλυχὺ ποιὢσαι ὕδωρ, “So neither can salt water produce sweet.” This reading is favored by the Syr. and Vulg., though the words are somewhat different.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(11) Doth a (or, the) fountain send forth (literally, spurt) at the same place (or, hole, see margin) sweet water and bitter (i.e., fresh water and salt)?A vivid picture, probably, of the mineral springs abounding in the Jordan valley, near the Dead Sea; with which might be contrasted the clear and sparkling rivulets of the north, fed by the snows of Lebanon. Nature had no confusion in her plans; and thus to pour out curse and blessing from the same lips were unnatural indeed. Or, again
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. The moral impossibility of such opposite manifestations of character is illustrated by the products of nature. It is, in moral character, the opposition between incompatible qualities. If a man display one set of qualities he cannot possess the other, so as to be a wicked man and a holy man, an heir of heaven and a child of hell at the same time.
Place Fissure from which the water jets forth.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Does the fountain send forth from the same opening sweet water and bitter?’
The writer now illustrates the matter in different ways. The ‘coming forth’ from the mouth and the ‘blessing and cursing’ now leads on to the ‘sending forth’ from a fountain or spring, and the idea of ‘sweet, thirst-quenching water and bitter water’. Can a fountain or spring from the same opening (or crevice in the rock) produce both sweet water and bitter? Nature is not so inconsistent. Only man behaves in such a foolish way.
Not having water on tap all James’ hearers knew how important it was whether a spring was drinkable or not. The spring could be a thing of blessing or a thing of cursing, a thing of great joy and refreshment, or a huge disappointment. But it could never be both. So those from whom should come springs of living water (Joh 7:38) must not also be the means of poisoning the minds and hearts of their brothers and sisters.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jas 3:11 . Illustration of the unnaturalness of the conduct mentioned by an image taken from nature: Does the fountain from the same hole send forth the sweet and the bitter?
] The article is not here for the sake of liveliness (Schneckenburger: articulus fontem quasi ante oculos pingit), but is used because is generically considered.
] , the hollow, Heb 11:38 , Exo 33:22 , Obad. Jas 3:3 , is here the hole from which the water of the fountain streams forth. refers to man; , to the mouth. The chief accent is on , which points back to , Jas 3:10 .
] an . ., properly to sprout forth, then to overflow, is here used transitively, to cause to flow forth.
and indicate, indeed, the two different kinds of water , yet linguistically is not to be supplied; the former refers to , and the latter to . With this verse James says only that happens not in nature, which occurs in the case of man, out of whose mouth proceed blessing and cursing. The following verse first expresses the impossibility.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?
Ver. 11. Doth a fountain send forth ] The fountain, or rather the botch, of sensual and sinful pleasures doth. Sin is a bitter sweet, , the poison of asps, which first tickleth, and then killeth. All creature comforts are dulcis acerbitas, saith one. Amarissima volulptas, saith another, (Tertul.)
” Principium dulce est, at finis amoris amarus;
Laeta venire Venus, tristis abire solet.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
11 .] Illustration from nature, that such conduct is unnatural . Doth a fountain (the fountain, generically, as , Joh 12:24 ; , Mat 13:3 ; , Mat 15:19-20 al. freq.) out of the same chink (hole, from which the water flows, in a rock, or in the earth. The word is probably connected with , ) send forth ( , which is generally intransitive, cf. Soph. d. Col. 16 f., , , | , is used transitively by Anacreon, 37. 2, , , ) the sweet and the bitter (water, of course: but there is no need to supply any thing: the contrast is in the contrary nature of the two)?
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Jas 3:11 . : these words show that the writer is thinking of the real source whence both good and evil words come; cf. Mat 12:34-35 : Ye offspring of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh ; cf . below; does not occur elsewhere in the N.T. or the Septuagint; and is only found elsewhere in the N.T. in Heb 11:38 , cf. Exo 33:22 ; is only used here and in Jas 3:14 in the N.T.; cf. Sir 4:6 , .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
send forth. Greek. bruo. Only here.
at = out of. App-104.
place = hole. Greek. ope. See Heb 11:38 (caves).
bitter. Greek. pikros. Only here and Jam 3:14.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
11.] Illustration from nature, that such conduct is unnatural. Doth a fountain (the fountain, generically, as , Joh 12:24; , Mat 13:3; , Mat 15:19-20 al. freq.) out of the same chink (hole, from which the water flows, in a rock, or in the earth. The word is probably connected with , ) send forth (, which is generally intransitive,-cf. Soph. d. Col. 16 f., , , | ,-is used transitively by Anacreon, 37. 2, , , ) the sweet and the bitter (water, of course: but there is no need to supply any thing: the contrast is in the contrary nature of the two)?
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Jam 3:11. , a fountain) The heart resembles this.-, an aperture) the mouth resembles this.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
place: or, hole, Jam 3:11
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jas 3:11-12. James refers to the consistency of the things in the natural creation, to shame the man who is double-minded in the use of his tongue. The same God who made the inanimate things named also created man and gave him a tongue wherewith to express his intelligence. How inexcusable it is therefore in him to make such an evil use of the blessing of speech.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jas 3:11. Now follow, after the apostles method, two illustrations of this incongruity, taken from the natural world. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place: literally, at the same hole or fissurefrom the same spring.
sweet water and bitter: literally, the sweet and the bitter.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Jas 3:11-12. Doth a fountain send forth at the same opening, alternately, and at different times, sweet water and bitter As if he had said, No such inconsistency is found in the natural world, and nothing of the kind ought to be known in the moral world. Estius observes, that the apostles design was to confirm his doctrine by four similitudes; the first taken from fountains, the second and third from fruit-trees, and the fourth from the sea, which being in its nature salt, does not produce fresh water. He therefore approves of the reading of the Alexandrian MS., which is, So neither can salt water produce sweet. The Syriac version reads, Salt waters cannot be made sweet; and the Vulgate, So neither can salt water make fresh water. In like manner, we ought to maintain a consistency in our words or discourses; and if we profess religion and devotion, we should speak at all times as persons who are endeavouring to employ our tongues to the noble purposes for which the use of speech was granted to man.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet [water] and bitter?
To prove that “these things ought not so to be” James observes that a water source does not put out two types of water at the same time. It is impossible. It is against nature. It is not logical.
“Fountain” can mean a fisure or spring. When in my early years I went to a Bible camp in north-eastern Nebraska. It was rustic and built by a lake. The lake was fed by a natural spring in the side of the hill above the lake. The spring was on the way between the boys cabins and the dinning hall. It was our custom to stop and drink from that spring every time we passed by it. The water was clean, cool and so good. We always knew that when we stopped we would get clean, cool and good water. It never entered our mind that we might one day find the water dirty, warm and terrible. The later is impossibility for it is not in the nature of the spring to do so.
Gill mentions that Pliny wrote of “a lake with the Trogloditae, a people in Ethiopia, which becomes thrice a day bitter, and then as often sweet; but then it does not yield sweet water and bitter at the same time:”
James continues.
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
Illustrations highlight this natural inconsistency (cf. Mat 7:16). A water source can yield only one kind of water. A tree can only produce fruit of its own kind. A salt spring cannot produce fresh water any more than a fallen human nature can naturally produce pure words. A fountain, a tree, and the tongue all have power to delight (cf. Jas 3:5; Jas 3:8).
"Small and influential, the tongue must be controlled; satanic and infectious, the tongue must be corralled; salty and inconsistent, the tongue must be cleansed." [Note: Blue, p. 828.]
James was dealing, as in the preceding chapters, with root causes of human behavior that is out of harmony with God’s will. He contrasts strongly with the religious teachers that Jesus rebuked for their superficiality and hypocrisy. He was, of course, picturing human behavior as it is naturally apart from the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit.