SEV Biblia, Chapter 1:15
Y la concupiscencia despus que ha concebido, da a luz al pecado; y el pecado, siendo cumplido, engendra muerte.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - James 1:15
Verse 15. When lust hath conceived] When the evil propensity works unchecked, it bringeth forth sin - the evil act between the parties is perpetrated. And sin, when it is finished] When this breach of the law of God and of innocence has been a sufficient time completed, it bringeth forth death - the spurious offspring is the fruit of the criminal connection, and the evidence of that death or punishment due to the transgressors.
Any person acquainted with the import of the verbs sullambanein, tiktein, and apokuein, will see that this is the metaphor, and that I have not exhausted it. sullambanw signifies concipio sobolem, quae comprehenditur utero; concipio foetum;] tiktw, pario, genero, efficio;-apokuew ex apo et kuw, praegnans sum, in utero gero. Verbum proprium praegnantium, quae foetum maturum emittunt. Interdum etiam gignendi notionem habet. - MAIUS, Obser. Sacr., vol. ii., page 184. Kypke and Schleusner.
Sin is a small matter in its commencement; but by indulgence it grows great, and multiplies itself beyond all calculation. To use the rabbinical metaphor lately adduced, it is, in the commencement, like the thread of a spider's web - almost imperceptible through its extreme tenuity or fineness, and as easily broken, for it is as yet but a simple irregular imagination; afterwards it becomes like a cart rope - it has, by being indulged produced strong desire and delight; next consent; then, time, place, and opportunity serving, that which was conceived in the mind, and finished in that purpose, is consummated by act.
"The soul, which the Greek philosophers considered as the seat of the appetites and passions, is called by Philo to qhlu, the female part of our nature; and the spirit to arren, the male part. In allusion to this notion, James represents men's lust as a harlot; which entices their understanding and will into its impure embraces, and from that conjunction conceives sin.
Sin, being brought forth, immediately acts, and is nourished by frequent repetition, till at length it gains such strength that in its turn it begets death. This is the true genealogy of sin and death. Lust is the mother of sin, and sin the mother of death, and the sinner the parent of both." See Macknight.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 15. Then when lust hath conceived , etc.] A proposal of pleasure or profit being made, agreeable to lust, or the principle of corrupt nature, sinful man is pleased with it; and instead of resisting and rejecting the motion made, he admits of it, and receives it, and cherishes it in his mind; he dallies and plays with it; he dwells upon it in his thoughts, and hides it under his tongue, and in his heart, as a sweet morsel, and forsakes it not, but contrives ways and means how to bring it about; and this is lust's conceiving. The figure is used in ( Psalm 7:14) on which Kimchi, a Jewish commentator, has this note; he (the psalmist) compares the thoughts of the heart wyrhl , to a conception, and when they go out in word, this is travail, and in work or act, this is bringing forth.
And so it follows here, it bringeth forth sin ; into act, not only by consenting to it, but by performing it: and sin, when it is finished : being solicited, is agreed to, and actually committed: bringeth forth death ; as the first sin of man brought death into the world, brought a spiritual death, or moral death upon man, subjected him to a corporeal death, and made him liable to an eternal one; so every sin is deserving of death, death is the just wages of it; yea, even the motions of sin work in men to bring forth fruit unto death. Something like these several gradual steps, in which sin proceeds, is observed by the Jews, and expressed in much the like language, in allegorizing the case of Lot, and his two daughters ; the concupiscent soul (or lust) stirs up the evil figment, and imagines by it, and it cleaves to every evil imagination, trb[tm , until it conceives a little, and produces in the heart of man the evil thought, and cleaves to it; and as yet it is in his heart, and is not finished to do it, until this desire or lust stirs up the strength of the body, first to cleave to the evil figment, and then h[rh wlt , sin is finished; as it is said, ( Genesis 19:36).
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 12-18 - It is not every man who suffers, that is blessed; but he who with patience and constancy goes through all difficulties in the way of duty. Afflictions cannot make us miserable, if it be not our own fault The tried Christian shall be a crowned one. The crown of life i promised to all who have the love of God reigning in their hearts Every soul that truly loves God, shall have its trials in this worl fully recompensed in that world above, where love is made perfect. The commands of God, and the dealings of his providence, try men's hearts and show the dispositions which prevail in them. But nothing sinful in the heart or conduct can be ascribed to God. He is not the author of the dross, though his fiery trial exposes it. Those who lay the blam of sin, either upon their constitution, or upon their condition in the world, or pretend they cannot keep from sinning, wrong God as if he were the author of sin. Afflictions, as sent by God, are designed to draw out our graces, but not our corruptions. The origin of evil an temptation is in our own hearts. Stop the beginnings of sin, or all the evils that follow must be wholly charged upon us. God has no pleasur in the death of men, as he has no hand in their sin; but both sin an misery are owing to themselves. As the sun is the same in nature an influences, though the earth and clouds, often coming between, make i seem to us to vary, so God is unchangeable, and our changes and shadow are not from any changes or alterations in him. What the sun is in nature, God is in grace, providence, and glory; and infinitely more. A every good gift is from God, so particularly our being born again, an all its holy, happy consequences come from him. A true Christia becomes as different a person from what he was before the renewin influences of Divine grace, as if he were formed over again. We shoul devote all our faculties to God's service, that we may be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures.
Greek Textus Receptus
ειτα 1534 η 3588 επιθυμια 1939 συλλαβουσα 4815 5631 τικτει 5088 5719 αμαρτιαν 266 η 3588 δε 1161 αμαρτια 266 αποτελεσθεισα 658 5685 αποκυει 616 5719 θανατον 2288
Vincent's NT Word Studies
15. The lust. Note the article, omitted in A.V. The peculiar lust of his own.
Hath conceived (sullabousa). Lit., having conceived.
Bringeth forth (tiktei). Metaphor of the mother. Rev. beareth.
When it is finished (apotelesqeisa). Better, Rev., when it is full grown. Not when the course of a sinful life is completed; but when sin has reached its full development.
Bringeth forth (apokuei). A different verb from the preceding, bringeth forth. Rev. has rendered tiktei, beareth, in order to avoid the repetition of bringeth forth. The verb is used by James only, here and at ver. 18. The image is interpreted in two ways. Either (1) Sin, figured as female, is already pregnant with death and, when full grown, bringeth forth death (so Rev., and the majority of commentators). "The harlot, Lust, draws away and entices the man. The guilty union is committed by the will embracing the temptress: the consequence is that she beareth sin.... Then the sin, that particular sin, when grown up, herself, as if all along pregnant with it, bringeth forth death" (Alford). Or (2) Sin, figured as male, when it has reached maturity, becomes the begetter of death. So the Vulgate, generat, and Wyc., gendereth. I am inclined to prefer this, since the other seems somewhat forced. It has the high endorsement of Bishop Lightfoot. There is a suggestive parallel passage in the "Agamemnon" of Aeschylus, 751-771:
"There is a saying old, Uttered in ancient days, That human bliss, full grown, Genders, and dies not childless: And, for the coming race, Springs woe insatiate from prosperity. But I alone Cherish within my breast another thought. The impious deed Begets a numerous brood alike in kind; While households ruled by right inflexible Blossom with offspring fair. Insolence old In men depraved begetteth insolence, Which springs afresh from time to time As comes the day of doom, and fresh creates In Ate's dismal halls Fierce wrath from light, Unhallowed Daring, fiend invincible, Unconquered, with its parents' likeness stamped."
The magnificent passage in Milton's "Paradise Lost," ii., 760-801, is elaborated from these verses of James.
