SEV Biblia, Chapter 1:17
Toda buena ddiva, y todo don perfecto es de lo alto, que desciende del Padre de las lumbres, en el cual no hay mudanza, ni sombra de variacin.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - James 1:17
Verse 17. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above] Whatever is good is from God; whatever is evil is from man himself. As from the sun, which is the father or fountain of light, all light comes; so from GOD, who is the infinite Fountain, Father, and Source of good, all good comes. And whatever can be called good, or pure, or light, or excellence of any kind, must necessarily spring from him, as he is the only source of all goodness and perfection.
With whom is no variableness] The sun, the fountain of light to the whole of our system, may be obscured by clouds; or the different bodies which revolve round him, and particularly the earth, may from time to time suffer a diminution of his light by the intervention of other bodies eclipsing his splendour; and his apparent tropical variation, shadow of turning; when, for instance, in our winter, he has declined to the southern tropic, the tropic of Capricorn, so that our days are greatly shortened, and we suffer in consequence a great diminution both of light and heat. But there is nothing of this kind with God; he is never affected by the changes and chances to which mortal things are exposed. He occupies no one place in the universe; he fills the heavens and the earth, is everywhere present, sees all, pervades all, and shines upon all; dispenses his blessings equally to the universe; hates nothing that he has made; is loving to every man; and his tender mercies are over all his works: therefore he is not affected with evil, nor does he tempt, or influence to sin, any man. The sun, the source of light, rises and sets with a continual variety as to the times of both, and the length of the time in which, in the course of three hundred and sixty-five days, five hours, forty-eight minutes, and forty-eight seconds, it has its revolution through the ecliptic, or rather the earth has its revolution round the sun; and by which its light and heat are, to the inhabitants of the earth, either constantly increasing or decreasing: but God, the Creator and Preserver of all things, is eternally the same, dispensing his good and perfect gifts- his earthly and heavenly blessings, to all his creatures, ever unclouded in himself, and ever nilling EVIL and willing GOOD. Men may hide themselves from his light by the works of darkness, as owls and bats hide themselves in dens and caves of the earth during the prevalency of the solar light: but his good will to his creatures is permanent; he wills not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may come unto him and live; and no man walks in wretchedness or misery but he who will not come unto God that he may have life. See diagram and notes at the end of this chapter.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 17. Every good gift and every perfect gift , etc.] Whether of nature, providence, or grace, and especially the latter; spiritual gifts given along with Christ, or spiritual blessings in him; every such gift is; as the Vulgate Latin version reads, the best gift; better than those which only relate to the present life: and is perfect such as the gifts of righteousness, remission of sins, adoption, regeneration, and eternal life. The Jews say , that the good things of this world are not truly good, in comparison of the good things of the world to come, and are not bwj rwmg , a perfect good. And every such an one is from above; is not from a man's self, from the creature, or from below, but from heaven, and from God who dwells there: and cometh down from the Father of lights ; or author of lights; of all corporeal light; as the sun, moon, and stars; of all natural, rational, and moral light, in angels and men; of all spiritual light, or the light of grace in regenerate persons; and of eternal light, the light of glory in the spirits of just then made perfect: with whom is no variableness, nor shadow of turning : as there is in that great luminary, the sun in the firmament, which has its parallaxes, eclipses, and turnings, and casts its shadow; it rises and sets, appears and disappears every day; and it comes out of one tropic, and enters into another at certain seasons of the year: but with God, who is light itself, and in him is no darkness at all, there is no change, nor anything like it; he is changeable in his nature, perfections, purposes, promises, and gifts; wherefore he being holy, cannot turn to that which is evil; nor can he, who is the fountain of light, be the cause of darkness, or admit of any in him; and since every good and perfect gift comes from him, evil cannot proceed from him, nor can he tempt any to it.
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
πασα 3956 δοσις 1394 αγαθη 18 και 2532 παν 3956 δωρημα 1434 τελειον 5046 ανωθεν 509 εστιν 2076 5748 καταβαινον 2597 5723 απο 575 του 3588 πατρος 3962 των 3588 φωτων 5457 παρ 3844 ω 3739 ουκ 3756 ενι 1762 5748 παραλλαγη 3883 η 2228 τροπης 5157 αποσκιασμα 644
Vincent's NT Word Studies
17. The first words of this verse form a hexameter line, thus Pasa dosiv ajgaqh kaipan dwrhma teleion Such verses, or parts of verses, occur occasionally in the New Testament. Sometimes they are quotations from the Greek poets; sometimes the writer's words unconsciously fall into metrical form. Poetical quotations are confined to Paul, Acts xvii. 28; 1 Cor. xv. 33; Tit. i. 12. Every good gift and every perfect gift (see Greek above). The statement that these gifts are from God is in pursuance of the idea that God does not tempt men to evil. The gifts of God are contrasted with the evil springing from man's lust. Two words are used for gift. Dosiv occurs only here and Philip. iv. 15; there in an active sense; but here passive, as in Proverbs xxi. 14 (Sept.). Dwrhma is found Rom. v. 16. It enlarges slightly upon the other word in emphasizing the gift as free, large, full; an idea which is further developed in ver. 18, of his own will. The Rev., rather awkwardly, endeavors to bring out the distinction by the word boon, for which the American Revisers insist on retaining gift. Boon originally means a petition; favor being a secondary and later sense, as of something given in response to a petition. The word is of Scandinavian origin, and the meaning favor seems to indicate a confusion with the Latin bonus, good; French, bon. Perfect. Enlarges upon good, bringing out more distinctly the moral quality of the gift.
And cometh down (katabainon). A present participle, to be construed with anwqen ejstin, is from above. Lit., is coming down from above. As usual, this union of the participle with the finite verb denotes something habitual. Render, descendeth from above. Compare ch. iii. 15.
Father of lights (tou patrov twn fwtwn). Lit., the lights, by which are meant the heavenly bodies. Compare Ps. cxxxv. 7 (Sept.); and Jeremiah iv. 23 (Sept.). God is called "the Father of the lights," as being their creator and maintainer. Compare Job xxxviii. 28; Ps. viii. 3; Amos v. 8.
Is no variableness (eni). Abbreviated from enesti is in. Stronger than the simple is, and denoting inherence or indwelling. Rev., can be.
Variableness (parallagh). Better, Rev., variation. The word is not used, as some suppose, in a technical, astronomical sense, which James' readers would not have understood, but in the simple sense of change in the degree or intensity of light, such as is manifested by the heavenly bodies. Compare Plato, "Republic," vii., 530: " Will he (the astronomer) not think that the heaven and the things in heaven are framed by the Creator in the most perfect manner? But when he reflects that the proportions of night and day, or of both, to the month, or of the month to the year, or of the other stars to these and to one another, are of the visible and material, he will never fall into the error of supposing that they are eternal and liable to no deviation (ouden parallattein) - that would be monstrous."
Shadow of turning (trophv aposkiasma). This is popularly understood to mean that there is in God not the faintest hint or shade of change, like the phrase, a shadow of suspicion. But the Greek has no such idiom, and that is not James' meaning. Rev., rightly, renders, shadow that is cast by turning; referring still to the heavenly orbs, which cast shadows in their revolution, as when the moon turns her dark side to us, or the sun is eclipsed by the body of the moon.
