SEV Biblia, Chapter 3:12
Hermanos míos, ¿puede la higuera producir aceitunas, o la vid higos? Así ninguna fuente puede dar agua salada y dulce.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - James 3:12
Verse 12. So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.] For the reading of the common text, which is outwv oudemia phgh alukon kai gluku poihsai udwr, so no fountain can produce salt water and sweet, there are various other readings in the MSS. and versions. The word outwv, so, which makes this a continuation of the comparison in ver. 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 oute alukon gluku poihsai udwr, 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 ver. 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.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 12. Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries ? etc.] 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.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-12 - We are taught to dread an unruly tongue, as one of the greatest evils The affairs of mankind are thrown into confusion by the tongues of men Every age of the world, and every condition of life, private or public affords examples of this. Hell has more to do in promoting the fire of the tongue than men generally think; and whenever men's tongues ar employed in sinful ways, they are set on fire of hell. No man can tam the tongue without Divine grace and assistance. The apostle does no represent it as impossible, but as extremely difficult. Other sin decay with age, this many times gets worse; we grow more froward an fretful, as natural strength decays, and the days come on in which we have no pleasure. When other sins are tamed and subdued by the infirmities of age, the spirit often grows more tart, nature being drawn down to the dregs, and the words used become more passionate That man's tongue confutes itself, which at one time pretends to ador the perfections of God, and to refer all things to him; and at anothe time condemns even good men, if they do not use the same words an expressions. True religion will not admit of contradictions: how man sins would be prevented, if men would always be consistent! Pious an edifying language is the genuine produce of a sanctified heart; an none who understand Christianity, expect to hear curses, lies boastings, and revilings from a true believer's mouth, any more tha they look for the fruit of one tree from another. But facts prove tha more professors succeed in bridling their senses and appetites, than i duly restraining their tongues. Then, depending on Divine grace, let u take heed to bless and curse not; and let us aim to be consistent in our words and actions.
Greek Textus Receptus
μη 3361 δυναται 1410 5736 αδελφοι 80 μου 3450 συκη 4808 ελαιας 1636 ποιησαι 4160 5658 η 2228 αμπελος 288 συκα 4810 ουτως 3779 ουδεμια 3762 πηγη 4077 αλυκον 252 και 2532 γλυκυ 1099 ποιησαι 4160 5658 υδωρ 5204
Vincent's NT Word Studies
12. So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. The best texts omit so can no fountain, and the and between salt and fresh. Thus the text reads, oute aJlukon gluku poihsai udwr. Render, as Rev., neither can salt water yield sweet. Another of James' local allusions, salt waters. The Great Salt Sea was but sixteen miles from Jerusalem. Its shores were lined with salt-pits, to be filled when the spring freshets should raise the waters of the lake. A salt marsh also terminated the valley through which the Jordan flows from the Lake of Tiberias to the Dead Sea, and the adjoining, plain was covered with salt streams and brackish springs. Warm springs impregnated with sulfur abound in the volcanic valley of the Jordan. 'Alukon, salt, occurs only here in the New Testament.
