to be able or possible · verb — present middle or passive deponent indicative, 3rd person singular
tree
συκῆsukē
G4808
a fig-tree · noun — nominative singular feminine
my
μοῦmoû
G3450
of me
brethren
ἀδελφοίadelphoi
G80
a brother (literally or figuratively) near or remote (m… · noun — vocative plural masculine
bear
ποιῆσαιpoiēsai
G4160
to make or do (in a very wide application · verb — aorist active infinitive
berries
ἐλαίαςelaias
G1636
an olive (the tree or the fruit) · noun — accusative plural feminine
either
ἢē
G2228
disjunctive · conjunction
vine
ἄμπελοςampelos
G288
a vine (as coiling about a support) · noun — nominative singular feminine
figs
σῦκα;suka
G4810
a fig · noun — accusative plural neuter
so
οὕτωhoútō
G3779
in this way (referring to what precedes or follows)
no
οὐδείςoudeís
G3762
not even one (man
fountain
πηγὴpēgē
G4077
a fount (literally or figuratively) · noun — nominative singular feminine
yield
ποιῆσαιpoiēsai
G4160
to make or do (in a very wide application · verb — aorist active infinitive
salt
ἁλυκὸνhalukon
G252
briny · adjective — nominative singular neuter
water
ὕδωρ.¶hudōr
G5204
water (as if rainy) literally or figuratively · noun — accusative singular neuter
and
καίkaí
G2532
and
fresh
γλυκὺgluku
G1099
sweet (i.e. not bitter nor salt) · adjective — accusative singular neuter
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Matthew 12:33 Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.
Luke 6:43-44 For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Matthew 7:16-20 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Jeremiah 2:21 Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?
Romans 11:16-18 For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
Isaiah 5:2-4 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also…
Ezekiel 47:8-11 Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought…
Exodus 15:23-25 And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on James 3:1-12
The foregoing chapter shows how unprofitable and dead faith is without works. It is plainly intimated by what this chapter first goes upon that such a faith is, however, apt to make men conceited and magisterial in their tempers and their talk. Those who set up faith in the manner the former chapter condemns are most apt to run into those sins of the tongue which this chapter condemns. And indeed the best need to be cautioned against a dictating, censorious, mischievous use of their tongues. We are therefore taught,
I. Not to use our tongues so as to lord it over others: My brethren, be not many masters, etc., Jam 3:1. These words do not forbid doing what we can to direct and instruct others…
Transition from the mouth to the heart.
Can the fig tree, &c.--implying that it is an impossibility: as before in Jam 3:10 he had said it "ought not so to be." James does not, as Matthew (Mat 7:16-17), make the question, "Do men gather figs of thistles?" His argument is, No tree "can" bring forth fruit inconsistent with its nature, as for example, the fig tree, olive berries: so if a man speaks bitterly, and afterwards speaks good words, the latter must be so only seemingly, and in hypocrisy, they cannot be real.
so can no fountain . . . salt . . . and fresh--The oldest authorities read, "Neither can a salt (water spring) yield fresh." So the mouth that emits cursing, cannot really emit…
So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh - For the reading of the common text, which is οὑτως ουδεμια πηγη ἁλυκον και γλυκυ ποιησαι ὑδωρ, so no fountain can produce salt water and sweet, there are various other readings in the MSS. and versions. The word οὑτως, so, which makes this a continuation of the comparison in Jam 3:11, 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 ουτε ἁλυκον γλυκυ ποιησαι ὑδωρ, neither can salt water produce sweet. In the Syriac and the Arabic of Erpen, it is, So, likewise, sweet water cannot…
The Church Fathers
For being power-hungry and filled with the wisdom of the world, they preached with the force and zeal of orthodox teachers, gathering a crowd with no trouble at all and deceiving them, mixing human things with the divine, so that the hearers might be dazzled by the newness of what was being said. That is how heresy arose. But James forbids that kind of teaching and whatever comes from a wisdom which is not divine but diabolical. He said all this in order to praise good teaching, the wisdom which comes from humility in words and in useful deeds.
Can a fig tree, my brothers, produce olives, or a vine figs? etc. It is clear, because just as a tree cannot, having lost its natural fruit, produce the fruit of another tree from itself, so a slanderer, even if he seems to speak some good temporarily, is in no way able to have the fruit of blessing. But if someone wishes to discuss this more deeply, in the fig tree whose leaves our first parents, after the recognition of their transgression, used to cover their nakedness, can be understood the veil of excuse, by which they then tried to repel the reproach of the Creator and to cast it back on the Creator Himself, and now many of the foolish turn their hearts to an evil word, to excuse excuses in sins (Psalm 140). In olives can be taken the fruit of mercy, in the vine the fervor of love. But I, he says, like a fruitful olive tree in the house of the Lord, have hoped in the mercy of my God (Psalm 51), that is, just as one who produces the fruit of mercy, I have hoped for mercy myself from the Lord. Likewise: And your cup inebriates me, how excellent it is (Psalm 23)! Which is understood to speak of the love of God, which is poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Romans 5). Therefore, a fig tree cannot produce olives, because whoever tries to excuse himself for sins rather than accuse himself, in no way performs works of piety for sins perfectly towards others, but gives more with a proud heart. Nor can a vine produce figs, because he who is perfectly inebriated with divine love, accuses none of his errors, except himself.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Olive Tree, The · Described as: Bearing goodly fruit — Described as: Bearing goodly fruit
Salt · Often found: In springs — Often found: In springs
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries?.... 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 observ…
James 3:7-12
7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:
7 Omnis enim natura ferarum et volucrum et serpentium et marinorum, a natura humana domatur et dimota est:
8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
8 Linguam vero nullus hominum domare potest, incoercibile malum, plena veneno mortifero.
9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
9 Per ipsam benedicimus Deum et Patrem; et per ipsam execramur homines ad similitudinem ejus factos.
10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My b…
Some springs, especially in the upper sources of the Jordan River, did produce fresh water and bitter water; such brackish springs could not support a town. Similarly, if a person’s speech mixes foul with sweet, it will not build up the community.
