{Count it} (h(8867)(8873)asthe). First aorist middle imperative of
h(8867)eomai, old verb to consider. Do it now and once for all.
{All joy} (p(8373)an charan). "Whole joy," " unmixed joy," as in
Php 2:29 . Not just "some joy" along with much grief. {When}
(hotan). "Whenever," indefinite temporal conjunction. {Ye fall
into} (peripes(8874)e). Second aorist active subjunctive (with the
indefinite hotan) from peripipt(935c), literally to fall around
(into the midst of), to fall among as in Lu 10:30 l(8869)stais
periepesen (he fell among robbers). Only other N.T. example of
this old compound is in Ac 27:41 . Thucydides uses it of falling
into affliction. It is the picture of being surrounded (peri)
by trials. {Manifold temptations} (peirasmois poikilois).
Associative instrumental case. The English word temptation is
Latin and originally meant trials whether good or bad, but the
evil sense has monopolized the word in our modern English, though
we still say "attempt." The word peirasmos (from peiraz(935c),
late form for the old peira(935c) as in Ac 26:21 , both in good
sense as in Joh 6:6 , and in bad sense as in Mt 16:1 ) does not
occur outside of the LXX and the N.T. except in Dioscorides (A.D.
100?) of experiments on diseases. "Trials" is clearly the meaning
here, but the evil sense appears in verse 12 (clearly in
peiraz(935c) in verse 13 ) and so in Heb 3:8 . Trials rightly
faced are harmless, but wrongly met become temptations to evil.
The adjective poikilos (manifold) is as old as Homer and means
variegated, many coloured as in Mt 4:24 2Ti 3:6 Heb 2:4 . In
1Pe 1:6 we have this same phrase. It is a bold demand that
James here makes.
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