James 4:5 launches with one of the strongest citation formulae in all the New Testament: “Or do you think that in vain the Scripture says…” (ἢ δοκεῖτε ὅτι κενῶς ἡ γραφὴ λέγει…). Unfortunately, it follows with one of the most puzzling clauses in all the Bible: πρὸς φθόνον ἐπιποθεῖ τὸ πνεῦμα ὃ κατῴκισεν ἐν ἡμῖν. Modern translations reflect various understandings of this clause. Words in brackets are included for clarity:
1. “He [God] yearns jealously over the [human] spirit that he has made to dwell in us” (ESV; cf. NIV, NRSV).
2. “He [God] jealously desires the [divine] Spirit whom He has made to dwell in us” (NASB).
3. “the [divine] Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously” (NKJV).
4. “The [human] spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely” (CSB; cf. NET, KJV).
The central claim of this paper is that James undergirds his exhortations in the middle portion of his letter (3:7-5:9) with a narrative subtext—namely, the early chapters of Genesis, and in particular, the story of Cain and Abel; and furthermore, that the acknowledgment of this subtext may resolve the primary interpretive difficulties associated with James 4:5. If in fact James draws upon Cain’s envy and murder as a negative archetype to warn readers against the danger of evil envy in 3:7-5:9, this observation may at the same time resolve the problem of locating the source of the “quotation” in James 4:5 and guide readers of James into translating this verse more in line with the Christian Standard Bible (#4 above). That is, an acknowledgment of James’s connection to the narrative of Cain and Abel (as mediated through pre-Jamesian Jewish interpretations of evil desire) resolves both the general source of James’s quotation in 4:5 and suggests that readers should understand the “quotation” (a compression of ideas appearing in early Genesis) as: “The spirit which he made to dwell in us desires with envy.”
Outline:
1. Summary of current proposals for James 4:5
2. Echoes of early Genesis (esp. ch. 4) in James 3:7-5:9: I will argue for nine stronger allusions to early Genesis (3:7; 3:9; 4:2; 4:5; 4:8; 4:14; 5:4; 5:6; 5:9) and more than a dozen other possible echoes (3:8; 3:11; 3:12; 3:14, 16; 3:15; 3:17-18; 4:1; 4:7; 4:9; 4:11; 4:12; 4:13; 4:16; 4:17; 5:7; 5:9).
3. Resolving the difficulties of James 4:5: I will seek to resolve three issues in James 4:5 via the connections between James 3:7-5:9 and the early chapters of Genesis (especially the Cain and Abel narrative), add five additional reasons for reading James 4:5 in line with CSB and NET, and acknowledge one issue that still needs resolution.