3:12a–b

can a fig tree grow olives, or a grapevine bear figs?: This is a rhetorical question. James used this question to rebuke his readers by emphasizing a well-known fact: each plant produces its own kind of fruit. He was saying that a fig tree certainly cannot produce olives and a grapevine cannot produce figs. This means that good people should not produce curses.

Some ways to translate this emphasis are:

• As a rhetorical question. For example:

Can a fig tree produce olives…or a vine produce figs? (NET Bible)
-or-
A fig tree cannot bear olives, and a grapevine cannot bear figs, right?

• As a statement. For example:

A fig tree…cannot bear olives; a grapevine cannot bear figs (Good News Translation)
-or-
A fig tree certainly cannot produce olives, and a grapevine certainly cannot produce figs.

Translate this emphasis in a way that is natural in your language.

fig tree…olives…grapevine…figs: In many languages, there are no words for the exact kinds of trees and fruit that James mentions here. However, the important part of the meaning here is not the exact kind of tree or fruit. The point is the fact that a tree cannot bear fruit that is not of its own kind.

James used these particular trees and fruits in his illustration because they were common in the region where he lived. Figs were a delicious fruit that was typical of the good things of that land. Olives were important as the main source oil used for cooking in that region. Grapes were squeezed to obtain juice, which was made into wine, the main drink of the region.

One way to translate these terms is to use trees and fruit that are common in your area. For example:

Does a guava tree produce mangos? Or does a passion fruit vine produce guavas? Of course not!

3:12a

My brothers: Once again, James used the term of address My brothers to soften the rebuke in 3:10–12.

See the notes on “my brothers” at 1:2a and 3:10b.

3:12c

Neither: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Neither introduces the last sentence of this paragraph. Some other ways to begin this sentence are:

Likewise
-or-
In the same way (God’s Word)
-or-
It is just as impossible (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)

The picture has changed from trees and their fruit back to a spring and its water. The point here is not only that one kind of spring cannot produce water of a different kind. The point is that a bad spring cannot produce good water. (The translation of King James Version “so can no fountain [that is, spring] both yield salt water and fresh” depends on different manuscript copies from the ones followed by the modern versions. The text followed by King James Version says the same thing in other words as 3:11, but the text that Berean Standard Bible and the other modern versions follow says that bad cannot produce good. This is an advance in James’ argument, preparing the way for the next section 3:13–18. Therefore it seems likely that the text followed here by King James Version is not original, and so it is not recommended.) The implied information is that bad people cannot produce good praise to God.

salt spring: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as salt spring is literally “salty.” (The noun spring is not in the Greek text here but is implied from 3:11.) This word is different than the word meaning “bitter” (Berean Standard Bible “salt”) in 3:11. But the meaning is similar. It refers to a spring that always produces water that is not good to drink.

Some other ways to translate this word are:

a spring whose water tastes salty
-or-
a spring that produces water not fit to drink

In Israel, there are springs that are so full of minerals that it is not safe to drink the water. If salt springs are unknown in your area, you may want to replace salt spring with something that is more common in your area. For example:

a salty pool (New Living Translation, 1996 edition)
-or-
a salt pond (English Standard Version)
-or-
a well that gives foul water

fresh water: Here the phrase fresh water refers to water that tastes good. This same word occurs in 3:11.

© 2012 by SIL International®

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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.