Verse 3 begins a series of three illustrations describing the power of the tongue. The relationship between the tongue and the body is like that between bit and horse, rudder and ship, and fire in the forest. They all show that something very small can effect or produce something really great.

If …: there is a textual problem at the beginning of this verse. The King James Version rendering “Behold…” is based on one variant of the text, the one with slightly weaker support. The UBS Greek New Testament (“C” rating) and a majority of scholars favor the other variant, a conditional construction rendered either as If or “When” (New International Version, Revised English Bible), and this is recommended by this Handbook.

If we put bits into the mouths of horses: in Greek this is all in the plural. In languages where it is natural to give this sort of illustration in the plural, we should by all means keep the plural form. If, however, it is more natural to use the singular form, we can follow what Good News Translation has done: “We put a bit into the mouth of a horse….” In cultures where horses are unknown, translators may say something like “an animal named horse.” It will also be helpful to include an illustration of a horse. The reference to bits links this illustration with verse 2, where a cognate verbal form “to bridle” is used. The bit is usually the steel part of a bridle inserted in the mouth of a horse; its function is to control the movement of the horse. In cultures where a “bit” is unknown, it will be best to use a short descriptive phrase in place of the noun; for example, “we put something in the mouths of horses to make them go in the right direction” or “we put a piece of metal in the mouth of a horse to….”

That they may obey us: in Greek this clause expresses purpose and so can be rendered more straightforwardly as “to make them obey us” (New Revised Standard Version) if we use the plural form, or “to make it obey us” (Good News Translation) in the singular.

In Greek there is a conjunction “and” before the next statement we guide their whole bodies. Grammatically the If we put … clause is the subordinate clause of a conditional sentence, and we guide … is the main clause. In other words “and” is a marker introducing the consequent clause. For this reason it may be desirable to make the relationship between the two clauses clearer. We can do this by supplying “can” for the main clause; for example, “If [or, When] we…, we can…” (similarly Goodspeed, New International Version, Revised English Bible). The verb guide basically means “to cause to change from one direction to another” and therefore “to turn” (so King James Version, New International Version), “to direct” (Revised English Bible), or more generally “to control” (Goodspeed), “to make it go where we want” (Good News Translation), or “turn … in different directions” (Contemporary English Version).

Quoted with permission from Loh, I-Jin and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Letter from James. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .