James 4:14

Jas 4:14. Οὐκ ἐπίστασθε, ye know not) Pro 3:28.—τὸ τῆς[59]) See App. Crit. Ποία, Psa 62:10.—ἡ ζωὴ) life, on which the action of to morrow is suspended.—ἀτμὶς, a vapour) A diminutive.—γὰρ, for) From the question the particle is repeated in the answer: this gives force.—ἔσται, shall be[60]) See App. Crit. Ed. ii. The expression ΤῸ ΑὔΡΙΟΝ, to-morrow, confirms the probability of the sense in the future, ἔσται, and so does the whole discourse concerning future time: Jas 4:13; Jas 4:15.

[59] A and later Syr. have τά: and so Lachm. Tisch. with more modern authorities, τό. Vulg. has in crastinum or in crastino. B omits the word—E.

[60] B and later Syr. have γάρ ἐστε: so Tisch. and Lachm. But A has ἔσται; Rec. Text, γάρ ἐστιν: so Vulg.; hut no other very old authority.—E.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jam_4:14. James opposes to carnal security the uncertainty of the future and the transitoriness of life.

οἵτινες] = ut qui; correctly Wiesinger: Ye who are of such a character that, etc.

οὐκ ἐπίστασθε τὸ (τὰ) τῆς αὔριον] indicates the ignorance of what the next day will bring forth; comp. Pro_3:28; Pro_27:1 : μὴ καυχῶ τὰ εἰς αὔριον, οὐ γὰρ γινώσκεις τί τέξεται ἡ ἐπιοῦσα: thus whether life will still last. What follows shows that James had this chiefly in view.

ποία γὰρ ἡ ζωὴ ὑμῶν;] γάρ gives an explanation of οὐκ ἐπίστασθε.

ποία] as in 1Pe_2:20, how constituted? with the subsidiary meaning of nothingness. By the reading adopted by Buttmann: οἵτινες οὐκ ἐπίστασθε τῆς αὔριον ποία ζωὴ ὑμῶν, the genitive τῆς αὔριον is dependent on ποία ζωή; thus, Ye know not how your life of to-morrow is circumstanced. This idea is evidently feebler than the usual reading, for it is supposed that they yet live on the following day, which according to the other reading is denoted as doubtful.

ἀτμὶς γάρ ἐστε κ.τ.λ.] γάρ refers to the idea lying at the foundation of the preceding question, that life is entirely nothing.

ἀτμίς (in the N. T. only here and in Act_2:19, in an O. T. quotation), literally breath; thus in Wis_7:25, synonymous with ἀπόῤῥοια, has in the O. T. and the Apocrypha chiefly the meaning of smoke; thus Gen_19:28 : ἀτμὶς καμίνου; so also Sir_22:24; Eze_8:11 : ἀτμὶς τοῦ θυμιάματος; Sir_24:15 : λιβάνου ἀτμίς; see also Joe_3:3; Sir_43:4; in the classics it also occurs in the meaning of vapour. According to Biblical usage, it is here to be taken in the first meaning (smoke); thus Lange; Luther translates it by vapour; de Wette and Wiesinger, by steam.

ἐστε is stronger than the Rec. ἐστι; not only their life, but also they themselves are designated as a smoke; as in chap. Jam_1:10 it is also said of the πλούσιος, that he shall fade away as the flower of the grass.

By ἡ πρὸς ὀλίγον … ἀφανιζομένη] the nature of the smoke is stated.

πρὸς ὀλίγον] = for a little time; ὀλίγον is neuter.

καί is to be explained: as it appears, so it also afterwards vanishes. In the corresponding passages, Job_8:9, Psa_102:12; Psa_144:4, the transitoriness of life is represented not under the image of ἀτμίς (Wiesinger), but of a shadow; differently in Psa_102:4.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jas 4:14 . οἵτινες οὐκ ἐπίστασθε τὸ τῆς αὔριον : “Ye are they that know not …”; it is the contrast between the ignorance of men, with the consequent incertitude of all that the morrow may bring forth, and the knowledge of God in accordance with Whose will ( cf. ἐὰν ὁ κύριος θελήσῃ in the next verse) all things come to pass. ποία ἡ ζωὴ ὑμῶν ; “Of what kind is your life”? The reference here is not to the life of the wicked, but to the uncertainty of human life in general; the thought of the ungodly being cut off is, it is true, often expressed in the Bible, but that is not what is here referred to; it is evidently not conscious sin, but thoughtlessness which the writer is rebuking here. ἀτμὶς γάρ ἐστε : the reading ἐστε , in preference to ἐστι or ἔσται , makes the address more personal; ἀτμὶς is often used for “smoke,” e.g. , Act 2:17 ; cf. Psa 102:3 (4), ἐξέλιπον ὡσεὶ καπνὸς αἱ ἡμέραι μου ; the word only occurs here in the N.T., in Act 2:19 it is a quotation from Joe 2:30 (Sept.) Jas 3:3 (Heb.). In Job 7:7 we have μνήσθητι ὅτι πνεῦμά μου ἡ ζωή , cf. Wis 2:4 ; the rendering “breath” instead of “vapour” does not commend itself on account of the former being invisible, and the point of the words is that man does appear for a little time ( πρὸς ὀλίγον φαινομένη ) and then disappears, cf. Wis 16:6 . ἀφανιζομένη : the word occurs, though in a different connection, in Sir 45:26 .

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

what--literally, "of what nature" is your life? that is, how evanescent it is.

It is even--Some oldest authorities read, "For ye are." BENGEL, with other old authorities, reads, "For it shall be," the future referring to the "morrow" (Jam 4:13-15). The former expresses, "Ye yourselves are transitory"; so everything of yours, even your life, must partake of the same transitoriness. Received text has no old authority.

and then vanisheth away--"afterwards vanishing as it came"; literally, "afterwards (as it appeared), so vanishing" [ALFORD].

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 14. Whereas ye know not] This verse should be read in a parenthesis. It is not only impious, but grossly absurd, to speak thus concerning futurity, when ye know not what a day may bring forth. Life is utterly precarious; and God has not put it within the power of all the creatures he has made to command one moment of what is future.

It is even a vapour] Ατμις γαρ εστιν· It is a smoke, always fleeting, uncertain, evanescent, and obscured with various trials and afflictions. This is a frequent metaphor with the Hebrews; see Ps 102:11; My days are like a shadow: Job 8:9; Our days upon earth are a shadow: 1Ch 29:15; Our days on the earth are a shadow, and there is no abiding. Quid tam circumcisum, tam breve, quam hominis vita longissima? Plin. l. iii., Ep. 7. "What is so circumscribed, or so short, as the longest life of man?" "All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, and the flower fadeth, because the breath of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people is like grass." St. James had produced the same figure, Jas 1:10; Jas 1:11. But there is a very remarkable saying in the book of Ecclesiasticus, which should be quoted: "As of the green leaves of a thick tree, some fall and some grow; so is the generation of flesh and blood: one cometh to an end, and another is born." Ecclus. xiv. 18.

We find precisely the same image in Homer as that quoted above. Did the apocryphal writer borrow it from the Greek poet?

Οἱη περ φυλλων γενεη, τοιηδε και ανδρων·

Φυλλα τα μεν τ' ανεμος χαμαδις χεει, αλλα δε θ' ὑλη

Τηλεθοωσα φυει, εσρος δ' επιγιγνεται ὡρη·

Ὡς ανδρων γενεη, ἡ μεν φυει, ἡ δ' αποληγει.

Il. l. vi., ver. 146.

Like leaves on trees the race of man is found,

Now green in youth, now withering on the ground

Another race the following spring supplies;

They fall successive, and successive rise.

So generations in their course decay;

So flourish these, when those are pass'd away.

POPE.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

14 For what is your life? He might have checked this foolish license in determining things to come by many other reasons; for we see how the Lord daily frustrates those presumptuous men who promise what great things they will do. But he was satisfied with this one argument, who has promised to thee a life for tomorrow? Canst thou, a dying man, do what thou so confidently resolvest to do? For he who remembers the shortness of his life, will have his audacity easily checked so as not to extend too far his resolves. Nay, for no other reason do ungodly men indulge themselves so much, but because they forget that they are men. By the similitude of vapor, he strikingly shews that the purposes which are founded only on the present life, are altogether evanescent.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(14) Whereas ye know not . . . .—Read, Whereas ye know not aught of the morrow—what, i.e., the event may be. The hopeless misery of the unfaithful servant comes into mind at this; he has left the greater business to perform the less; or, it may be, said in heart, “My lord delayeth his coming,” and so has begun “to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken.” And lo! the thunder of the chariot wheels, the flash of the avenging sword, the “portion with the hypocrites,” the “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Read Mat_24:42-51.)

For what is your life? It is even a vapour.—The rebuke is stronger still, the home-thrust more sharp and piercing—Ye are even a vapour: ye yourselves, and all belonging to you; not merely life itself, for that confessedly is a breath; and many a man, acknowledging so much, counts of the morrow that he may lay up in store for other wants besides his own.

A vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away (or, disappeareth).—There is a play upon words to mark the sad antithesis. The vision of life vanisheth as it came; and thus even a heathen poet says—

“Dust we are, and a shadow.”

(Comp. Wis_5:9-14.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14. Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow] Literally, the thing, or the event of to-morrow, the phrase, being parallel to “the things of the morrow” in Mat_6:34. St James partly reproduces that teaching, partly that of Pro_27:1.

what is your life?…] Literally, of what nature your life is. The comparison that follows was one familiar to all the wise of heart who had meditated on the littleness of man’s life. It meets us in Job_7:7; Psa_102:3. A yet more striking parallel is found in Wis_5:9-14, with which St James may well have been familiar. The word for “vanishing away” occurs, it may be noted, in Wis_3:16. It is not without interest to note at once the agreement and the difference between St James’ counsel and that of the popular Epicureanism.

“Quid sit futurum cras, fuge quærere; et

Quem Fors dierum cumque dabit, lucro Appone.”

Horace, Od. i. 9.

“Strive not the morrow’s chance to know,

And count whate’er the Fates bestow,

As given thee for thy gain.”

It was not strange that those who thought only of this littleness, should deem that their only wisdom lay in making the most of that little in and by itself, and take “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die” (1Co_15:32) as their law of life. St James had been taught to connect man’s life with a Will higher than his own, and so to take the measure of its greatness as well as of its littleness.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow,.... Whether there would be a morrow for them or not, whether they should live till tomorrow; and if they should, they knew not what a morrow would bring forth, or what things would happen, which might prevent their intended journey and success: no man can secure a day, an hour, a moment, and much less a year of continuance in this life; nor can he foresee what will befall him today or tomorrow; therefore it is great stupidity to determine on this, and the other, without the leave of God, in whom he lives, moves, and has his being; and by whose providence all events are governed and directed; see Pro 27:1

for what is your life? of what kind and nature is it? what assurance can be had of the continuance of it? by what may it be expressed? or to what may it be compared?

it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away; which rises out of the earth, or water, and expires almost as soon as it exists; at least, continues but a very short time, and is very weak and fleeting, and carried about here and there, and soon returns from whence it came: the allusion is to the breath of man, which is in his nostrils, and who is not to be accounted of, or depended on.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

Ver. 14. Ye know not what, &c.] God delights to cross such vain boasters, and to confute their confidences, that speak and live as if their lives were riveted upon eternity. They might easily observe that many things happen between the cup and the lip, between the chin and the chalice. Ne glorietur igitur accinctus quasi discinctus. Sell not the hide before ye have taken the beast. Who knows what a great bellied day may bring forth? Pro 27:1. While a woman is yet with child, none can tell what kind of birth it will be, Luk 12:16-17.

It is even a vapour] Thy breath is in thy nostrils, ever ready to puff out; at the next puff of breath thou mayest blow away thy life. Petrarch relates about a certain holy man, that being invited to a feast on the morrow, he answered, I have not had a tomorrow to dispose of this many a year; if you would have anything from me now, I am ready (lib. iii. Memor.). Mere man is but the dream of a dream, but the generation of a fancy, but a poor feeble, unable, dying flash, but the curious picture of nothing. Can a picture continue that is drawn upon the ice? What is man, saith Nazianzen, but soul and soil, breath and body (νους και χους, ex Gen 2:7); a puff of wind the one, a pile of dust the other, no solidity in either? Surely every man in his best estate, when he is best underlaid, and settled upon his best bottom, is altogether vanity, Psa 39:5. Two fits of an ague could shake great Tamerlane to death, in the midst of his great hopes and greatest power, when he was preparing for the utter rooting out of the Othoman family, and the conquest of the Greek empire. (Turk. Hist.) What is man’s body but a bubble the soul the wind that filleth it? the bubble riseth higher and higher till at last it breaketh; so doth the body from infancy to youth, and thence to age. So that it is improper to ask when we shall die; but rather when we shall make an end of dying (said a divine); for first the infancy dieth, then the childhood, then the youth, then age, and then we make an end of dying. Should we then live and trade as if our lives were riveted upon eternity? To blame were those Agrigentines who did eat, build, &c., as though they should never die.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Whereas, ye know not what shall be on the morrow - They formed their plans as if they knew; the apostle says it could not be known. They had no means of ascertaining what would occur; whether they would live or die; whether they would be prospered, or would be overwhelmed with adversity. Of the truth of the remark made by the apostle here, no one can doubt; but it is amazing how men act as if it were false. We have no power of penetrating the future so as to be able to determine what will occur in a single day or a single hour, and yet we are almost habitually forming our plans as if we saw with certainty all that is to happen. The classic writings abound with beautiful expressions respecting the uncertainty of the future, and the folly of forming our plans as if it were known to us. Many of those passages, some of them almost precisely in the words of James, may be seen in Grotius and Pricaeus, in loc. Such passages occur in Anacreon, Euripides, Menander, Seneca, Horace, and others, suggesting an obvious but much-neglected thought, that the future is to is all unknown. Man cannot penetrate it; and his plans of life should be formed in view of the possibility that his life may be cut off and all his plans fail, and consequently in constant preparation for a higher world.

For what is your life? - All your plans must depend of course on the continuance of your life; but what a frail and uncertain thing is that! How transitory and evanescent as a basis on which to build any plans for the future! Who can calculate on the permanence of a vapor? Who can build any solid hopes on a mist?

It is even a vapour - Margin, “For it is.” The margin is the more correct rendering. The previous question had turned the attention to life as something peculiarly frail, and as of such a nature that no calculation could be based on its permanence. This expression gives a reason for that, to wit, that it is a mere vapor. The word “vapor” (ἀτμὶς atmis,) means a mist, an exhalation, a smoke; such a vapor as we see ascending from a stream, or as lies on the mountain side on the morning, or as floats for a little time in the air, but which is dissipated by the rising sun, leaving not a trace behind. The comparison of life with a vapor is common, and is as beautiful as it is just. Job says,

O remember that my life is Wind;

Mine eyes shall no more see good.

Job 7:7.

So the Psalmist,

For he remembered that they were but flesh,

A wind that passeth away and that cometh not again.

Psa 78:39.

Compare 1Ch 29:15; Job 14:10-11.

And then vanisheth away - Wholly disappears. Like the dissipated vapor, it is entirely gone. There is no remnant, no outline, nothing that reminds us that it ever was. So of life. Soon it disappears altogether. The works of art that man has made, the house that he has built, or the book that he has written, remain for a little time, but the life has gone. There is nothing of it remaining - any more than there is of the vapor which in the morning climbed silently up the mountain side. The animating principle has vanished forever. On such a frail and evanescent thing, who can build any substantial hopes?

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow; whether ye yourselves shall continue till then, or what else shall then be, or not be. In vain do ye boast of whole years, when ye cannot command the events of one day.

For what is your life? This question implies contempt, as 1Sa 25:10; Psa 144:3,4.

It is even a vapour; like a vapour, frail, uncertain, and of short continuance; and then how vain are those counsels and purposes that are built upon no more sure a foundation than your own lives.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 14 fortifies the rebuke of ver. 13 by showing the folly of their action; rion), Pro_27:1, "Boast not thyself of tomorrow (ta eijv au) for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." Whereas ye know not; rather, seeing that, or, inasmuch as ye know not, etc. (oitinev oujk ejpistasqe). The text in this verse again in a somewhat disorganized condition, but the general drift is clear. We should probably read, Oitinev oujk ejpistasqe toahJ zwh uJmwn ajtmiv gar ejste hJ progon fainomenh epeita kainh, R.V, "Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. What is your life? For ye are a vapor, our that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14. What is your life? Who knows that he will have a to-morrow, since life is like a vanishing vapor?

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

14. τὸ τὴς αὔριον with אKL, several versions and Fathers: τὰ τῆς αὔριν AP and some cursives. The reading τῆς αὔριον only is found in B and adopted from that great authority by Westcott and Hort.

ἐστε with B and several versions: moreover AKP have ἔσται, probably by itacism for ἐστε: ἐστιν: is read in L and is supported by the Old Latin and Vulgate (vapor est).

14. οἵτινες οὐκ ἐπίστασθε τὸ τῆς αὔριον κ.τ.λ. For reading see crit. notes. Qui ignoratis quid sit in crastinum; quae enim est vita vestra? Vapor est ad modicum parens &c. V., Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. What is your life?—R.V., translating the reading adopted by Westcott and Hort, ‘ye know not on the morrow what your fife shall be.’

ἀτμὶς γάρ ἐστε. Psa 102:3 ἐξέλιπον ὡσεὶ καπνὸς αἱ ἡμέραι μου.

πρὸς ὀλίγον φαινομένη. Comp. the story of Paulinus and the Pagan priest Coifi at the court of Edwin, King of Deira, c. 626, unus passerum domum citissime pervolaverit, qui cum per unum ostium ingrediens, mox per aliud exierit. Ita haec vita hominum ad modicum apparet; quid autem sequatur, quidve processerit, prorsus ignoramus, Bede, H. E. II. 13. See also Bright, Early English Church History, p. 116, and Wordsworth’s Eccl. Sonnets, No. 16.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14.] whereas ye know not (so, admirably, the E. V.: exactly hitting the delicate force of οἵτινες, ‘ut qui,’—‘belonging, as ye do, to a class which’) the (event) (or, matter, or content: the more general and indefinite, the better) of the morrow: for (γάρ substantiates the ignorance just alleged) of what sort (depreciative, as in 1Pe 2:20) is your life? for (γάρ refers to the depreciative force in ποία: ‘I may well pour contempt on it, for,’ &c.) ye are (ye yourselves: so that any thing of yours, even your life, must partake of the same instability and transitoriness. ἐστε, so in ch. 1:10 the πλούσιος is said to pass away as the flower of the grass. It is not your life, which is not a thing seen, but ye, that πρὸς ὀλίγον φαίνεσθε) a vapour, which appeareth for a little time, afterwards as it appeared, so (this is the force of καί, ‘vanishing as it came;’ which not having been seen, δέ has been substituted, or the two, καὶ δέ, combined. It is not a case where (Bloomf.) the variations point to the original absence of a particle: for the καί in the text is not a particle of connexion, as the δέ is. For it to be so, the var. read. must have been καὶ ἔπειτα, not ἔπειτα καί) vanishing:

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14. ὅτινες, with full classical meaning, “of such a nature that.” For the loose grammatical attachment, cf. 1:7 f. ἀνὴρ δίψυχος.

τὸ τῆς αὔριον. Cf. Pro 27:1 μὴ καυχῶ τὰ εἰς αὔριον, οὐ γὰρ γινώσκεις τί τέξεται ἡ ἐπιοῦσα, also Ecclus. 11:18 f., Luk 12:16 ff. For a good parallel from Debarim rabba 9, see Schöttgen or Wetstein on Jas 4:13. Many parallels are to be found in Philo and in Greek and Latin writers (see Wetstein), e. g. Philo, Leg. alleg. iii, 80, p. 132; Pseudo-Phocylides, 116 f.:

οὐδεὶς γινώσκει τί μετʼ αὔριον ἢ τί μεθʼ ὥραν·

ἄσκοπός ἐστι βροτῶν θάνατος, τὸ δὲ μέλλον ἄδηλον,

Seneca, Ep. 101, especially §§ 4-6, quam stultum est, ætatem disponere ne crastini quidem dominum … nihil sibi quisquam de futuro debet promittere, etc., etc. Other passages on the uncertainty of life are collected by Plutarch, Consolatio ad Apollonium, 11, p. 107, and in Stobæus, Anthol. iv, cap. 31, Ὅτι ἀβέβαιος ἡ τῶν ἀνθρώπων εὐπραξία, μεταπιπτούσης ῥαδωίς τῆς τύχης, where especially the tragedians are drawn on. But in both the N. T. and Philo the commonplace is given a different turn: “let the uncertainty of life remind you of your dependence on God.”

ποία, “Of what character?” i. e. “Is it secure or precarious?” The answer is: “It is a mere passing mist.”

ἀτμίς, “vapour,” cf. 1:11. Cf. Clem. Rom. 17:6 (from “Eldad and Modad”?) ἐγὼ (i. e. Abraham) δέ εἰμι ἀτμὶς ἀπὸ κύθρας (“steam from a pot”). For the comparison of the life of the wicked to smoke and vapour, cf. 4 Ezra 7:61, Apoc. Bar. 82:6.

Whether James meant “smoke” or “steam” is impossible to determine. In the LXX the word is several times used of smoke, Gen 19:28, Lev 16:13, Ecclus. 22:24 (?) 24:15, Hos 13:3 (?), although it properly means vapour, in distinction from καπνός; cf. Aristotle, Meteor. ii, 4, p. 359 b. The very similar passage Wisd. 2:4 uses ὀμίχλη, “mist.” Cf. Psa 102:3 ἐξέλιπον ὡσεὶ καπνὸς αἱ ἡμέραι μου, Psa 37:20.

Seneca, Troad. 401, compares human life to smoke (calidis fumus ab ignibus).

γάρ introduces the answer to ποία κτλ., and also the reason for the whole rebuke contained in vv. 13 f.

φαιτομένη, ἔπειτα καὶ ἀφανιζομένη, “appearing and then disappearing,” with a more delicate play on words than is quite reproducible in the English rendering.

The same contrast and play is found in Aristotle, Hist. an. vi, 7, Ps.-Aristotle, De mundo, vi, 22, and evidently was a turn of expression common in Greek usage.

The best text for this verse is the following:

οἵτινες οὐκ ἐπίστασθε τὸ τῆς αὔριον· ποία ἡ ζωὴ ὑμῶν; ἀτμὶς γάρ ἐστε [ἡ] πρὸς ὀλίγον φαινομένη, ἔπειτα καὶ ἀφανιζομένη.

The various readings here adopted are attested by either B or א, or both. The following variants require comment:

τὸ τῆς αὔριον] אK minnpler ff vg sah syrpesh.

τὰ τῆς αὔριον] AR 33 minn syrhcl boh.

τῆς αὔριον] B.

The external evidence is strongly for τὸ τῆς αὔριον, in view of the tendency of B to omit articles and the demonstrably emended character of A 33 (cf. Pro 27:1, which may have been in the emender’s mind).

The “intrinsic” evidence of fitness also speaks for the retention of τό In the text of B (οὐκ ἐπίστασθε τῆς αὔριον ποία ζωὴ ὑμῶν) the writer would declare that the censured traders do not know what are to be to-morrow the conditions of their life—e. g. whether sickness or health, fair weather or foul. In fact, however, the latter part of this same verse (ἀτμίς κτλ.) and v. 15 (ζήσομεν) show that the uncertainty of life itself is what he has in mind. Hence ποία cannot be connected with ἐπίστασθε to form an indirect question, but must be a direct interrogative introducing a direct question to which ἀτμίς κτλ. gives the answer.

ποία] Bא* 1518 syrhcl bohcod.

ποία γάρ] אoAKLP minnpler vg boh syrpesh.

quae autem] ff.

The shorter and better attested reading is to be accepted.

ἡ ζωή] B omits ἡ, doubtless by error.

ἀτμὶς γάρ] A 33 vg boh omit γάρ. Doubtless emendation to avoid introducing the answer by γάρ. א omits the whole clause ἀτμὶς γάρ ἐστε.

ἐστε] B minn syrhcl Jerome.

ἔσται] AKR minn.

ἐστιν] L minn ff vg boh (was).

Either ἔσται or ἐστε may well have originated in an itacistic corruption of the other;. the evidence for the two together far outweighs that for ἐστιν. As between ἐστε and ἔσται, external evidence (א is lacking) speaks on the whole for ἐστε.

ἡ πρὸς ὀλίγον] BR omit ἡ. The question is difficult to decide and unimportant for the sense. An accidental agreement here between B and P is possible, but a little improbable.*

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Whereas ye know not [οιτινες ουκ επιστασθε] . The pronoun marking a class, as being of those who know not.

What shall be on the morrow [το της αυριον] . Lit., the thing of the morrow. The texts vary. Westcott and Hort read, Ye know not what your life shalt be on the morrow, for ye are a vapor : thus throwing out the question.

What is your life ? [ποια] . Lit., of what kind or nature.

It is even a vapor [ατμις γαρ εστιν] . But all the best texts read ejste, ye are. So Rev., which, however, retains the question, what is your life ?

Appeareth - vanisheth. Both participles, appearing, vanishing.

And then [επειτα και] . The kai placed after the adverb then is not copulative, but expresses that the vapor vanishes even as it appeared.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.