James 3:7

Kind (pusi). Old word from puw, order of nature ( Romans 1:26 ), here of all animals and man, in 2 Peter 1:4 of God and redeemed men. Of beasts (qhriwn). Old word diminutive from qhr and so "little beasts" originally, then wild animals in general ( Mark 1:13 ), or quadrupeds as here. These four classes of animals come from Genesis 9:2 . Birds (peteinwn). Old word for flying animals (from petomai, to word from erpw, to crawl (Latin serpo), hence serpents. Things in the sea (enaliwn). Old adjective (en, al, sea, salt) in the sea, here only in N.T. The four groups are put in two pairs here by the use of te kai with the first two and the second two. See a different classification in Acts 10:12 ; Acts 11:6 . Is tamed (damazetai). Present passive indicative of damazw, old verb kin to Latin dominus and English tame, in N.T. only in this passage and Mark 5:4 . The present tense gives the general picture of the continuous process through the ages of man's lordship over the animals as stated in Genesis 1:28 . Hath been tamed (dedamastai). Perfect passive indicative of the same verb, repeated to present the state of conquest in some cases (domestic animals, for instance). By mankind (th pusei th anqrwpinh). Instrumental case with repeated article and repetition also of pusi, "by the nature the human." For anqrwpino see Acts 17:25 .