James 3:7

7 For every nature, both of beasts and of fowls, both of creeping things and things of the sea, is subdued, and hath been subdued, by the human nature,

James 3:7 Meaning and Commentary

James 3:7

For every kind of beasts, and of birds
Or the "nature" of them, as it is in the Greek text; however fierce, as beasts of prey are, or shy, as the fowls of the air be:

and of serpents and things in the sea;
the fishes there:

is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind,
or "by human nature": by the wit and industry of man; by the various ways, means, and methods devised by man. So Pliny ^F12 relates, that elephants lions and tigers among beasts, and the eagle among birds, and crocodiles, asps, and other serpents, and fishes of the sea, have been tamed: though some think this is only to be understood of their being mastered and subdued, by one means or another; or of their being despoiled of their power, or of their poison: and the Syriac and Ethiopic versions render it, "subjected to human nature".

---

FOOTNOTES:

F12 Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 9. 16, 17. & 10. 5, 44.

James 3:7 In-Context

5 so also the tongue is a little member, and doth boast greatly; lo, a little fire how much wood it doth kindle!

6 and the tongue [is] a fire, the world of the unrighteousness, so the tongue is set in our members, which is spotting our whole body, and is setting on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by the gehenna.

7 For every nature, both of beasts and of fowls, both of creeping things and things of the sea, is subdued, and hath been subdued, by the human nature,

8 and the tongue no one of men is able to subdue, [it is] an unruly evil, full of deadly poison,

9 with it we do bless the God and Father, and with it we do curse the men made according to the similitude of God;