44 Huub van de Sandt members”? He locates the origin of strife in the pursuit of pleasure (21). The Greek text of the subsequent verse (Jas 4,2) is punctuated in the twenty-seventh revised edition of Nestle-Aland with commas dividing the sentence into three statements: “You desire (ejpiqumei'te) and do not have, you murder and are jealous (zhlou'te) and are unable to obtain, you battle and wage war”. The word ejpiqumei'n (and ejpiqumiva) does not always have a bad meaning (Luke 22,15; Phil 1,23), but here, as most often in the New Testament, it refers to egocentric, illicit desire. It might therefore be preferable to translate ejpiqumei'te as “you desire evilly” (22). The meanings of zhlou'n and zh'lo" are equally important here. Although zhlou'n is itself neutral, it surely has a negative connotation here, expressing “jealousy”, “envy”. The expression “you are jealous” (zhlou'te) deliberately picks up the theme established by 3,14-16. Rather than pursuing one’s own desires, it is by asking God that one can receive gifts. Nevertheless, if one does not already live with the wisdom that comes down from God (1,17; 3,17), one will probably not turn to God to fulfil one’s needs. On the contrary, desire, a characteristic feature of the world, might easily infect the religious piety of community members so as to use their prayers to God for their own gain: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly in order to spend it on your desires” (4,3). In 4,4 James charges those who pursue their own desires with his harshest invective: being “adulteresses”. In support of his argument stressing the need for a whole-hearted, unreserved commitment to God, James next turns to Scripture. He offers two quotations whose citation in 4,5 forms a thorny problem. God is probably the implied subject of katw/vkisen (23) since he caused the human spirit to reside within man (Gen 2,7; 6,17; 7,15; Ps 104,29- 30; etc). The phrase “the spirit which he made to dwell in us” then (21) The term hJdonhv usually means simply “pleasure”, but it is also found in the sense of “desire for pleasure”. The verb ejpiqumei'n in the next verse clearly indicates the latter sense of hJdonhv here. It was the selfish, indulgent desire that was responsible for strife and wars; cf. Titus 3,3 which shows hJdonhv and ejpiqumiva to be almost synonymous. Further, see JOHNSON, The Letter of James, 276; HARTIN, James, 196; R.W. WALL, Community of the Wise. The Letter of James (The New Testament in Context; Valley Forge, PA 1997) 195; JACKSON-MCCABE, Logos and Law, 202. (22) See, with respect to Jas 1,14-15, JOHNSON, The Letter of James, 193-194. Cf. also HARTIN, James, 196. (23) See DAVIDS, The Epistle of James, 163.