James 4,1-4 in the Light of the Jewish Two Ways Tradition 3,1-6 49 In order to prove the relevance of the teknon section to the Letter of James, our initial concern must be to establish connections. Let us consider Jas 1,14-15 first. Three points may be noted at this stage. First, in both James and the teknon section the vice ejpiqumiva is found. Whereas the noun ejpiqumiva and the adjective ejpiqumhthv" in Did 3,3 describe specifically sexual passions, the context of the word ejpiqumiva in James suggests a broader conception. It appears to highlight individual responsibility for sin. In accordance with the teknon passage, however, the term’s sexual connotation is developed in Jas 1,14-15 with vivid metaphors. “Desire” is personified as a seductive female who, having actively enticed the person referenced in v. 14, conceives a bastard child by him. Second, James describes the consequence of desire in terms of giving birth: personified Desire gives birth to (tivktei) sin, and sin brings forth (ajpokuvei) death (1,15). The teknon section uses a similar “birthing” language in connection with the major sins in the second part (the “d” clauses) of its symmetrical strophes (35). Third, both in Jas 1,14-15 and in the teknon section the concatenated form is found. Like Jas 1,14-15, the teknon section encapsulates its teaching in a chain-saying structure carrying the thought from step to step: “be not angry, for anger..” and “be not desiring, for desire...”. These examples taken together constitute an argument. Yet corroborative evidence is needed before we can be completely certain. Let us focus our interest on Jas 1,19-21. I shall first assess the relation between Jas 1,19d-20 and the teknon section, and then discuss v. 21 and its counterparts. I established above that the statements in Jas 1,19d-20 give some detailed information about the content of ejpiqumiva mentioned in 1,14-15. Of particular interest is also that the statement in 1,19d-20 is shaped in the form of a chain-saying: “(Let every man be) slow to anger (ojrghvn), for the anger (ojrghv) of man does not work the righteousness of God”. The clauses might easily recall Did 3,2ab: “Be not angry (mh; givnou ojrgivlo"), for anger (ojrghv) leads to murder (fonon). One could admittedly argue that the phrase is too general to v carry much weight here as warnings against anger frequently occur in (35) As seen above, however, James prefers the terms tivktw and ajpokuevw in this context rather than the usual verb gennavw as employed in the teknon section. He keeps restating his source in his own words and thus developed it as his own teaching; KLOPPENBORG, “The Reception of the Jesus Traditions”, 116-121. The verb ajpokuevw (“to bear young”) is also used in 1,18 but with respect to the unusual female image for God as “the father of light” who gives birth.