What Does James 1:14 Mean?
But each one is tested by his own craving, dragged out and lured.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.THE KEY
The verse traces temptation to a pull already within you: your own desire draws you out and becomes the bait.
THE MEANING
Temptation takes shape when desire that belongs to you draws you toward what it wants. The verse describes that pull as being drawn out and enticed, like a person caught by bait. The desire is part of the movement; it is not yet the outcome named in the next verse.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that temptation begins only as an outside attack: it locates the pull in your own desire.
THE ROOT
ἐπιθυμίας
epithymías
GROWS FROM
ἐπιθυμέω
epithymeō
To desire or long for; a longing directed toward something.
“craving” in this verse is epithymías. The Greek calls this desire the person’s own (ἰδίας, idías: belonging to oneself). The word names longing broadly, while the verse shows how that longing can become the start of temptation.
ALSO GROWS
epithymeō: To desire or long for.
ἐπιθυμέω
The verb from this word family makes the longing active: a person directs desire toward something.
epithymía: Desire or longing.
ἐπιθυμία
The same noun appears in 1 Peter 2:11 as “lusts,” showing that the word names desire beyond this verse’s specific moment.
ἐξελκόμενος
exelkómenos
GROWS FROM
ἕλκω
helkō
To draw, pull, or drag; the compound adds ἐκ (ek), “out.”
“dragged out” in this verse is exelkómenos. The Greek verb pictures more than a passing thought: it gives desire a direction, pulling the person outward. The same verb can describe drawing someone (John 6:44) or hauling in a net (John 21:6), so the image carries the force of a real pull.
ALSO GROWS
helkō: To draw or pull.
ἕλκω
In John 6:44, the same verb describes drawing a person; here the compound describes being drawn out by one’s own desire.
helkō: To haul or draw in.
ἕλκω
In John 21:6, it describes drawing a net full of fish, keeping the physical force of the image visible.
δελεαζόμενος
deleazómenos
GROWS FROM
δέλεαρ
délear
Bait or lure; δελεάζω (deleazō) means to bait or entice.
“lured” in this verse is deleazómenos. “Enticed” carries the image of being baited. Beside the verb for being drawn out, it makes desire’s movement feel like a lure taking hold, not simply an idea passing through the mind.
ALSO GROWS
délear: Bait or lure.
δέλεαρ
This noun sits behind the verb and reveals the catching image contained in “enticed.”
deleazō: To bait or entice.
δελεάζω
The same verb appears as “beguiling” in 2 Peter 2:14, where unstable souls are drawn in by a lure.
THE PATTERN
Desire can draw a person toward what appears desirable until the lure becomes a trap.
And the woman saw that the tree was good for eating, and that it was a craving for the eyes, and a tree to be desired for making one wise. And she took of its fruit and ate, and gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.With the multitude of her instruction she bends him; with the smoothings of her lips she pushes him.They have eyes full of adultery and cannot rest from missing the mark. They lure unsteady living souls, each with a heart trained in grasping for more, children under the curse.THE THREAD
Then craving, when it has conceived, gives birth to falling short; and falling short, when it is full-grown, bears death.The same Greek word for desire (ἐπιθυμία, epithymía) returns here. The next verse opens the movement further: desire is the beginning of a sequence, not its completed outcome.
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