What Does James 1:10 Mean in the King James?
But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Wealth does not protect a life from being brought low; the flower image makes that exposure part of its season.
THE MEANING
The rich person can be brought low, and this lowering belongs to the truth of their life now. The flower of the grass makes the point through an image of real beauty that cannot last: flourishing and fragility coexist. Wealth gives no permanence to the one who carries it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that wealth places a person beyond humiliation, loss, or mortality.
THE ROOT
ταπείνωσις
tapeinōsis
GROWS FROM
ταπειν-
tapein-
Low; brought down; a low condition.
“made low” in this verse is tapeinōsis. The word names a low state, not only an inward virtue: the rich person can be brought into it. Its word family also includes lowering and lowliness, holding imposed reduction and humble condition together.
ALSO GROWS
tapeinoō: to lower, humble, or bring low
ταπεινόω
This verb shares the root’s sense of lowering and shows how the low condition can come upon someone or be entered through an act of humility.
tapeinos: lowly, humble, or of low status
ταπεινός
This adjective belongs to the same family as the low estate named here, linking the rich person’s lowering to the lowly brother in the preceding verse.
THE PATTERN
Visible human flourishing has a season, and neither bodily life nor social glory escapes its passing.
As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:THE THREAD
Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:“Low degree” in verse 9 and “made low” here belong to the same Greek word family. The two verses turn status upside down: the lowly are lifted, while the rich encounter lowering, so status does not set a person’s lasting measure.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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