What Does James 3:12 Mean in the King James?
Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
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
The Greek uses the same verb for a tree’s fruit and a spring’s water: what comes out reveals the nature of its source.
THE MEANING
This image names a coherence in living things: a tree bears according to its kind, and a spring gives water from its source. It brings that pattern to the reader’s speech: one source does not naturally produce opposed outputs. The question makes the gap between source and expression visible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
I can bless and curse from the same mouth and regard the two as unrelated expressions.
THE ROOT
ποιῆσαι
poiēsai
GROWS FROM
ποιέω (poieō), stem ποιε-
To do, make, or produce.
“bear / yield” in this verse is poiēsai. English uses “bear” for the tree and “yield” for the spring, but the Greek repeats one verb: both make or produce their output. That shared verb ties fruit, water, and the source that gives them together.
ALSO GROWS
poiētēs: Maker or doer.
ποιητής
The same root names an agent by what that one does, linking source and action.
poiēma: A thing made; a work.
ποίημα
What is produced is the work that emerges from its maker, as fruit and water emerge from their sources.
γλυκύ
glyký
GROWS FROM
γλυκύς (glykys), stem γλυκυ-
Sweet; pleasant to taste.
The Greek word rendered “fresh” means “sweet.” The verse’s contrast is salt against sweetness, echoing the taste language of the preceding image of one fountain producing sweet and bitter water.
ALSO GROWS
glykys: Sweet.
γλυκύς
This adjective describes the spring water and makes its taste part of the image.
glykytēs: Sweetness.
γλυκύτης
The related noun names the quality that distinguishes the water from saltiness.
THE PATTERN
What a living source produces bears the character of that source.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.THE THREAD
Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?Both verses use πηγή (pēgē), meaning “fountain” or “spring,” for the source. Verse 11 asks whether one opening sends out sweet and bitter water; verse 12 extends that same source logic to trees and to salt and sweet water.
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