Oecumenius, on Jas 4:15

“For what is your life? It is a vapour which appeareth for a little while, and afterwards shall vanish away. For that you should say: If the Lord will, and if we shall live, we will do this or that.”

“for that you should say, If the Lord wills, and if we live, we will do this or that. But now you glory in your arrogance. All such rejoicing is wicked. Furthermore, having intercepted such speech by this example, it again returns from the perspective to what was following. For the whole particle is to be ordered in this way: Now you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to that city, and we will spend a year there, and we will trade and make a profit," for what you ought to say. If the Lord wills, and if we live, we will do this or that. "But now you glory in your arrogance." Since this was truly a consequence of the discourse, it does not do this, but after it interrupts the continuity of the discourse with an example, it subsequently adds what it intended, by portraying the thing and proving the vanity that lies beneath what distracts us regarding this world. It is to be understood in this way: "Glory in your arrogance." Who are you that do not know what will happen the next day? What is your life? etc. By saying, "What is your life?" it despises life, and by this, it paves the way with an example set against brittleness, thus it also adds an example, rendering this most solid. "Glory in your arrogance." The arrogant and arrogance are affections for non-sustaining things. Therefore, it is also called ἁλαζών, which means "living with the sea," that is, living with something unstable and lacking permanence. "All such rejoicing is wicked." James repeats the empty boasting that desires to arise from pride, and as if concluding his speech, he supposes that it is evil: if it is evil, it is certainly also from the Evil One. However, those who have been consecrated to the Lord through baptism should not receive any corruptions from the Evil One.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.