Skip to main content

James 3:12

Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.

KJV

μὴ δύναται, ἀδελφοί μου, συκῆ ἐλαίας ποιῆσαι ἢ ἄμπελος σῦκα; οὔτε ἁλυκὸν γλυκὺ ποιῆσαι ὕδωρ.

Greek NT

Numquid potest, fratres mei, ficus uvas facere, aut vitis ficus ? Sic neque salsa dulcem potest facere aquam.

Vulgate

can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a vine figs? neither can salt water yield sweet.

ASV

Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear grapes? Or the vine, figs? So neither can the salt water yield sweet.

Douay-Rheims

Open in reader with connections →

In the original Greek

14 distinct Greek words appear in this verse.

γλυκύς
glukus
adjective · 4×
δύναμαι
dunamai
verb · 209×
μή
me
particle · 1033×
οὔτε
oute
conjunction · 94×
ποιέω
poieo
verb · 569×
συκῆ
suke
noun · 16×
σῦκον
sukon
noun · 4×
ἀδελφός
adelphos
noun · 343×
ἁλυκός
alukos
adjective · 1×
ἄμπελος
ampelos
noun · 9×
ἐγώ
ego
pronoun · 1720×
ἐλαία
elaia
noun · 16×
e
particle · 346×
ὕδωρ
udor
noun · 76×

Textual variants

1 variant unit attested by manuscript witnesses and modern critical editions.

minor
SBLGNT: οὔτε ἁλυκὸν | WH/Treg/NIV: οὔτε ἁλυκὸν | RP: Οὕτως οὐδεμια πηγὴ ἁλυκὸν καὶ
  • οὔτε ἁλυκὸνSBLGNT
  • οὔτε ἁλυκὸνWestcott-Hort, Tregelles, Reader's GNT (NA27)
  • Οὕτως οὐδεμια πηγὴ ἁλυκὸν καὶRobinson-Pierpont
source: sblgnt-apparatus

Historic Christian voices

3 passages from patristic writers, Reformers, and church catechisms citing this verse.

Cross-references

  • Gen 1:11 — And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
  • Jer 2:21 — Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?
  • Luke 6:43 — For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
  • Luke 6:44 — For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.
  • Matt 7:16 — Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
  • Matt 7:16 — Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
  • Matt 12:33 — Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.
  • Matt 12:33 — Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.
  • Rom 11:16 — For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.