James 3:12
New International Version
My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

New Living Translation
Does a fig tree produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty spring.

English Standard Version
Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

Berean Standard Bible
My brothers, can a fig tree grow olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

Berean Literal Bible
Is a fig tree able, my brothers, to produce olives? Or a vine, figs? Neither is a salt spring able to produce fresh water.

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

New King James Version
Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.

New American Standard Bible
Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, bear olives, or a vine bear figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.

NASB 1995
Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.

NASB 1977
Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Neither can salt water produce fresh.

Legacy Standard Bible
Can a fig tree, my brothers, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can saltwater produce fresh.

Amplified Bible
Can a fig tree, my brothers, produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.

Christian Standard Bible
Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a saltwater spring yield fresh water.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a saltwater spring yield fresh water.

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

Contemporary English Version
Can a fig tree produce olives or a grapevine produce figs? Does fresh water come from a well full of salt water?

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

GOD'S WORD® Translation
My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree produce olives? Can a grapevine produce figs? In the same way, a pool of salt water can't produce fresh water.

Good News Translation
A fig tree, my friends, cannot bear olives; a grapevine cannot bear figs, nor can a salty spring produce sweet water.

International Standard Version
My brothers, a fig tree cannot produce olives, nor a grapevine figs, can it? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

Majority Standard Bible
My brothers, can a fig tree grow olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

NET Bible
Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters, or a vine produce figs? Neither can a salt water spring produce fresh water.

New Heart English Bible
Can a fig tree, my brothers, yield olives, or a vine figs? Nor is salt water able to produce sweet.

Webster's Bible Translation
Can the fig-tree, my brethren, bear olive-berries? or a vine, figs? so no fountain can yield both salt water and fresh.

Weymouth New Testament
Can a fig-tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a vine yield figs? No; and neither can salt water yield sweet.

World English Bible
Can a fig tree, my brothers, yield olives, or a vine figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh water.
Literal Translations
Literal Standard Version
Is a fig tree able, my brothers, to make olives? Or a vine figs? Neither is salty [water able] to have made sweet water.

Berean Literal Bible
Is a fig tree able, my brothers, to produce olives? Or a vine, figs? Neither is a salt spring able to produce fresh water.

Young's Literal Translation
is a fig-tree able, my brethren, olives to make? or a vine figs? so no fountain salt and sweet water is able to make.

Smith's Literal Translation
The fig tree, my brethren, cannot make olives, or the vine, figs: so no fountain can make salt and sweet water.
Catholic Translations
Douay-Rheims Bible
Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear grapes; or the vine, figs? So neither can the salt water yield sweet.

Catholic Public Domain Version
My brothers, can the fig tree yield grapes? Or the vine, figs? Then neither is salt water able to produce fresh water.

New American Bible
Can a fig tree, my brothers, produce olives, or a grapevine figs? Neither can salt water yield fresh.

New Revised Standard Version
Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.
Translations from Aramaic
Lamsa Bible
Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olives? Or the vine, figs? likewise also salt water cannot be made sweet.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Or can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine, figs? So neither can salt water be made sweet.
NT Translations
Anderson New Testament
Can the fig-tree, my brethren, bear olives, or the vine, figs? So no fountain can produce salt water and fresh.

Godbey New Testament
My brethren, whether is the fig-tree able to produce olives, or the vine figs? Neither is the bitter fountain able to produce sweet water.

Haweis New Testament
Can a fig-tree, my brethren, produce olives; or a vine figs? so also can no fountain send forth salt water and sweet.

Mace New Testament
can a fig-tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine figs? no more can the sea yield water that is fresh.

Weymouth New Testament
Can a fig-tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a vine yield figs? No; and neither can salt water yield sweet.

Worrell New Testament
My brethren, can a fig tree produce olives; or a vine, figs? Neither can salt water yield sweet.

Worsley New Testament
Can a fig-tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine figs? so can no fountain produce salt water and sweet.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Taming the Tongue
11Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12My brothers, can a fig tree grow olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. 13Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good conduct, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.…

Cross References
Matthew 7:16-20
By their fruit you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? / Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. / A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. ...

Luke 6:43-45
No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. / For each tree is known by its own fruit. Indeed, figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor grapes from brambles. / The good man brings good things out of the good treasure of his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil treasure of his heart. For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.

Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, / gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Matthew 12:33-35
Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is known by its fruit. / You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. / The good man brings good things out of his good store of treasure, and the evil man brings evil things out of his evil store of treasure.

Proverbs 12:12
The wicked desire the plunder of evil men, but the root of the righteous flourishes.

Proverbs 18:21
Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

John 15:4-5
Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. / I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.

Romans 6:21-22
What fruit did you reap at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The outcome of those things is death. / But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the fruit you reap leads to holiness, and the outcome is eternal life.

Isaiah 5:1-7
I will sing for my beloved a song of his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. / He dug it up and cleared the stones and planted the finest vines. He built a watchtower in the middle and dug out a winepress as well. He waited for the vineyard to yield good grapes, but the fruit it produced was sour! / “And now, O dwellers of Jerusalem and men of Judah, I exhort you to judge between Me and My vineyard. ...

Jeremiah 17:7-8
But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in Him. / He is like a tree planted by the waters that sends out its roots toward the stream. It does not fear when the heat comes, and its leaves are always green. It does not worry in a year of drought, nor does it cease to produce fruit.

Psalm 1:3
He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does.

Matthew 3:8-10
Produce fruit, then, in keeping with repentance. / And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. / The axe lies ready at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Colossians 1:10
so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,

Ezekiel 17:8
It had been planted in good soil by abundant waters in order to yield branches and bear fruit and become a splendid vine.’

Hosea 9:10
I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the firstfruits of the fig tree in its first season. But they went to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves to Shame; so they became as detestable as the thing they loved.


Treasury of Scripture

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

the fig tree.

Isaiah 5:2-4
And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes…

Jeremiah 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?

Matthew 7:16-20
Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? …

so.

Exodus 15:23-25
And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah…

2 Kings 2:19-22
And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is naught, and the ground barren…

Ezekiel 47:8-11
Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed…

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James 3
1. We are not rashly or arrogantly to reprove others;
5. but rather to bridle the tongue, a little member,
9. but a powerful instrument of much good, and great harm.
13. The truly wise are mild and peaceable, without envy and strife.














My brothers
This phrase is a term of endearment and solidarity, indicating James's close relationship with his audience. The Greek word "adelphoi" is used, which can mean brothers or siblings, emphasizing the familial bond among believers. James is addressing fellow Christians, reminding them of their shared faith and responsibilities. This familial language underscores the unity and mutual accountability within the Christian community.

can a fig tree grow olives
The imagery of a fig tree and olives is deeply rooted in the agricultural context of the ancient Near East. Fig trees and olive trees were common in the region and were well-known for their distinct and valuable fruits. The Greek word for "grow" here implies producing or bearing fruit. James uses this metaphor to illustrate the natural order and the impossibility of a tree producing fruit that is not in accordance with its nature. This serves as a reminder that one's words and actions should align with their Christian identity.

or a grapevine bear figs
The grapevine, another staple of the Mediterranean landscape, is used here to further the analogy. Grapevines are known for producing grapes, not figs. The Greek word for "bear" suggests the natural outcome of a plant's growth. James is emphasizing the consistency expected in nature, which should also be reflected in the lives of believers. Just as a grapevine cannot produce figs, a Christian's life should consistently reflect the values and virtues of their faith.

Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water
This phrase shifts the metaphor from agriculture to natural resources, specifically water. In the ancient world, fresh water was a precious commodity, and salt springs were known for their undrinkable water. The Greek word for "produce" indicates the source or origin of something. James is making a clear point: just as a salt spring cannot yield fresh water, a heart that is not transformed by Christ cannot produce godly speech or actions. This serves as a call for self-examination and transformation through the Holy Spirit.

(12) Can the fig-tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs?--Read, Can a fig-tree bear olives, or a vine, figs? The inquiry sounds like a memory of our Lord's, "Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" (Matthew 7:16.)

So can no fountain . . .--This, the last clause of the sentence above in the Authorised version is very confused in the original, but seems to be merely this, Neither can salt (water) bring forth fresh; or, as Wordsworth renders it, Nor can water that is salt produce what is sweet. And such in effect is Alford's comment: "If the mouth emit cursing, thereby making itself a brackish spring, it cannot to any purpose also emit the sweet stream of praise and good words; if it appear to do so, all must be hypocrisy and mere seeming." Every blessing is, in fact, tainted by the tongue which has uttered curses; and even "Praise is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner" (Ecclesiasticus 15:9).



Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
My
μου (mou)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Genitive 1st Person Singular
Strong's 1473: I, the first-person pronoun. A primary pronoun of the first person I.

brothers,
ἀδελφοί (adelphoi)
Noun - Vocative Masculine Plural
Strong's 80: A brother, member of the same religious community, especially a fellow-Christian. A brother near or remote.

can
δύναται (dynatai)
Verb - Present Indicative Middle or Passive - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1410: (a) I am powerful, have (the) power, (b) I am able, I can. Of uncertain affinity; to be able or possible.

a fig tree
συκῆ (sykē)
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 4808: A fig-tree. From sukon; a fig-tree.

grow
ποιῆσαι (poiēsai)
Verb - Aorist Infinitive Active
Strong's 4160: (a) I make, manufacture, construct, (b) I do, act, cause. Apparently a prolonged form of an obsolete primary; to make or do.

olives,
ἐλαίας (elaias)
Noun - Accusative Feminine Plural
Strong's 1636: An olive tree; the Mount of Olives. Feminine of a presumed derivative from an obsolete primary; an olive.

or
(ē)
Conjunction
Strong's 2228: Or, than. A primary particle of distinction between two connected terms; disjunctive, or; comparative, than.

a grapevine
ἄμπελος (ampelos)
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 288: A vine, grape-vine. Probably from the base of amphoteros and that of halon; a vine.

[bear] figs?
σῦκα (syka)
Noun - Accusative Neuter Plural
Strong's 4810: A (ripe) fig. Apparently a primary word; a fig.

Neither [can]
οὔτε (oute)
Conjunction
Strong's 3777: And not, neither, nor. From ou and te; not too, i.e. Neither or nor; by analogy, not even.

a salt [spring]
ἁλυκὸν (halykon)
Adjective - Nominative Neuter Singular
Strong's 252: Salty, saltine, bitter. From hals; briny.

produce
ποιῆσαι (poiēsai)
Verb - Aorist Infinitive Active
Strong's 4160: (a) I make, manufacture, construct, (b) I do, act, cause. Apparently a prolonged form of an obsolete primary; to make or do.

fresh
γλυκὺ (glyky)
Adjective - Accusative Neuter Singular
Strong's 1099: Sweet. Of uncertain affinity; sweet.

water.
ὕδωρ (hydōr)
Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular
Strong's 5204: Water. And genitive case, hudatos, etc. From the base of huetos; water literally or figuratively.


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