No, this is not confession time nor self flagellation time, but something that struck me as I have been re-reading commentaries ahead of leading a Bible Study next week on James 3:1 - 12.  The last time I looked at them, last autumn, I confess I skipped over all the detailed analytical stuff, partly cos my brain was still not up for reading Greek, and partly because I was wanting broader brush strokes.  Today, I noticed something in one commentary, then spotted it in another, and yet neither of the writers seemed to spot the irony of what they were (or were not) saying.

The opening of James 3 is roughly thus: 'not many of us should apsire to be teachers, because more is expected of them, and we all make mistakes.' and then moves into a plethora of examples of very small things that have potential for huge impact - whether it is a spark, a ship's rudder or a bit in the mouth of a horse.  All good, self-explantory stuff: little thing, big impact which could be destructive.

The two commentators spent lots of words noting that the start of verse three, in Greek, could be (based on extant manuscripts I assume):

• ei de
• ide
• eide
• idou

The difference seems small when it is written down, but the sentence is changed by whichever is chosen. For example:

if we put bits in horses' mouths....

behold, we put bits in horses' mouths...

As the commentators note, in this case it doesn't matter much which word we choose, because the message isn't substantively altered.  But, whilst they note the need for interperative choice, and one even asks 'how do you decide which is the correct choice', neither makes the connection that seemed to me really obvious - that here, in this text, is a teeny weeny example of just how tricky it is to get this right.  We all make mistakes, a word missed or mistyped here, a punctuation slip there, and the meaning changes, sometimes with catastrophic results.  It is entirely feasible that trascription errors or even poor handwriting exaplin the differences... the pen has like potnetial to the tongue.

All of which has given me an idea to research a little exercise for the participants to share as a 'warm up' if only I can find sufficient suitable words and phrases...