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Edition 14 Adultery is OK for Men, but Not for Women! 8/24/19

James 4:4 in the Byzantine manuscripts reads as follows:

"Μοιχοὶ καὶ μοιχαλίδες, οὐκ οἴδατε ὅτι ἡ φιλία τοῦ κόσμου ἔχθρα τοῦ θεοῦ ἐστίν; Ὃς ἂν οὖν βουληθῇ φίλος εἶναι τοῦ κόσμου, ἐχθρὸς τοῦ θεοῦ καθίσταται."

The KJV translates it this way: "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God."

Alexandrian manuscripts AlephCodex Sinaiticus, ACodex Alexandrinus, and BCodex Vaticanus read this way:

"Μοιχαλίδες, οὐκ οἴδατε ὅτι ἡ φιλία τοῦ κόσμου ἔχθρα τοῦ θεοῦ ἐστιν; ὃς ἐὰν οὖν βουληθῇ φίλος εἶναι τοῦ κόσμου, ἐχθρὸς τοῦ θεοῦ καθίσταται."

Notice that the (male) adulterers (μοιχοὶ) are not included in the Alexandrian manuscripts. Otherwise, the texts are identical. On the surface, it may seem that the Alexandrian manuscripts are letting adulterers "off the hook" while applying the admonition only to females (adulteresses). The passage is translated as follows in the NASV:

You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Those familiar with Biblical imagery know that God condemns a type of "adultery" in reference to Israel's abandonment of Him in favor of other "gods".  An example passage is Hosea 3:1.  An applicable New Testament passage may be Rev. 2:4, where Jesus speaks against the church of Ephesus in saying that they had left their "first love".  In fact, James 4:4 itself refers to the same kind of adultery when it speaks of friendship with the world. So before condemning the Alexandrian manuscripts for being unfair, consider the possibility that the author (James) was speaking of another kind of adultery - one in which the adulteress refers to God's "wife" or, perhaps, the "bride" of Christ. He must have had that in mind. Otherwise, he's saying that the danger of enmity with God only applies to those who practice adultery. Byzantine manuscripts seem to be saying that very thing. They must be taken to mean literal adulterers and adulteresses. At least it's a little more of a stretch to interpret the verse otherwise. The challenge is to decide whether the "μοιχοὶ" were added to or removed from the original.

Manuscripts