James 1:8
New Testament
5 But if anyone is deficient in wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without reprimand, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith without doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed around by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 since he is a double-minded individual, unstable in all his ways. 9 Now the believer of humble means should take pride in his high position. 10 But the rich person’s pride should be in his humiliation because he will pass away like a wildflower in the meadow. 11 For the sun rises with its heat and dries up the meadow; the petal of the flower falls off and its beauty is lost forever. So also the rich person in the midst of his pursuits will wither away.
Date: 80-90 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Shepherd of Hermas 34:1
Patristic
1 “Now listen,” he said, “to how anger works, how evil it is, how it confounds the servants of God by its own actions, and how it misleads them away from righteousness. But it does not mislead those who are complete in the faith, nor can it work upon them, because the power of the Lord is with them; but it misleads those who are empty and double-minded. 2 For when it sees such people in prosperity, it sneaks into the person’s heart, and for no reason at all the man or the woman is embittered about worldly affairs—maybe about food, or some small matter, or about some friend, or about giving or receiving, or about trivialities of this sort. For all these things are foolish and pointless and senseless and not useful for the servants of God.
Date: 90-140 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Notes and References
"... One of the most frequent phrases in The Shepherd of Hermas is the Greek adjective δἰψυχος (“doublemindedness”). While the adjective occurs nineteen times, its cognate verb διψυχεῑν (“to be doublemindend”) occurs twenty times and the substantive διψυχἰα (“doubleminded”) occurs in as many as sixteen times. Indeed, the number of the occurrences of this term in The Shepherd is staggering, given the fact that the term occurs only ten times in all the other early Christian writings combined up to this time (that is, in James 1:8; 4:8, Didache 4.4; Baruch 19.5; 1 Clement 11.2; 23.2-3, 2 Clement 11:2; 23.5; 19.2) ... (as Bauchkam notes, “It may be noted that in Vision IV δίψυχος is closer to its meaning in James 1:8 and in the prophetic sayings quoted in 1 Clement 23.2 and 2 Clement 11.2 than is usual in Hermas: the danger of becoming doubleminded, i.e. of wavering in faith under the threat of persecution ..."
Mutie, Jeremiah
The Identity of the Διψυχος in the Shepherd of Hermas
(pp. 1-18) Faculty Publications and Presentations, 2011
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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