• James 1:15
    The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures

    • 15 εἶτα next ἡ the ἐπιθυμία desire συλλαβοῦσα having received together τίκτει is giving birth to ἁμαρτίαν, sin, ἡ the δὲ but ἁμαρτία sin ἀποτελεσθεῖσα having been finished off ἀποκυεῖ is being pregnant off to θάνατον. death.

  • James Study Notes—Chapter 1
    New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (Study Edition)

    • 1:15

      the desire . . . gives birth to sin: Here James, like earlier Bible writers, uses the process of conception and childbirth as a metaphor. (Ps 7:14; Isa 59:4) In saying that the desire has become fertile, he uses a Greek word that literally means “has conceived.” Just as conception naturally leads to birth, so nurturing a wrong desire leads to sin. The next step in the progression is when sin has been carried out, or completed. In harmony with the metaphor James uses, the Greek expression for “when it has been carried out” might also be rendered “when it is full-grown.” The overall idea of his metaphor may be as follows: The desire gives birth to sin. Then sin figuratively grows up and brings forth, or gives birth to, its own “offspring,” death. James thus vividly makes the point that a Christian must stop this process at the outset by refusing to dwell on or indulge in wrong desires.​—Compare Mt 5:27-30.