There“God is untempted by evil,”1 yet “they tempted Yahveh.”2 The solution to the conundrum exists in the recognition of there being two types of temptation: subjective temptation; there is and objective temptation. Hallie wrote,3
...you will see that temptation has two major aspects: let us call them “objective temptation” and “subjective temptation.” Objective temptation is what it is that tempts—the object and the seductive arguments that draw you to turn away from the mitzvah. (Later we shall talk of the subjective temptation, the feeling that one should turn away from the command.)
Footnotes
1 Jam. 1:13
2 Exo. 17:7
3 Hallie, p. 57
Objective temptation occurs when someoneconsists of the object/somethingperson that tempts a person[someone], as well as the temptation (the act of tempting) by that object/person. Subjective temptation occurs when a person is objectively tempted and thensomeone succumbs to, or does not endure,1 the objective temptation. The reason the person does not endure the objective temptation, that is, the reason he is subjectively tempted, is attributed to “his own lust,”4 which lust is elsewhere said to be caused by indwelling Sin.5
14 Jam. 1:14
5 Rom. 6:12, 7:8, 7:17, 7:20
For this reason, James 1:12 states, “Blessed is the man who endures temptation...” If the man endured temptation, then he was indeed tempted, for it would be nonsensical to state that a man endured something that he had not experienced.2
Footnotes
2 Oxford English Dictionary defines the verb “endure” as “3. a., to undergo without succumbing or giving way.”
Yet, heJames says that the man is “blessed.” How can thethe man be both tempted and also blessed? The man was objectively tempted, but he did not succumb to the objective temptation. Therefore,Because he was not subjectively tempted, he is blessed.
Johann Eduard Huther commented,36
36 Huther, p. 61
The Lord Jesus Christ was objectively tempted by Satan.47 However, the Lord Jesus Christ, although “tempted in every way,” was “without sin.”58 He was not subjectively tempted, because he did not yield or succumb to those objective temptations. He endured the objective temptation and was therefore “proven.”69 Likewise, men tempt God, objectively,710 but God does not yield or succumb to any objective temptation. Hence, God is not subjectively tempted; He is “untempted by evil.”811
47 Mark 1:13
58 Heb. 4:15
69 δόκιμος, cf. Jam. 1:12
710 cf. Exo. 17:7
811 ἀπείραστός...κακῶν
On the phrase «ἀπείραστός...κακῶν» in James 1:13, George Benedikt Winer supports the translation “untempted by evil.”912 The Vulgate translated ἀπείραστός by the word intemptator, which translates into English as the active “not a tempter,” rather than the passive, “not tempted.” Likewise, Luther1013 translated Jam. 1:13 into German as „denn Gott ist nicht eyn versucher zum bosen“, that is, “for, God is not a tempter to evil.”
912 Winer, pp. 242–243, as does Buttmann, §132, p. 170
1013 1530 ed. of the Lutherbibel
Buttmann, Alexander. A Grammar of the New Testament Greek. Trans. Thayer, Joseph Henry. Andover: Draper, 1873.
Hallie, Philip P. “Satan, Evil, and Good in History.” Reason and Violence: Philosophical Investigations. Ed. Stanage, Sherman Miller. Totowa: Rowman and Littlefield, 1975.
