James 1:22

Speaking of Usage...

Past translations couldn't help but plug in definite articles "the" to each instance of "usage/law" to render "the law" but this is not what is written. The Greek ποιητὴς does not mean "doer" and never had such a sense in Classical Greek literature. However, because it is found in the NT, scholars took license to add a new "later" meaning: "doer."

Classical / Hellenistic Greek

• ποιητής always refers to a maker, creator, or author:

  • Material: artisan, craftsman, builder.

  • Intellectual/artistic: poet, composer of music, author of speeches.

• Focus: the agent of production, not the executor of an already defined task.

• No evidence that it means simply “doer” in the general sense of someone who acts.

NT usage defining NT Usage:

• Some NT scholars (e.g. Abbott-Smith, Thayer) read ποιητής more broadly as “one who does, acts, practices” (e.g., in James 1:22 “doers of the word”)— emphasizing ethical or moral action.

• This is a purely theological extrapolation, philo-delirium, lexi-mancy, word-inebriation, a true semantic magic in action. Classical Greek would have used something like ποιῶν (“one who does / acts”) for the general sense of “doer.”

• This is circular semantic reasoning. Scholars see ποιητής as "doer" and justify this by saying: “Well, in the NT context it obviously means ‘doer’,” but the NT context itself is the only evidence for this meaning. So the argument rests on assuming the NT usage defines the NT usage, rather than seeing how the word was actually used in Greek.