We can subdue and control all animal species, but no human being can tame the tongue. The particle but introduces a sharp contrast. In Greek the tongue appears first for emphasis and contrast; people can subdue wild animals, but the tongue no one can! Other ways to express this first clause are “But we cannot control our tongues” or “But our tongues get out of control” (Contemporary English Version).

The tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison: this construction is grammatically odd. The two descriptions of the tongue have been taken either as in apposition to tongue or as predicates of a separate sentence. In the first case the Revised Standard Version rendering will result (and New Revised Standard Version is the same). However, this approach will be difficult in many languages, and so translators may prefer the second option and put a period after the tongue, and then the tongue (rendered as “it”) is understood as the subject of a separate sentence, resulting in a rendering like that of Good News Translation, “… the tongue. It is evil and uncontrollable, full of deadly poison” (similarly New International Version, Revised English Bible), and Contemporary English Version “But our tongues get out of control. They are restless and evil….” There is, however, a third possibility, which is to take the two descriptions as two separate statements; thus “It is a restless evil. It is full of deadly poison.” In this case the first sentence “It is a restless evil” may be taken to conclude the previous description of the tongue as an uncontrollable animal. And the second sentence “It is full of deadly poison” may be understood as introducing the following reference to the contradictory use of the tongue (verses 9-12). This interpretation also makes good sense and is reflected in the rendering of Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, which begins a new paragraph with this statement. This Handbook recommends that translators follow either the second or third interpretation.

There are a couple of problems relating to the expression a restless evil. The first has to do with the meaning of the adjective restless. In place of this word King James Version follows a Greek text based on later manuscripts and translates “unruly.” While this fits better with the context, it is considered less likely to be original and is therefore rejected by most modern commentators. The same adjective was used in 1.8 in reference to the double-minded person who is “unstable” and “undecided.” As a modifier of evil it may suggest that the evil is difficult to control and disorderly, and therefore the term is rendered as “uncontrollable” by Good News Translation (so also Translator’s New Testament). To keep the image of untameable beasts in focus, Phillips renders it as “always liable to break out,” capturing the picture of a caged beast pacing back and forth seeking an opportunity to break out.

The second problem has to do with the use together of two adjectives restless evil without a connective. Two solutions have been offered. One is to take the word evil as a noun, thus rendering it as “an evil thing” (so Translator’s New Testament and Revised English Bible). The other is to take the two adjectives as a pair by providing a connective between the two, thus “restless and evil” (Contemporary English Version), or “evil and uncontrollable” (Good News Translation). This interpretation is the more likely one, and is recommended by the Handbook.

The second description of the tongue is that it is full of deadly poison, like a snake. As we have observed, this description serves as an introduction to the discussion of the contradictory use of the tongue. The word deadly occurs only here in the New Testament and means literally “death-bringing.” The poison brings about death. The idea of the tongue as full of deadly poison reflects a familiar teaching in the Old Testament about evil people; for example, “Their tongues are like deadly snakes; their words are like a cobra’s poison” (Psa 140.3, TEV; similarly Psa 58.4-5). In many oriental languages it is possible, indeed desirable, to keep the literal and more picturesque language of the original; for example, “It [the tongue] is full of poison that brings about death” (Japanese colloquial version, Japanese New Interconfessional Translation, Today’s Chinese Version).

Alternative translation models for the final part of this verse may be:
• It is restless and evil, and full of poison that brings about death.
• They [or, The tongues] are restless and evil. They are full of deadly poison.

Quoted with permission from Loh, I-Jin and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Letter from James. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .