What is the OT reference quoted in James 4:5?

[Guest Geoff Primanti]

Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy.

James 4:5

 

I know I read somewhere one commentary that no one knows where James is quoting from, which may be true but I was wondering if it might be the passage of Proverbs 3:31-34, and if not does anyone known of the proper OT address?

 

He may have been referring to something that has been lost to us.  I read once in the OT where reference was given to a book that we know is not included in today's canon because the manuscripts were lost.

 

Also it is written somewhere in the NT that there were many who published the gospel and so there may have been some things that have been rejected by the councils of the fourth century that James counted as holy scripture or maybe the thing James referred to (and the scripture that spoke of it) never came on the table when things were being considered for entrance into the received canon.  The devil certainly may have succeeded at destroying a document that contained inspired words.  What is important is that these words were not lost to us because James repeated them from whatever document is lost.

 

Nevertheless God was Sovereign in those councils and it would be dangerous to take non-canonical books and try to count them as scripture or else in any way try to include them as scripture through textual criticism or any other method.  We know that the Gnostics took the names of famous Christians (like Silvanus) and falsely said that they were the authors of their heretical works so that people would give them credence.