Boasting is typically forbidden behaviour.  The thing boasted about can disappear in a flash. Then what?  Giving God or anyone else a hallel (from the Hebrew verb halal, he praised) is also highly recommended.  It brings honour to God when someone boasts about divine attitudes and actions.  Compliments of our peers are also highly valued.  Here are a few examples.

• Mary is a poet whose work you should read
• I yell to God for help and he answers me
• The elders will vindicate the righteous person

When you have only two witnesses

Since the word for boastful pride – alazonEIa – appears only twice in the New Testament we have to carefully draft the lexicon entry for it.  When the translation varies we have one simple problem, but when the writers diverge significantly, as do James and John, we have some explaining that goes beyond translators’ preferences.

Let us read James 4:16 as “you boast in your boastful prides” and 1 John 2:16 as “boastful pride is not of the Father”.

Conversely we could propose that James 4:16 says “you boast in your arrogances” and 1 John 2:16 says that “arrogance is not of the Father”. 

There is something shady with making plurals of concepts like hatred, honesty, righteousness or gentleness. How many kinds of hatred might there be? How does that matter to those charged with guarding society from hatred?  Is there a version of gentleness that people need to be aware of? It is highly improbable that arrogance or empty boasting comes in designer or perpetrator versions.

We are not covering for the bigoted Pharisees

Since we are not writing lexicons, but rather interpreting a pair of sentences, we can extrapolate from the theological priorities of our two writers. James, a Pharisee and strict follower of Moses, has an interest in labelling behaviours for the purpose of indicting people. The law of Moses is not setting anyone free from their trespasses and violations. John, a dedicated companion and witness of Yeshua’s majesty, has an interest in setting buoys to help people steer clear of the rocks that can stymie Christian growth.

If James were telling his audience about the Advocate they have in heaven one might understand the dire consequences of “arrogances”, or deeply entrenched arrogance. Is God counting sins? The raised head of arrogance or boastful pride grieves God, and we can be sure that our resident Help, the Holy Spirit, is always pointing the way to the healthy patterns of living the eternal life God gives.