empty: containing nothing, whether a hand with nothing in it, words with no truth in them, or effort that comes to nothing
The root picture behind this word is a container with nothing inside. From that one image the New Testament writers reach in three directions: a hand or vessel that is literally empty, words and teaching that are empty of truth, and effort that ends up empty of result. These are not three separate words but three neighboring uses of a single idea.
Paul in particular plays on the range. He can describe a person sent away with nothing as "empty," warn against teaching that is hollow and deceptive, and, most often of all, use the set phrase "in vain" for work that might come to nothing. In a few sentences he leans on more than one of these at once, so that asking whether the good news itself is "empty" becomes a way of asking both whether it is true and whether it works.
The nearest English word, "empty," fits the physical sense cleanly but thins out in the others, where "hollow," "worthless," "futile," or "in vain" each catch a part the plain word misses. A closely related Greek word means empty specifically of purpose or effect; this word centers instead on empty of contents, and lets that image travel into the moral and the practical.
Nuances
Whether the address here means the man is intellectually foolish (empty-headed) or spiritually hollow (empty of the substance that a living, working faith supplies).
- majorityIt calls the man empty of religious substance: a life whose claimed faith is hollow because it yields no works.; Dan G. McCartney, James (BECNT, 2009), 162-163; Scot McKnight, The Letter of James (NICNT, 2011), 246-247
- minorityIt is the older diatribe insult meaning "empty-headed" or foolish.; Douglas J. Moo, The Letter of James (PNTC, 2000), 132-133
Whether κενόν calls the preaching hollow (empty of content, no real gospel at all) or futile (without effect), given that Paul sets it beside μάταιος ("useless") at 15:17.
- majorityHollow, without content: if Christ is not raised the preaching has no substance to it.; Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NICNT), 741-742; Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NIGTC), 1219-1220
- minorityThe two words mark a rhetorical progression from "empty" to "useless," or carry both nuances at once.; Roy E. Ciampa and Brian S. Rosner, The First Letter to the Corinthians (PNTC), 762; Hans Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians (Hermeneia), 265-266
Whether κενή here means the mission proved fruitless (produced no lasting result) or that it was empty of substance and insincere (mere hollow rhetoric like that charged against traveling philosophers).
- contestedFruitless, without lasting result, looking back to the Thessalonians' turning to God in 1:9.; Charles A. Wanamaker, The Epistles to the Thessalonians (NIGTC), 91-92
- contestedEmpty of substance, insincere: read against the ancient charge that traveling speakers were hollow flatterers.; Abraham J. Malherbe, The Letters to the Thessalonians (Anchor Bible), 135-137