What Does Romans 14:10 Mean in the King James?
But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse names contempt as a second kind of verdict: you either judge your brother or treat him as nothing, yet both of you stand before Christ.
THE MEANING
When you measure your brother, your verdict is not final; Christ is the one before whom both of you stand. Contempt does not free you from that shared standing, it makes a claim about your brother’s worth while placing you under the same judgment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief this dissolves is that your judgment or contempt gives you the last word on your brother’s standing.
THE ROOT
ἐξουθενεῖς
exoutheneis
GROWS FROM
ἐξουθενέω (exoutheneō), built around οὐδέν (ouden, nothing)
To treat as nothing, despise, or regard as negligible.
“set at nought” in this verse is exoutheneis. The Greek verb carries the stark sense of treating someone as nothing. Beside judging, it shows two ways of taking a place over another person: assigning a verdict or dismissing their worth.
ALSO GROWS
ouden: Nothing, no thing
οὐδέν
This element makes visible the force of “at nought”: contempt treats the other as if they count for nothing.
oudeis: No one, nobody
οὐδείς
This related negative form echoes how dismissal can make a person seem like no one in the eyes of the one judging.
κρίνεις
krineis
GROWS FROM
κρίνω (krinō), κριν- (krin-)
To distinguish, decide, or judge.
“judge” in this verse is krineis. The root joins discernment to decision: judging draws a distinction and assigns a verdict. Here that verdict sits beneath Christ’s judgment seat, where the person making the distinction stands too.
ALSO GROWS
krisis: Judgment, decision
κρίσις
The shared root shows judgment as a decision, not merely an observation.
kritēs: Judge, one who decides
κριτής
The person who judges is named by the same root that describes the act of deciding.
krima: Verdict, judgment
κρῖμα
The family reaches the resulting verdict, the kind of final word this verse places before Christ.
THE PATTERN
A human reading of another person is provisional because final discernment belongs to God.
But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.Judge not, that ye be not judged.Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.THE THREAD
Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.Romans 14:4 uses κρίνω (krinō, “to judge”), the same root as “judge” here, and asks who you are to judge another person’s servant. It says that servant’s own master is able to make him stand, opening the image in this verse: both you and the brother you judge stand before the same Lord.
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