What Does Romans 14:20 Mean in the King James?
For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence.
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
Food can be pure while eating it becomes a stumbling block that tears down God’s work.
THE MEANING
The food is clean in itself, yet eating through a stumbling block is harmful. God’s work can be damaged when food becomes the point where someone stumbles. The purity of a thing does not make every use of it harmless.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
If something is permitted and pure, using it can never cause harm.
THE ROOT
προσκόμματος
proskommatos
GROWS FROM
κόπτω (koptō), within προσκόπτω (proskoptō)
Strike or cut; in προσκόπτω, strike against and stumble.
The word translated “offence” carries the image of a collision with an obstacle, not merely hurt feelings. The verse pictures eating becoming a trip point that can damage God’s work.
ALSO GROWS
proskoptō: to strike against; to stumble
προσκόπτω
This verb names the collision behind the image of a stumbling block.
proskomma: a stumbling block; an obstacle
πρόσκομμα
This is the related noun used for the “stumblingblock” in Romans 14:13, making the path image explicit.
proskopē: an obstacle; a cause for stumbling
προσκοπή
The same word family appears as “offence” in 2 Corinthians 6:3, where it refers to something that could obstruct.
καθαρά
kathara
GROWS FROM
καθαρός
katharos
Clean; free from defilement.
“pure” in this verse is kathara. The verse holds together the food’s cleanliness and the harm that can come through eating it. Purity belongs to the thing itself; it does not erase the obstacle its use may create.
ALSO GROWS
katharizō: to cleanse; make clean
καθαρίζω
This verb shows the cleansing action associated with the clean state named here.
katharismos: cleansing; purification
καθαρισμός
This noun names the process of making clean, keeping the same word family centered on purity.
THE PATTERN
A thing or freedom can become harmful when it is placed in another person’s path as a stumbling block.
Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumblingblock before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD.But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.THE THREAD
Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.The word προσκόμματος (proskommatos, “of a stumbling block”) here belongs to the same word family as πρόσκομμα (proskomma, “stumbling block”) in Romans 14:13. That verse makes the image visible: the harm is an obstacle placed in another person’s path.
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