What Does Romans 3:6 Mean in the King James?
God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?
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 world’s wrong cannot make its judge unjust without making judgment itself impossible.
THE MEANING
God’s judgment remains able to discern the world even when the world’s wrong is used to challenge the judge. Human injustice does not turn justice into injustice or place the world beyond God’s sight.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the claim that human wrong makes God unjust, or makes it impossible for God to judge.
THE ROOT
κρίνει
krinei
GROWS FROM
κριν-
krin-
to separate, distinguish, decide
“judge” in this verse is krinei. The verb carries the sense of discerning and deciding, not merely handing down a verdict. The verse’s question turns on that distinction: if God’s own justice were bent by the world’s wrong, there would be no sound judgment left to hold the world in view.
ALSO GROWS
krisis: judgment, decision
κρίσις
This related word names the act of judgment itself, showing the same root at work in both discerning and deciding.
kritēs: judge, one who decides
κριτής
The judge is the one who distinguishes and decides; the role depends on judgment remaining clear rather than becoming as distorted as the world.
τὸν κόσμον
ton kosmon
GROWS FROM
κοσμ-
kosm-
order, arrangement
κόσμος can name the world as an ordered whole, not only a place or planet. God’s judgment reaches the shared human order in which injustice occurs, not just isolated private acts.
ALSO GROWS
kosmeō: to arrange, put in order, adorn
κοσμέω
This verb from the same word family keeps the sense of arrangement close to κόσμος, the whole that is being judged.
kosmios: orderly, well-arranged, decorous
κόσμιος
This related form carries the family’s sense of order into human conduct, echoing the question of what makes judgment just.
μὴ γένοιτο
mē genoito
GROWS FROM
γιν-
gin-
to become, happen, come to be
“forbid” in this verse is mē genoito. The Greek exclamation means, “May it not come to be.” It rejects the possibility raised in the preceding thought: that God’s justice could become injustice because of human wrong.
ALSO GROWS
genesis: origin, birth, coming into being
γένεσις
This related noun names a beginning or coming-to-be, clarifying the force of the reply: may that state never arise.
genēma: what is produced, fruit
γένημα
This related form names what comes into being; the exclamation refuses the proposed outcome before it can take shape.
THE PATTERN
God’s judgment holds the whole world to a just standard without letting the world’s disorder redefine justice.
That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.THE THREAD
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.“Judge” here uses the same Greek verb, κρίνω (krinō), as Romans 3:6. This verse places judgment beside bringing hidden things to light, opening the thought that the world’s judge can discern what human sight misses.
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