What Does Romans 1:4 Mean?
who was marked out as Son of God in power, according to the Set-Apart Breath, through the rising out of the dead.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:THE KEY
Jesus is marked out as the Son of God in power by standing up from among the dead.
THE MEANING
Jesus is disclosed as the Son of God in power through resurrection from among the dead. The verse joins this raising to the breath of set-apartness, making God’s living action the setting in which the Son is revealed. For the reader now, death does not define the limit of that power.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that death proves God’s claim has failed: here, resurrection is the event that marks Jesus out in power.
THE ROOT
ὁρισθέντος
horisthentos
GROWS FROM
ὁρίζω
horizō
To mark out, determine, or designate.
The word carries more than the sense of a spoken announcement; it also has the sense of marking someone out or designating them. The resurrection is the act through which Jesus is marked out as the Son in power.
ALSO GROWS
aphorizō: To separate or set apart.
ἀφορίζω
This branch shows how marking out can make a distinction visible, echoing how Jesus is disclosed as Son in power.
proorizō: To determine beforehand or appoint.
προορίζω
This branch carries the sense of designation, giving depth to the verse’s declaration of Jesus as Son.
ἀναστάσεως
anastaseōs
GROWS FROM
ἵστημι
histēmi
To stand, set, or establish.
The Greek word for resurrection pictures a standing up. From among the dead, Jesus stands: the word holds the movement of rising inside the event’s name.
ALSO GROWS
anistēmi: To stand up or rise.
ἀνίστημι
This verb makes the movement within resurrection explicit: rising is standing up.
stasis: A standing or position.
στάσις
This branch holds the image of standing that gives resurrection its shape.
πνεῦμα
pneuma
GROWS FROM
πνέω
pneō
To breathe or blow.
“Set-Apart Breath” in this verse is pneuma. The Greek word translated spirit also names breath and moving air. Beside holiness as set-apartness, the phrase evokes breath at work in what is set apart, joining divine life to the raising from the dead.
ALSO GROWS
pnoē: Breath or blowing.
πνοή
This branch makes the breath-sense audible within the phrase translated spirit of holiness.
pneuma: Breath, wind, or spirit.
πνεῦμα
This is the verse’s word itself: one Greek word holds together the breath and spirit senses English separates.
THE PATTERN
God’s power becomes visible as life is raised from among the dead.
O LORD, you brought up my living soul from Sheol. You kept me alive from those who go down into the pit.After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, and we will live before his face.It is sown without weight; it is awakened in weight. It is sown in weakness; it is awakened in strength.THE THREAD
It is sown without weight; it is awakened in weight. It is sown in weakness; it is awakened in strength.The same Greek noun δύναμις (dýnamis, power) describes the Son’s disclosure in Romans and what the raised body receives here. The shared word opens resurrection as the shape power takes when it meets death.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us