What Does Romans 10:13 Mean?
For everyone who calls upon the nature of the LORD will be delivered.
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
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.THE KEY
The name you call on is the Lord’s nature, and everyone who calls meets deliverance.
THE MEANING
Your call reaches the Lord as the one whose nature you call upon. The promise is open to whosoever, and the result is deliverance. The verse places no boundary around the caller.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that deliverance belongs only to a spiritually qualified few: whosoever calls is included.
THE ROOT
ὄνομα
onoma
GROWS FROM
ὄνομα
onoma
Name; the identity by which someone is known.
A name carries the identity of the one named, not just a detached sound. Calling on the Lord’s name is calling upon the Lord’s own nature.
ALSO GROWS
onomazō: to name, call by name
ὀνομάζω
It shows a name as the identity by which someone is called.
onomastos: named, renowned
ὀνομαστός
The word carries a person’s recognized identity, reinforcing that the call addresses the Lord himself.
σωθήσεται
sōthēsetai
GROWS FROM
σῴζω
sōzō
To deliver, rescue, or preserve.
“will be delivered” in this verse is sōthēsetai. The verb presents deliverance as something the caller receives. Its word family centers on rescue and preservation, so “saved” carries the sense of being brought out of peril.
ALSO GROWS
sōtēr: deliverer, rescuer
σωτήρ
It names the one who brings about the deliverance promised here.
sōtēria: deliverance, rescue
σωτηρία
It names the result as deliverance, making the promise’s outcome explicit.
ἐπικαλέσηται
epikalesētai
GROWS FROM
καλέω
kaleō
To call, summon, or name.
“call upon” in this verse is epikalesētai. The verb joins calling with the sense of calling upon someone: it is directed toward the Lord. The verse describes an addressed call, met by deliverance.
ALSO GROWS
klēsis: calling, invitation
κλῆσις
It shows the same root describing a call that reaches and summons.
klētos: called, invited
κλητός
It carries the root’s movement from calling to being called.
THE PATTERN
The Lord’s deliverance is open to everyone who calls on the Lord’s name.
And it will be that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will slip free, for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors whom the LORD calls.And it will come to pass that whoever calls on the nature of the LORD will be delivered.To the assembly of God dwelling in Corinth, to those set apart in Jesus the Anointed One, called to be set-apart ones, with all who call upon the nature of our Lord Jesus the Anointed One in every place, both theirs and ours.THE THREAD
And it will be that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will slip free, for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors whom the LORD calls.Joel 2:32 gives the Hebrew shape behind this line: whoever calls on the name of the LORD finds deliverance. It places that promise alongside the LORD’s own call, bringing the human call and divine calling together.
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