What Does Romans 10:15 Mean?
And how will they herald unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!
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 how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!THE KEY
The feet are beautiful because they carry wholeness into the world, and their movement begins with being sent.
THE MEANING
Good news reaches you as an announcement carried by another; you do not have to manufacture wholeness alone. The message names peace and good things even where narrowness makes them hard to see.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that wholeness can reach you only after you produce it yourself: here it arrives as good news carried by someone who is sent.
THE ROOT
ἀποσταλῶσιν
apostalōsin
GROWS FROM
στέλλω (stellō), in ἀποστέλλω (apostellō)
Send off, dispatch.
“are sent” in this verse is apostalōsin. The word pictures a dispatch, not simply someone deciding to speak. The announcement travels because someone is sent; the feet carry good news outward into the places waiting to hear it.
ALSO GROWS
apostolos: A sent one; messenger.
ἀπόστολος
The messenger’s identity is bound to being sent, like the feet in this verse.
apostolē: Sending; commission.
ἀποστολή
This branch makes the act behind the messenger visible: the good news has been entrusted and sent onward.
ὡραῖοι
hōraioi
GROWS FROM
ὥρα
hōra
Season, hour, or appointed time.
The Greek word for beautiful can also carry the sense of seasonable or ripe. The feet are beautiful in their timely arrival: the message comes into view through the person who brings it.
ALSO GROWS
hōra: Hour; season; appointed time.
ὥρα
It gives the adjective its sense of right timing, making the beauty more than appearance.
hōraiotēs: Beauty; fairness.
ὡραιότης
This related form shows the familiar sense of beauty growing from the same word family.
εἰρήνην
eirēnēn
GROWS FROM
εἰρήνη
eirēnē
Peace; wholeness.
The peace being announced is wholeness carried as good news. The verse joins the message to its movement: what arrives is a word of wholeness, brought by sent feet.
ALSO GROWS
eirēneuō: Live in peace; be at peace.
εἰρηνεύω
The word family describes peace as a state people can inhabit, not merely a pleasant sound.
eirēnikos: Peaceable; relating to peace.
εἰρηνικός
This branch keeps the message connected to a way of being marked by wholeness.
THE PATTERN
Wholeness reaches people through good news carried by those who are sent.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the one who brings good news, who makes wholeness heard, who brings good news of good, who makes deliverance heard, who says to Zion, Your God governs.He sends his word and heals them, and slips them free from their pits.Then Jesus said to them again, Wholeness be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.THE THREAD
Then Jesus said to them again, Wholeness be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.The same sending verb underlies “sent” in both verses. Romans names the feet as the message arrives; John opens the chain of sending behind them, showing how good news moves from one life to another.
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