What Does Romans 11:35 Mean?
Or who has given to him first, and it will be given back to him?
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
Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?THE KEY
Because “recompensed” is built from the same Greek giving-verb as “given,” the verse reveals repayment as giving turned back, with no first claim upon God.
THE MEANING
No one gives God an original gift that places God under obligation. What you return to God comes from a prior giving, so there is no debt for God to repay. The verse speaks now by undoing the picture of God as your debtor.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie it undoes is that you have given God something first, something God did not give you, and can therefore require repayment.
THE ROOT
προέδωκεν
proedōken
GROWS FROM
δω-
dō-
To give; the shared verbal stem beneath the forms translated “given” and “recompensed.”
The word translated “given” means given beforehand, while “recompensed” carries the same giving stem with the sense of giving back. The Greek keeps both actions in one family: repayment is a return of giving, not a claim that began with God.
ALSO GROWS
didōmi: To give.
δίδωμι
This is the base verb behind the verse’s “given,” exposing the giving already inside “recompensed.”
dosis: A giving; a gift.
δόσις
James uses this giving-family word for “gift,” showing how the verse’s verb and the language of received gifts share a root.
antapodidōmi: To give back; repay.
ἀνταποδίδωμι
This is the verb behind “recompensed”; its giving stem makes repayment a return of what was given.
THE PATTERN
What is returned to God already comes from God, so no one can place God in their debt.
But who am I, and what is my people, that we should hold the strength to offer so willingly after this sort? For all things come from you, and from your hand have we given to you.Who has gone before me, that I should repay him? Everything under all the heavens is mine.Every good giving and every complete gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no shifting and no shadow cast by turning.THE THREAD
Every good giving and every complete gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no shifting and no shadow cast by turning.James uses δόσις (dosis, a giving or gift), from the same giving family that appears in Romans as “given” and “recompensed.” The gift coming down from above makes the direction clear: what returns to God begins in what has already been received.
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