What Does Romans 12:14 Mean?
Bless those who pursue you. Bless, and do not curse.
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
Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.THE KEY
The same word for blessing is repeated around persecution, making good speech the frame of the encounter while closing off its verbal opposite.
THE MEANING
Your speech toward the one who presses against you is named twice as blessing. The verse holds the hostility in view and refuses to make a curse its echo: what they do remains what they do, while your spoken response is directed toward good.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that another person’s hostility makes cursing back the only honest response.
THE ROOT
εὐλογεῖτε
eulogeite
GROWS FROM
εὖ + λέγω
εὖ (eu, well or good) joined with λέγω (legō, speak): to speak well or invoke good.
“bless” in this verse is eulogeite. The Greek verb keeps “good” and speaking joined: blessing is a spoken orientation toward good, not merely a private feeling. The command repeats this same verb twice, so persecution does not get to determine the kind of word spoken in response.
ALSO GROWS
eulogia: blessing, praise
εὐλογία
This noun carries the same good-speaking into the thing spoken or bestowed.
eulogētos: blessed, worthy of praise
εὐλογητός
This related form describes one who receives or merits a word of blessing.
καταρᾶσθε
katarasthe
GROWS FROM
κατά + ἀρά
κατά (kata, against or down upon) joined with ἀρά (ara, curse or imprecation): to call harm down upon someone.
The verse places blessing and cursing side by side as opposing words directed toward another person. Its final phrase shuts out the curse even while the persecution remains real.
ALSO GROWS
katara: curse, imprecation
κατάρα
This noun names the hostile invocation that the verse forbids.
epikataratos: accursed, under a curse
ἐπικατάρατος
This related form shows the same curse language applied to the state of someone placed under a curse.
THE PATTERN
Hostility does not determine the kind of good word or deed returned toward the hostile person.
If the one who hates you hungers, feed him bread; and if he thirsts, give him water to drink.Bless those who curse you, and pray for those who abuse you.Not giving back evil for evil, or insult for insult, but on the contrary, speaking good, knowing that you are called to this, so that you may inherit good speech.THE THREAD
Not giving back evil for evil, or insult for insult, but on the contrary, speaking good, knowing that you are called to this, so that you may inherit good speech.Peter uses the same Greek word family: εὐλογέω (eulogeō, bless) appears as “blessing,” and εὐλογία (eulogia, blessing) appears as what is inherited. Romans repeats the verb; Peter links the act of blessing to blessing received.
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