What Does Romans 13:3 Mean?
For the ones who lead are no terror to good work, but to evil. Do you want, then, not to tremble before the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise out of it.
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 rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:THE KEY
The verse puts terror and praise under the same authority, but assigns them to opposite kinds of action.
THE MEANING
The verse presents authority as distinguishing between good and evil: evil meets fear, while good receives recognition. Its claim is that doing good need not make you tremble before power; the same power can become a source of praise.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that authority is automatically a threat to people doing good; here, fear is attached to evil, while good meets praise.
THE ROOT
φόβος
phobos
GROWS FROM
φοβ-
phob-
Fear, alarm, dread.
The Greek repeats the φοβ- (phob-, fear) word family in “terror” and “afraid”: φόβος (phobos, terror) and φοβεῖσθαι (phobeisthai, to be afraid). English gives them different shapes, but the verse links the fear authority embodies with the fear a person might feel before it.
ALSO GROWS
phobeomai: To fear or be afraid.
φοβέομαι
This verb is the same fear-family heard in the verse’s “afraid,” echoing the noun translated “terror.”
aphobos: Without fear, fearless.
ἄφοβος
The same φοβ- (phob-, fear) seed appears with a negating prefix, showing how the word family can name fear’s absence as well as its presence.
ἀγαθός
agathos
GROWS FROM
ἀγαθ-
agath-
Good, beneficial.
The same ἀγαθ- (agath-, good) appears in “good works” and “that which is good.” The verse repeats the quality before turning it into an action, then connects that action with praise.
ALSO GROWS
agathosyne: Goodness.
ἀγαθωσύνη
This related noun names the quality that the verse applies to works and action.
agathopoieo: To do good.
ἀγαθοποιέω
This related verb makes explicit the movement from goodness as a quality to goodness expressed in action.
THE PATTERN
Good and evil become visible in public life through the recognition or consequence they meet.
Or to governors, as to those sent by him for the setting right of doers of badness, and for the praise of doers of good.Alignment lifts up a nation, but falling short is a reproach to any people.Give back to no one evil for evil. Look ahead to what is beautiful in the eyes of all people.THE THREAD
But even if you suffer for the sake of alignment, flourishing are you. Do not fear their fear, and do not be stirred.Peter repeats the same Greek fear-family: φόβος (phobos, terror) and φοβέομαι (phobeomai, to fear). The shared root opens a tension beside Romans: good is not assigned terror under authority, yet the verse names the reality of terror when people suffer for doing right.
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