What Does Romans 14:14 Mean?
I know, and I am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean through itself. But to the one who counts anything unclean, to that one it is unclean.
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
I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.THE KEY
The Greek word rendered “unclean,” κοινόν (koinon, “common”), reveals that the verse concerns how a thing is regarded, not a stain inherent in the thing itself.
THE MEANING
Nothing is unclean in itself. The verse holds a thing’s nature alongside the reader’s conscience: what the reader regards as unclean is unclean to that reader. The distinction remains real even when another person sees the thing differently.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that an object must be polluted for everyone simply because one person’s conscience regards it as unclean.
THE ROOT
κοινόν
koinon
GROWS FROM
κοιν-
The Greek stem κοιν- (koin-) means common or shared, belonging to an ordinary sphere.
KJV’s “unclean” carries the sense of defilement, while κοινόν (koinon) also means “common.” The verse’s word family connects making something common with sharing in common, opening a distinction between a thing’s nature and the status it has for the person who regards it.
ALSO GROWS
koinoō: make common; defile
κοινόω
This verb shows how “common” can also name the state of being regarded as defiled.
koinōnia: sharing in common
κοινωνία
Its shared stem links commonness with participation, showing that the word family carries a sense of relation as well as status.
koinōnos: participant; partner
κοινωνός
A participant belongs to what is shared in common, extending the root’s relational sense.
λογιζομένῳ
logizomenō
GROWS FROM
λογ-
The Greek stem λογ- (log-) carries the sense of counting, reckoning, or accounting.
“Esteemeth” can sound like a passing opinion, but the Greek form belongs to a family of words for reckoning and accounting. The verse presents the person as counting something unclean, making the reader’s judgment part of how that thing is encountered.
ALSO GROWS
logizomai: reckon; count; consider
λογίζομαι
This is the verb family behind the verse’s “esteemeth,” bringing the sense of accounting something to be so.
logismos: reckoning; reasoning
λογισμός
This related noun makes the act of considering visible as a process of thought or reckoning.
logos: word; account; reason
λόγος
The shared λογ- stem carries the sense of an account or reason, echoing the verse’s language of reckoning.
THE PATTERN
Created things do not carry defilement in themselves; the way they are received and regarded matters.
And God saw all that he had made, and look, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.There is nothing from outside a man, entering into him, that can make him common. But the things coming out of a man, those are the things that make the man common.For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be thrown away when it is taken with thanksgiving.THE THREAD
And he said to them, You know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to cling to, or come near, one of another nation; but God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.Acts uses the same Greek word κοινόν (koinon, “common”) alongside “unclean,” and applies it to a person. The shared root shows how the judgment of commonness can extend from what is eaten to whom the reader regards as outside.
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