What Does Romans 14:20 Mean?
Do not, for the sake of food, unbuild the work of God. All things are clean indeed, but it is evil for the man who eats through a stumbling.
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 meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence.THE KEY
Food can be pure while eating it becomes a stumbling block that tears down God’s work.
THE MEANING
The food is clean in itself, yet eating through a stumbling block is harmful. God’s work can be damaged when food becomes the point where someone stumbles. The purity of a thing does not make every use of it harmless.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
If something is permitted and pure, using it can never cause harm.
THE ROOT
προσκόμματος
proskommatos
GROWS FROM
κόπτω (koptō), within προσκόπτω (proskoptō)
Strike or cut; in προσκόπτω, strike against and stumble.
The word translated “offence” carries the image of a collision with an obstacle, not merely hurt feelings. The verse pictures eating becoming a trip point that can damage God’s work.
ALSO GROWS
proskoptō: to strike against; to stumble
προσκόπτω
This verb names the collision behind the image of a stumbling block.
proskomma: a stumbling block; an obstacle
πρόσκομμα
This is the related noun used for the “stumblingblock” in Romans 14:13, making the path image explicit.
proskopē: an obstacle; a cause for stumbling
προσκοπή
The same word family appears as “offence” in 2 Corinthians 6:3, where it refers to something that could obstruct.
καθαρά
kathara
GROWS FROM
καθαρός
katharos
Clean; free from defilement.
“clean” in this verse is kathara. The verse holds together the food’s cleanliness and the harm that can come through eating it. Purity belongs to the thing itself; it does not erase the obstacle its use may create.
ALSO GROWS
katharizō: to cleanse; make clean
καθαρίζω
This verb shows the cleansing action associated with the clean state named here.
katharismos: cleansing; purification
καθαρισμός
This noun names the process of making clean, keeping the same word family centered on purity.
THE PATTERN
A thing or freedom can become harmful when it is placed in another person’s path as a stumbling block.
You shall not curse the deaf, nor set a stumbling block before the blind; but you shall stand in awe of your God. I am the LORD.But whoever causes one of these little ones who lean their weight into me to stumble, it is better for him that a donkey's millstone be hung about his neck, and that he be sunk down into the deep of the sea.But watch, lest somehow this right of yours become a stone for the weak to stumble over.THE THREAD
So let us no longer judge one another, but judge this instead, that no one sets a stone to strike against, or a trap, in his brother's way.The word προσκόμματος (proskommatos, “of a stumbling block”) here belongs to the same word family as πρόσκομμα (proskomma, “stumbling block”) in Romans 14:13. That verse makes the image visible: the harm is an obstacle placed in another person’s path.
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