What Does Romans 14:21 Mean?
It is good not to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor to do anything by which your brother's foot strikes, or is snared, or is made weak.
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
It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.THE KEY
The verse measures goodness by whether another person can stand, not merely by whether you are free to act.
THE MEANING
Here, goodness includes leaving a freedom unused when it becomes the point where your brother stumbles, is caught, or loses strength. The verse traces three distinct effects: collision, entrapment, and depletion. What matters is what an act does in the shared space between you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that an act is good simply because you are free to do it, regardless of what it does to your brother.
THE ROOT
σκανδαλίζεται
skandalizetai
GROWS FROM
σκανδαλ-
skandal-
snare, trap, stumbling block
“snared” in this verse is skandalizetai. The verb carries the image of a snare: your brother is not merely displeased, but caught in something that makes him fall. With food as the setting, the word pictures an ordinary act becoming a trap in another person’s path.
ALSO GROWS
skándalon: snare, trap trigger, stumbling block
σκάνδαλον
This noun names the obstacle that can catch or trip someone, showing the concrete image behind the verse’s word for being offended.
skandalízō: to ensnare, cause to stumble or take offense
σκανδαλίζω
This verb names the act of setting someone into that fall, linking the brother’s response to what is put in his way.
προσκόπτει
proskoptei
GROWS FROM
κόπτω
kopt-
strike, cut
“foot strikes” in this verse is proskoptei. This verb pictures impact: to stumble is to strike against something in the path. It gives the first failure a bodily shape, a collision caused by what lies before your brother.
ALSO GROWS
kóptō: to strike, cut
κόπτω
The shared root supplies the image of an impact rather than a vague setback.
próskomma: obstacle, cause of stumbling
πρόσκομμα
This related noun is the thing struck against, making visible how an action can become an obstruction.
ἀσθενεῖ
asthenei
GROWS FROM
ἀσθεν-
asthen-
lacking strength
“made weak” in this verse is asthenei. The final verb shifts from a fall to a loss of capacity: your brother is left with less strength. The sequence therefore moves from collision, to entrapment, to depletion.
ALSO GROWS
asthéneia: weakness, lack of strength
ἀσθένεια
This noun makes the condition named in the verse explicit: strength has diminished.
asthenḗs: weak, without strength
ἀσθενής
This related adjective describes the person whose capacity is affected, keeping the verse focused on what happens to your brother.
THE PATTERN
An act that is available to one person can become an obstacle in another person’s path.
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.So then let us pursue the things that move toward wholeness, and the things that build one another up.But watch, lest somehow this right of yours become a stone for the weak to stumble over.THE THREAD
But watch, lest somehow this right of yours become a stone for the weak to stumble over.The Greek noun σκάνδαλον (skándalon, stumbling block or snare) belongs to the same word family as σκανδαλίζεται (skandalizetai, is ensnared or caused to stumble) in Romans. Together, the verses reveal that a brother being “offended” can mean being caught in a trap created by someone else’s freedom.
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