What Does Romans 15:20 Mean?
Yes, so I have made it my aim to herald the good news where the Anointed One was not named, lest I build upon another's foundation.
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
Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man’s foundation:THE KEY
The work reaches for places where the Anointed One’s nature has not yet been named, and refuses to mistake another person’s foundation for its own.
THE MEANING
This verse presents a living impulse to carry the good announcement into places where the Anointed One’s nature is still unnamed. Its ambition is to lay the first footing there, while recognizing that a foundation already laid belongs to another worker’s labor.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that meaningful work must always extend what someone else has established: the verse also gives weight to reaching what remains unnamed.
THE ROOT
ὠνομάσθη
ōnomasthē
GROWS FROM
ὄνομα
onoma
Name; the nature or character carried and made known by a name.
The word for “named” grows from onoma, name. Read through name as nature, the verse speaks of places where the Anointed One’s character has not yet been made known, not merely where a label has not been spoken.
ALSO GROWS
onomazō: To name or call by name.
ὀνομάζω
It is the verb family behind “was named,” keeping the act of making a name known connected to the name itself.
onomastos: Named, renowned.
ὀνομαστός
It shows how a name can carry a character into public recognition.
θεμελίῳ
themeliō
GROWS FROM
θεμελι-
themel-
Foundation or base laid for what follows; a Greek word stem, not a Hebrew three-letter root.
The Greek family keeps the foundation and the act of founding close together: what later work builds upon is something first laid. “Another man’s foundation” therefore marks prior labor that the verse recognizes as someone else’s.
ALSO GROWS
themelios: Foundation or base.
θεμέλιος
This is the noun behind “foundation” in the verse.
themelioō: To lay or establish as a foundation.
θεμελιόω
It makes explicit the founding action contained in the image of a foundation.
οἰκοδομῶ
oikodomō
GROWS FROM
οἶκος + δομέω (oikos + domeō)
House + build; to construct a house.
“build upon” in this verse is oikodomō. The verb rendered “build” carries the image of house-building. Beside “foundation,” it forms a connected architecture: a base is laid, and a house-shaped work rises upon it.
ALSO GROWS
oikodomē: Building or edification.
οἰκοδομή
It names the building that grows from a foundation.
oikodomos: Builder.
οἰκοδόμος
It names the person doing the house-building that the verse says should not rest on another’s foundation.
THE PATTERN
New work reaches ground where the message is not yet established, while later building remains answerable to the foundation already laid.
Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a weighty cornerstone, a foundation set firm. The one who leans his weight will not hurry.According to the favor of God that was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one watch how he builds on it.To bring the good news to the lands beyond you, and not to boast in another's reed, in what is already made ready.THE THREAD
According to the favor of God that was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one watch how he builds on it.Romans names the boundary: building on a foundation someone else laid. First Corinthians uses the same foundation word and makes the sequence explicit, one lays, another builds.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us