What Does Romans 16:17 Mean?
Now I urge you, brothers, watch those who make splits and set snares against the teaching you have learned, and turn aside from them.
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
Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.THE KEY
The verse links faction to a stumbling trap, then makes discernment a turn in your own direction: see what fractures the teaching, and step away from it.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to you as someone who can recognize when a voice fractures what you have learned and lays a stumbling point in the shared path. It names two movements: notice the pattern clearly, then turn away from those creating it. Here, discernment includes distance; the split is measured by its relation to received teaching and the stumbling it sets in motion.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that every claim to spiritual belonging deserves continued closeness: the verse places received teaching and the effects of a voice above its claim to belong.
THE ROOT
ἐκκλίνετε
ekklínete
GROWS FROM
κλίνω (klinō; stem κλιν-)
Bend, incline, or turn; with ἐκ- (ek-, out or away), turn aside.
“turn aside” in this verse is ekklínete. The Greek verb translated “avoid” describes a change of direction, not merely a judgment about someone. The verse makes discernment visible in where your path turns when teaching becomes divisive.
ALSO GROWS
klinō: To bend, incline, or turn.
κλίνω
This is the base sense carried into the verse’s command to turn away.
ekklisis: A turning aside or deviation.
ἔκκλισις
This noun from the same word family makes the movement explicit: avoidance is a turn from a course.
διχοστασίας
dichostasías
GROWS FROM
στάσις (stásis; stem στα-), with διχο- (dicho-, in two)
στάσις means standing, and can also mean a faction or insurrection; διχοστασία means dissension or factional division.
“make splits” in this verse is dichostasías. The word for “divisions” is formed around a standing or faction, with the sense of being split into two sides. It points to people being set against one another, not simply to a question that invites discussion.
ALSO GROWS
stásis: A standing; also a faction, dissension, or insurrection.
στάσις
This root carries the sense of a position that can become an active faction.
stasiázō: To stir up faction or engage in dissension.
στασιάζω
This related verb shows the action that grows from a factional stance.
σκάνδαλα
skándala
GROWS FROM
σκανδαλ-
A trap or snare; in New Testament usage, a cause of stumbling.
“set snares” in this verse is skándala. English “offences” can sound like behavior that merely gives offense; the Greek word carries the image of a trap or stumbling obstacle. Paired with divisions, it shows the split by the fall it sets in someone’s path.
ALSO GROWS
skándalon: A trap, snare, or stumbling block.
σκάνδαλον
This is the singular form of the word translated “offences” here.
skandalízō: To cause someone to stumble or to ensnare.
σκανδαλίζω
This related verb shows what the stumbling block does to the person who meets it.
THE PATTERN
When a voice fractures received teaching and sets stumbling blocks, discernment includes recognizing the source and turning aside.
Thus says the LORD of hosts, Do not hear and respond to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you; they make you vapor. They speak a sight of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.Watch for false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inside they are snatching wolves.Beloved, do not lean your weight on every breath, but test the breaths, whether they come out of God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.THE THREAD
They have all gone out of the way. Together they have become useless. There is none who does good, not even one.Romans 3:12 uses the same Greek verb, ἐξέκλιναν (exéklinan, “they turned aside”), for those who have “gone out of the way.” The shared root makes this verse’s final command a change of direction in the reader’s path.
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