What Does Romans 2:6 Mean?
Who will give back to each one according to his works.
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
Who will render to every man according to his deeds:THE KEY
“Render” carries the sense of giving back: what is given to each person corresponds to what that person has done.
THE MEANING
This verse says that what comes to each person corresponds to their deeds. Your actions remain in view as the measure named here; you are not reduced to an abstract label.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what you do is finally inconsequential: the verse says each person receives according to their deeds.
THE ROOT
ἀποδώσει
apodōsei
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
Give, grant, or present; the verb in this verse adds the sense of giving back.
The verse’s verb is built on “give,” with the compound carrying the sense of “give back.” English “render” can sound like a formal transfer; the Greek keeps the return within the verb itself, bringing the action and its answering measure close together.
ALSO GROWS
antapodidōmi: Repay or recompense.
ἀνταποδίδωμι
This compound makes the return in the verse’s “render” especially clear: it uses the same giving root for repayment.
metadidōmi: Share or impart.
μεταδίδωμι
The same giving root can describe sharing; here its compound points to what is returned to each person.
ἔργα
erga
GROWS FROM
ἐργ-
erg-
Work, activity, or something done.
“works” in this verse is erga. The word family behind “deeds” is ἔργον (ergon, “work” or “action”). The root keeps the verse focused on concrete activity, while “according to” ties what is rendered to what is done.
ALSO GROWS
ergazomai: Work, labor, or carry something out.
ἐργάζομαι
This branch shows the active quality of the deeds named in the verse.
ergasia: Work, business, or activity.
ἐργασία
This branch keeps the root grounded in what a person actually does.
THE PATTERN
What is rendered to each person corresponds to what that person does.
And yours, O Lord, is faithful love, for you repay each man according to his deed.For the Son of Man will come in the weight of his Father, with his messengers, and then he will repay each one according to his deed.Do not be led astray. God is not sneered at. For whatever a person sows, that also he reaps.THE THREAD
So that your compassion may be in the hidden; and your Father, who sees in the hidden, himself will give it back to you in the open.The same verb, ἀποδώσει (apodōsei, “will give back”), appears in both verses: here it names what is rendered according to deeds, and there it describes the Father’s response to what is done in secret. The shared verb brings unseen actions into the same field of giving back.
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