What Does Romans 3:29 Mean?
Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the nations? Yes, of the nations also.
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
Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:THE KEY
The word translated “Gentiles” means “nations”, God’s reach is not bounded by one people.
THE MEANING
God is not confined to one inherited people; the nations too are within God’s reach. The verse holds distinct peoples in view while refusing to make their boundaries the limit of God’s relation.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that God belongs exclusively to one people, or that your people’s boundary limits God’s reach.
THE ROOT
ἐθνῶν
ethnōn
GROWS FROM
ἐθν-
ethn-
People or nation; here, the plural means “of the nations.”
The Greek names the nations, plural, and repeats the same word in both halves of the answer. That repetition places the nations within the scope of God’s relation without erasing their differences.
ALSO GROWS
ethnos: A people or nation.
ἔθνος
The singular form shows that “Gentiles” carries the sense of a people among peoples.
ethnikos: Belonging to a nation; Gentile.
ἐθνικός
This related word makes visible the same connection between a nation and those identified with it.
THE PATTERN
God’s reach crosses inherited boundaries and extends among every people.
That your way may be perceived upon the earth, your deliverance among all the nations.Then Peter opened his mouth and said, In truth I have laid hold of this, that God lifts no one's face. But in every nation the one who lives in awe of him and works alignment is received by him.After this I see, and look, a great crowd that no one can number, from every nation and tribe and people and tongue, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, wrapped in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.THE THREAD
Simeon has led out how God at the first looked upon the nations, to take out of them a people for his nature.Acts 15:14 uses the same Greek word, ἔθνος (ethnos, nation), translated “Gentiles” here. It opens the verse further: God reaches among the nations, and a people emerges from within them.
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