KJV: For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:
YLT: for if they who are of law are heirs, the faith hath been made void, and the promise hath been made useless;
Darby: For if they which are of law be heirs, faith is made vain, and the promise made of no effect.
ASV: For if they that are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of none effect:
| οἱ | those |
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Parse: Article, Nominative Masculine Plural Root: ὁ Sense: this, that, these, etc. |
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| νόμου | [the] Law [are] |
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Parse: Noun, Genitive Masculine Singular Root: νόμος Sense: anything established, anything received by usage, a custom, a law, a command. |
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| κληρονόμοι | heirs |
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Parse: Noun, Nominative Masculine Plural Root: κληρονόμος Sense: one who receives by lot, an heir. |
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| κεκένωται | has been made void |
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Parse: Verb, Perfect Indicative Middle or Passive, 3rd Person Singular Root: κενόω Sense: to empty, make empty. |
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| ἡ | - |
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Parse: Article, Nominative Feminine Singular Root: ὁ Sense: this, that, these, etc. |
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| πίστις | faith |
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Parse: Noun, Nominative Feminine Singular Root: πίστις Sense: conviction of the truth of anything, belief; in the NT of a conviction or belief respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things, generally with the included idea of trust and holy fervour born of faith and joined with it. |
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| κατήργηται | made of no effect |
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Parse: Verb, Perfect Indicative Middle or Passive, 3rd Person Singular Root: καταργέω Sense: to render idle, unemployed, inactivate, inoperative. |
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| ἐπαγγελία | promise |
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Parse: Noun, Nominative Feminine Singular Root: ἐπαγγελία Sense: announcement. |
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Greek Commentary for Romans 4:14
No predicate in the Greek See note on Galatians 4:1. If legalists are heirs of the Messianic promise to Abraham (condition of first class, assumed as true for argument‘s sake), the faith is emptied of all meaning (kekenōtai perfect passive indicative of kenoō) and the promise to Abraham is made permanently idle (κεκενωται katērgētai). [source]
Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Romans 4:14
Luke (Luke 11:4) has “sins” In the ancient Greek οπειλημα opheilēma is common for actual legal debts as in Romans 4:4, but here it is used of moral and spiritual debts to God. “Trespasses” is a mistranslation made common by the Church of England Prayer Book. It is correct in Romans 4:14 in Christ‘s argument about prayer, but it is not in the Model Prayer itself. See Matthew 18:28, Matthew 18:30 for sin pictured again by Christ “as debt and the sinner as a debtor” (Vincent). We are thus described as having wronged God. The word οπειλη opheilē for moral obligation was once supposed to be peculiar to the New Testament. But it is common in that sense in the papyri (Deismann, Bible Studies, p. 221; Light from the Ancient East, New ed., p. 331). We ask forgiveness “in proportion as” It means to send away, to dismiss, to wipe off. [source]
Stable, valid, something realized, the opposite of made of none effect, Romans 4:14. [source]
Lit., emptied. Rev., made void. Compare is made void, Romans 4:14, and the kindred adjective κενὸν, κενὴ vain 1 Corinthians 15:14. The nucleus of the apostolic preaching was a fact - Christ crucified. To preach it as a philosophic system would be to empty it of its saving power, a truth which finds abundant and lamentable illustration in the history of the Church. [source]
For a similar phrase see 2 Peter 3:17. Having put yourselves under the economy of salvation by law, you have fallen out of the economy of salvation by the grace of Christ. Paul's declarations are aimed at the Judaisers, who taught that the Christian economy was to be joined with the legal. His point is that the two are mutually exclusive. Comp. Romans 4:4, Romans 4:5, Romans 4:14, Romans 4:16. The verb ἐκπίπτειν tofall out, in the literal sense, Acts 12:7; James 1:11. In Class. of seamen thrown ashore, banishment, deprivation of an office, degeneration, of actors being hissed off the stage. [source]
Ἑκ πίστεως fromor out of faith, is found with the verb to justify (Romans 3:26, Romans 3:30; Romans 5:1): with other verbs, as live (Romans 1:17); eat (Romans 14:23): with the noun δικαιοσύνη righteousness(Romans 1:17; Romans 9:30; Romans 10:6): with other nouns, as promise (Galatians 3:22), law (Galatians 3:12). For parallels to the phrase οἱ ἐκ πίστεως , see Romans 3:26; Romans 4:16; Romans 14:23; Galatians 3:9. It denotes believers as sprung from, or receiving their spiritual condition from that which specially characterizes them. Comp. οἱ ἐξ ἐριθίας theywho are of faction, Romans 2:8; οἱ ἐκ νόμου theywho are of the law, Romans 4:14; ὁ ἐκ τῆς ἀληθείας hewho is of the truth, John 18:37. [source]
d In the analogy of Galatians 3:15there was contemplated the double possibility of invalidation or addition. With relation to God's promise, the Judaisers insisted on addition; since, while they preached faith in the promise and in its fulfillment in Christ, they made the inheritance of the promise dependent upon the fulfilling of the law. Paul, on the other hand, holds that the Judaistic addition involves invalidation. Salvation must rest either upon the promise or upon the law. The Judaiser said, upon the promise and the law. For God gave the inheritance to Abraham by promise. It has been shown that the law did not abrogate the promise. Hence, if the inheritance be of the law it is no more of the promise. Comp. Romans 4:14. [source]