Romans 14
Take to yourselves the one weak in the faith — God has taken him. Let the eater not despise, let the abstainer not judge. Who are you to judge another’s household slave — the Lord is able to make him stand. Days and foods; living or dying we are the Lord’s — Christ died and lived to lord it over the dead and the living. All will stand before God’s judgement seat. Put no striking or stumbling block before the brother. Nothing is common of itself — yet do not destroy a brother by food. The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness, peace and joy. Whatever is not from faith is sin.
Why this rendering
Rom.14.1 Observation
Syntactic observation
Τὸν δὲ ἀσθενοῦντα τῇ πίστει προσλαμβάνεσθε, μὴ εἰς διακρίσεις διαλογισμῶν … ὁ θεὸς γὰρ αὐτὸν προσελάβετο — take to yourselves the one weak in the faith, not for distinctions of reasonings … for God has taken him to himself. προσλαμβάνομαι is middle, ‘take to oneself’ — the verb with which the Maltese took in the shipwrecked in Acts 28:2, and the verb behind πρόσλημψις (receiving) in 11:15. In v.1 people take, in v.3 God has taken — one verb on two subjects: you take him, God took him. διακρίσεις διαλογισμῶν is ‘distinctions of reasonings’ (the reasonings of 1:21, Luke 5:22) — not a tribunal over the weak one’s inner debates. Verse 3 gives each side its own verb — ἐξουθενέω (treat with contempt, Luke 18:9) for the eater, κρίνω (judge, Matt 7:1) for the abstainer; the text names the strong side’s sin and the weak side’s sin with different words.
Rendering options · 2
Basis One verb, one word; vv.1 and 3 must be visibly the same verb.
Basis The familiar renderings.
Rejected ‘Welcome’ is ὑποδέχομαι’s word and ‘receiving’ is πρόσλημψις (11:15); ‘accept’ adds a verdict the text does not make.
Lost in translation
The middle voice of προσλαμβάνομαι, ‘to oneself’ — kept as ‘take to yourselves / to himself’.
Why this rendering
Rom.14.4 Observation
Syntactic observation
σὺ τίς εἶ ὁ κρίνων ἀλλότριον οἰκέτην; τῷ ἰδίῳ κυρίῳ στήκει ἢ πίπτει· σταθήσεται δέ, δυνατεῖ γὰρ ὁ κύριος στῆσαι αὐτόν — who are you to judge another’s household slave? To his own master he stands or falls; but he will be made to stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. κύριος comes twice in one verse — the slave’s ‘master’ (τῷ ἰδίῳ κυρίῳ) and ‘the Lord’ who makes him stand. In the text they are one word, so ‘the slave’s master is the Lord’ sits inside the vocabulary; English master/Lord and Korean 주인/주 must split it (the site rule of Luke 16:13). Three shapes of standing share the verse — στήκει (stand; Mark 11:25 ‘whenever you stand praying’), σταθήσεται (be made to stand), στῆσαι (make stand; the verb of 3:31 ‘we establish law’). οἰκέτης is the household slave of Luke 16:13. The second person drops to the singular (σύ).
Rendering options · 2
Basis A slave’s κύριος is fixed as master; the overlap is recorded as a loss.
Basis Keeping one word for one word.
Rejected Every slave-owner in Luke 16:13 and Matt 6:24 would become ‘lord’, and human masters could no longer be told from God.
Lost in translation
κύριος twice — the slave’s master and the Lord who makes him stand are one word.
στήκει · σταθήσεται · στῆσαι — stand, be made to stand, make stand: one root kept.
Why this rendering
Rom.14.13 Observation
Syntactic observation
Μηκέτι οὖν ἀλλήλους κρίνωμεν· ἀλλὰ τοῦτο κρίνατε μᾶλλον, τὸ μὴ τιθέναι πρόσκομμα τῷ ἀδελφῷ ἢ σκάνδαλον — let us no longer judge one another; but judge this rather — not to put a striking or a stumbling block before the brother. κρίνω comes twice in one verse and shifts its sense — first weighing a person, then settling a decision (the sense of Acts 20:16 ‘he had judged to sail past’). The text makes a play on one verb — do not judge others, judge this — and both English judge and Korean 판단하다 carry it. πρόσκομμα (striking; the ‘stone of striking’ of 9:32-33) and σκάνδαλον (stumbling block; Matt 16:23) are two words and stay two; v.20 διὰ προσκόμματος and v.21 προσκόπτει · σκανδαλίζεται pick up the two roots again. τιθέναι, ‘to put’, is the picture of a stone laid in the road.
Rendering options · 2
Basis Keeps the text’s play; the same site rule as Acts 20:16.
Basis Marking the shift of sense with a different word.
Rejected The point of the verse is one verb twice; a second word erases the play.
Lost in translation
The play on κρίνω twice — judge carries both.
Why this rendering
Rom.14.17 Observation
Syntactic observation
οὐ γάρ ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ βρῶσις καὶ πόσις, ἀλλὰ δικαιοσύνη καὶ εἰρήνη καὶ χαρὰ ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ — for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The first ‘kingdom of God’ in Romans, the Gospels’ phrase unchanged. βρῶσις is the word of John 6:27 (‘the nourishment that perishes’), but paired here with πόσις (drinking) it names the act of eating — with the ‘rust’ of Matt 6:19-20 this is the lemma’s third sense, so a site rule: eating. It is not the βρῶμα (food; Mark 7:19 ‘all foods are clean’) of vv.15, 20 — the thing eaten versus the act. ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ has no article — kept as ‘in the Holy Spirit’, though ‘in a holy spirit’ is also a reading.
Rendering options · 2
Basis Paired with πόσις it is a noun of action; John 6:27 ‘nourishment’ is a site-bound rendering.
Basis Carrying John 6:27’s word straight through.
Rejected πόσις is drinking, not a drink — the pair would no longer match.
Lost in translation
βρῶσις (v.17 eating) ↔ βρῶμα (vv.15, 20 food) — act and thing are different words.
Why this rendering
Rom.14.22 Observation
Syntactic observation
μακάριος ὁ μὴ κρίνων ἑαυτὸν ἐν ᾧ δοκιμάζει· ὁ δὲ διακρινόμενος ἐὰν φάγῃ κατακέκριται — blessed is the one not judging himself in what he approves; but the one who doubts, if he eats, is condemned. Verses 22-23 run three shapes of κρίνω in a row — κρίνων (judge), διακρινόμενος (doubt; the middle of Matt 21:21 ‘if you do not doubt’), κατακέκριται (is condemned; 2:1). The text chains judgement → division (doubt) → condemnation by changing prefixes on one root; English judge · doubt · condemn and Korean 판단 · 의심 · 정죄 lose the root entirely. δοκιμάζει is the verb of 1:28 ‘approve’ — blessed is the one who does not judge himself in what he approves. The closing πᾶν δὲ ὃ οὐκ ἐκ πίστεως ἁμαρτία ἐστίν carries ‘faith’ in the sense this chapter has given it — the conviction of v.22 (‘the faith which you have’). The base text closes the chapter here and does not follow the manuscripts that place the doxology of 16:25-27 after this verse.
Rendering options · 2
Basis As fixed in Matt 7:1, Matt 21:21, Rom 2:1; the shared root is recorded as a loss.
Basis An attempt to show the shared root.
Rejected It would unsettle three fixed renderings across Matthew, Mark and Acts, and produce coined words.
Lost in translation
κρίνω · διακρίνω · κατακρίνω — one root, three words in vv.22-23.