ἔνδειξιν (endeixin) in Romans 3:26: Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ἔνδειξιν (endeixin) in Romans 3:26
Textual Witness
The witness reads ἔνδειξιν in Romans 3:26 within πρὸς ἔνδειξιν τῆς δικαιοσύνης αὐτοῦ, so the form is stable in a phrase that explains purpose.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
The form strengthens the sense that the verse is about purposeful demonstration. It supports reading the phrase as explaining why God's action is presented now, not as a detached technical label.
How To Communicate It
In communication, this form can be rendered with language such as for a showing, to demonstrate, or for proof, depending on the translation style and immediate context.
What Not To Say
- Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
- Accusative case here suggests phrase function, but it does not by itself settle every syntactic detail.
- Feminine gender is a grammatical class and should not be turned into a theological claim.
What Does The Label Mean?
Noun: the word names an abstract result or reality, here something like a showing or proof.
Accusative: the form often marks an object, goal, or related content, and here it fits the prepositional phrase that states purpose or result.
Singular: the form is grammatically singular in this occurrence, presenting one instance of the idea rather than multiple items.
Feminine: the noun belongs to the feminine grammatical class, which helps agreement but does not by itself make a theological or natural-gender claim.
What The Form Does In This Verse
πρὸς
The preposition πρὸς governs the accusative here, so ἔνδειξιν belongs to a purpose or directional phrase rather than standing as the clause subject.
It expresses the intended aim or result of the surrounding statement: a showing forth or proof related to God's righteousness.
It does not by itself name the subject, and it does not force a technical legal meaning beyond what the context supports.
How Much The Form Matters Here
High: The form marks the purpose or result phrase that explains God's righteousness being demonstrated in Romans 3:26.
Object of a purpose-oriented preposition. names the intended showing or proof rather than the subject of the sentence. Attached to the phrase about demonstration. Governed by the preposition that frames the aim or direction of the clause. The phrase gives purpose or direction, while the surrounding argument defines what is being demonstrated.
What aim does this phrase name? It names the showing or demonstration related to God's righteousness, not a separate subject or action.
Direct: The prepositional accusative relation supports renderings such as for a demonstration, to demonstrate, or for proof.
The preposition and accusative can mark purpose, direction, or result; Romans 3:26 supplies the exact nuance.
Prepositional case alone fixes a technical legal sense: The case helps identify phrase function, but the context must decide whether the idea is demonstration, proof, purpose, or result. feminine gender adds theological meaning: The feminine form is a grammatical class and should not be turned into a theological claim.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
The witness reads ἔνδειξιν in Romans 3:26 within πρὸς ἔνδειξιν τῆς δικαιοσύνης αὐτοῦ, so the form is stable in a phrase that explains purpose.
The lemma ἔνδειξις means a showing, proof, or demonstration, and the form here uses that noun without changing its lexical identity.
Because the noun follows πρὸς and is linked to the genitive phrase τῆς δικαιοσύνης αὐτοῦ, it most naturally describes the goal of displaying God's righteousness in the present time.
The clause presents the present action as serving the public demonstration of God's righteousness, not as an isolated noun with an independent assertion.
In this passage, the noun supports Paul's larger claim that God's righteous action is displayed in a way that is consistent with his just and justifying work.
For readers and teachers, the form helps show that the verse speaks of purpose and presentation, which can guide translation toward wording like for showing or to demonstrate.
Do not derive a separate doctrine from the accusative case alone, do not treat grammatical gender as theological gender, and do not let morphology override the verse's own wording and flow.