Θεόν· (Theon) in Romans 3:11: Noun Accusative Singular Masculine
Θεόν· (Theon) in Romans 3:11
Textual Witness
The witness reads ὁ ἐκζητῶν τὸν Θεόν in Romans 3:11, so the form stands inside a statement about the absence of one who seeks God.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
The form helps the reader hear the sentence as describing the object of seeking, reinforcing the verse's claim that no one seeks God.
How To Communicate It
In teaching or translation, this form supports rendering the phrase as 'seeks God' or 'seeks after God,' with the object relation kept clear.
What Not To Say
- Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
- Accusative case indicates role in the clause, but the verse and discourse decide the interpretation.
- Do not turn grammatical gender into a theological gender claim or read more into the form than the sentence supports.
What Does The Label Mean?
Noun: the word names the object of the seeking described in the clause, namely God.
Accusative: the form usually marks a direct object or other object-like role, and here it fits the sought-after object in the phrase.
Singular: the form is grammatically singular in this occurrence, pointing to one referent in the clause as written.
Masculine: the noun is tagged with masculine grammatical class here, but that class alone does not make a theological or personal gender claim.
What The Form Does In This Verse
τὸν ἐκζητῶν
The participle ἐκζητῶν takes τὸν Θεόν as its object within the phrase, showing what is being sought.
It functions as the direct object of the seeking action and completes the sense of 'seeking God.'
It is not the subject of the sentence, and the accusative form itself does not decide a broader doctrinal point.
How Much The Form Matters Here
High: The accusative noun identifies God as the object of seeking in Paul's charge that no one seeks God.
Accusative object of the seeking participle. marks God as the sought object within the negative statement. Attached to ὁ ἐκζητῶν τὸν Θεόν. Governed by the participle ἐκζητῶν. The object relation sharpens the indictment while Romans 3 supplies the larger argument.
What is not being sought? The accusative noun marks God as the object no one is seeking in the quoted charge.
Direct: The accusative directly supports rendering the phrase as 'seeks God' or 'seeks after God'.
The accusative marks object role but does not prove the full doctrine of human inability by itself. The negative force comes from the surrounding clause, not from the noun's case alone. The form does not change the meaning of θεός into a different lexeme.
Accusative case proves a doctrine by itself: The case identifies the object of seeking; Paul's argument in Romans 3 supplies the doctrine. object role weakens God's personal reference: Object role is a syntactic function and does not reduce the referent named by the noun.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
The witness reads ὁ ἐκζητῶν τὸν Θεόν in Romans 3:11, so the form stands inside a statement about the absence of one who seeks God.
The lemma θεός names God or a god, and in this verse the article and context point naturally to God as the intended referent.
The accusative case supports an object reading under ἐκζητῶν, while the surrounding negative clauses frame the phrase as part of a universal human lack.
The clause says that no one is seeking God, so this form contributes to the verse's charge of spiritual failure rather than to a standalone definition.
Within the passage, the form aligns with the biblical theme that people do not naturally pursue God apart from divine action.
For readers, the grammar helps make clear that God is the one sought, not the seeker, which sharpens the force of the indictment.
Do not derive from the accusative case any claim that the noun changes meaning, or that grammar alone proves the full theology of the verse.