ἰὸς (ios) in Romans 3:13: Noun Nominative Singular Masculine
ἰὸς (ios) in Romans 3:13
Textual Witness
The witness reads ἰὸς after the statement about deceitful tongues and before ἀσπίδων ὑπὸ τὰ χείλη αὐτῶν, so the form belongs to a compact descriptive image.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
The form strengthens the image of concealed deadly speech, but the surrounding words determine that force more than the noun ending does.
How To Communicate It
In translation and explanation, the form supports rendering the phrase as a vivid description of venom or poison beneath the lips, helping readers feel the warning against deceitful talk.
What Not To Say
- Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
- The masculine ending is grammatical, not a gendered theological claim.
- Do not overread case or number beyond the phrase-level function that the context supports.
What Does The Label Mean?
Noun: the word names a concrete image here, pointing to venom or poison rather than functioning as a verb or modifier.
Nominative: the form is the clause-level nominative used in the stated image, so it presents the noun as the leading term in the phrase.
Singular: the form is grammatically singular in this occurrence, which suits a single collective image for the deadly substance.
Masculine: the noun is marked masculine in form, but that is a grammatical class only and does not itself make a theological or biological claim.
What The Form Does In This Verse
It stands with ἀσπίδων and the prepositional phrase ὑπὸ τὰ χείλη αὐτῶν.
The form is not governed by an overt verb in this phrase, so it functions as the main noun in the image and is read with the surrounding genitive and prepositional modifiers.
It presents the picture of deadly venom associated with snakes and located under their lips, contributing to the verse's accusation of harmful speech.
It is not best taken as the subject of a new clause, and it does not by itself identify a separate person or new action.
How Much The Form Matters Here
Moderate: The noun gives the harmful-speech image its vivid poison language.
Nominative singular masculine noun in a compact image. names the dangerous substance in the image. Attached to the phrase about poison under their lips. Governed by the quoted image of corrupt speech. The nominative noun anchors the image; the surrounding genitive and prepositional phrase specify the picture.
What image describes the speech? Poison or venom is pictured under their lips.
Direct: The form supports rendering the image with "poison" or "venom" in context.
The lexical range includes rust or poison, but the snake imagery favors poison here. The masculine form is grammatical and not a gendered theological claim.
Case settles lexical range: Do not use nominative case alone to decide between rust and poison; the imagery must guide the choice.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
The witness reads ἰὸς after the statement about deceitful tongues and before ἀσπίδων ὑπὸ τὰ χείλη αὐτῶν, so the form belongs to a compact descriptive image.
The lemma ἰός can mean rust or poison, and here the nearby snake imagery favors the sense of venom or poison in a figurative warning.
Its nominative singular form lets it stand as the focal noun in the image, while the genitive ἀσπίδων and the prepositional phrase supply the setting and source of the danger.
The verse portrays speech as deceitful and dangerous, using a venom image to intensify the charge that harmful words are present under their lips.
The form fits the broader biblical pattern of using bodily and poisonous imagery to describe moral corruption without requiring the grammar alone to define the whole meaning.
For readers and teachers, the grammar helps spotlight the striking image, so the warning sounds vivid and concrete rather than abstract.
Do not derive a separate doctrine from nominative singular form, and do not force the grammar to settle every nuance of rust versus poison apart from context.