κρινεῖ (krinei) in Romans 3:6: Verb Third Person Singular Future Active Indicative
κρινεῖ (krinei) in Romans 3:6
Textual Witness
The received text reads, 'μὴ γένοιτο· ἐπεὶ πῶς κρινεῖ ὁ Θεὸς τὸν κόσμον?'.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
The form helps the verse press a logical question: if God judges the world, the objection being answered cannot be maintained.
How To Communicate It
In teaching or translation, the form can be rendered plainly as 'will God judge the world?' while keeping the rhetorical force of the question.
What Not To Say
- Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
- Do not turn singular number or future tense into a separate doctrine.
- Do not make grammatical gender into a theological gender claim.
What Does The Label Mean?
Verb: the form names an action or process, here the act of judging or deciding.
Future: points the action forward from the speaker's viewpoint, while the sentence controls the exact sense.
Active: presents the subject as doing or carrying the action.
Indicative: presents the verbal idea as an assertion or statement in the clause.
Third person: the form speaks about someone or something rather than directly as I/we or you.
Not applicable: this verb form is not using noun case to mark its sentence role.
Singular: the form is grammatically singular, matching a single acting subject in the clause.
Not applicable: this verb form does not use grammatical gender to make its point.
What The Form Does In This Verse
It is attached to ὁ Θεὸς and the question about τὸν κόσμον.
The future indicative presents the judging as the action attributed to God in the rhetorical question, not as a detached dictionary meaning.
It states what God is said to do in the question: judge the world.
It does not by itself settle whether the emphasis is on timing, certainty, or manner beyond what the sentence context shows.
How Much The Form Matters Here
High: The future verb states the judging action in Paul's rhetorical defense of God's righteousness.
Future active indicative in a rhetorical question. states the judging action attributed to God in the question. Attached to God as subject and the world as object. Governed by Paul's question about how God will judge the world. The future form points to judgment, while the rhetorical question secures the argument rather than creating uncertainty.
What action is attributed to God in the question? God is said to judge the world.
Direct: The future verb directly supports English wording such as "will judge."
The future form is part of a rhetorical question; it should not be used to weaken the certainty of divine judgment.
Future tense makes divine judgment uncertain: The future verb states the judging action; Paul's rhetorical question assumes God's role as judge.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
The received text reads, 'μὴ γένοιτο· ἐπεὶ πῶς κρινεῖ ὁ Θεὸς τὸν κόσμον?'.
The lemma κρίνω can mean judge, decide, or condemn depending on context, and this verse uses it in a judicial sense.
The verb is singular because the subject is singular, 'ὁ Θεός'. The future indicative fits the clause as a rhetorical appeal about God's judging of the world.
The question argues that if God is to judge the world, the prior objection cannot stand. The grammar supports the sentence logic without creating it.
Within the wider biblical pattern, God's judging is a serious and fitting judicial act, and this verse frames that idea in a direct question.
For readers and speakers, the form makes the claim vivid and direct: God's judgment is the assumed horizon of the argument.
Do not derive from the tense alone a full timeline, a hidden modal force, or a moral verdict beyond the sentence's explicit point.