λογιζόμεθα (logizometha) in Romans 3:28: Verb First Person Plural Present Middle or Passive Deponent Indicative
λογιζόμεθα (logizometha) in Romans 3:28
Textual Witness
Romans 3:28 begins λογιζόμεθα οὖν, with λογιζόμεθα marked V-PNI-1P before the infinitive δικαιοῦσθαι.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
By placing a first-person plural verb of judgment at the sentence's front, Paul explicitly marks the following statement as the maintained conclusion of the argument rather than an isolated slogan.
How To Communicate It
Ask what Paul and his associates maintain, then answer from the governed clause: justification is by faith apart from works of the law.
What Not To Say
- Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
- Deponent usage carries active meaning here; do not force a reflexive or passive translation from the morphology.
- The infinitival clause, not the verb form alone, supplies the content of the conclusion.
- First-person plural identifies the speaking voice without automatically including every later reader.
- Read οὖν with the preceding exclusion of boasting and the following one-God argument.
What Does The Label Mean?
Verb: the word reports a reasoned judgment or conclusion, introducing what Paul and his associates maintain.
Present: frames the conclusion as the position being affirmed in the present argument. It does not make the reckoning a continuously repeated mental exercise.
Middle or passive in form, deponent in usage: the verb carries the active sense we reckon or we maintain. A reflexive or passive idea should not be added merely from the form.
Indicative: presents the judgment as a stated conclusion, not as a command to calculate or a possibility under consideration.
First person: places the statement in the voice of we. The morphology identifies the speakers but does not automatically make every reader part of that we.
Not applicable: this finite verb does not receive its role from a noun-case ending.
Plural: the speaking subject is we, while the following singular ἄνθρωπον names the person described in the conclusion.
Not applicable: the finite verbal form does not mark grammatical gender.
What The Form Does In This Verse
The verb stands at the head of the sentence, followed by οὖν and an infinitival content clause centered on δικαιοῦσθαι ἄνθρωπον.
Paul's preceding argument that boasting is excluded and that faith, rather than works, is the relevant principle.
It is the main finite discourse verb that introduces the conclusion drawn from the argument: a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
It is not the verb for God's act of justifying, does not make justification a human calculation, and does not encode the entire conclusion inside its morphology.
How Much The Form Matters Here
High: The verb explicitly introduces Paul's conclusion about justification by faith apart from works of the law.
Main first-person plural deponent discourse verb. introduces the content that the speakers maintain as their conclusion. Attached to the infinitival proposition δικαιοῦσθαι ἄνθρωπον and its modifiers. Governed by the reasoned transition marked by οὖν after the exclusion of boasting. The deponent form is active in meaning; the governed infinitive carries the statement about justification.
What reasoned conclusion does Paul introduce at Romans 3:28? He maintains that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
Direct: The deponent indicative supports an active rendering such as we maintain, we reckon, or we conclude.
The middle or passive form does not require a passive English translation because the verb is deponent in this use. The first-person plural may reflect Paul's speaking voice with associates, but morphology alone does not settle its full rhetorical membership. The present form states the position in the argument without specifying how often the judgment is mentally repeated.
Middle morphology means we reckon for ourselves: Treat the verb as deponent and active in meaning unless context supplies a distinct reflexive force, which it does not here. we automatically includes every Christian reader: Person and number identify a plural speaking subject; wider discourse must establish who belongs to it. the single verb proves justification by faith: The theological claim resides in the governed proposition and Paul's surrounding argument, not in λογιζόμεθα by itself.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
Romans 3:28 begins λογιζόμεθα οὖν, with λογιζόμεθα marked V-PNI-1P before the infinitive δικαιοῦσθαι.
The lemma λογίζομαι can express reckoning, counting, or deciding. Here its governed clause and οὖν identify a reasoned conclusion rather than numerical calculation.
The first-person plural finite verb supplies the speakers, the deponent usage carries active meaning, and the infinitival clause supplies what they maintain. The connective οὖν ties that judgment to the preceding reasoning.
After excluding boasting, Paul states the conclusion that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law, while verses 29 and 30 extend the point to both Jew and Gentile under one God.
The form serves Romans' sustained contrast between righteousness received through faith and any claim grounded in works; that theology comes from the proposition and its argument, not from deponency.
Use the verb to mark the transition from argument to conclusion, then give the following infinitival clause the doctrinal weight it bears.
Do not treat middle or passive morphology as reflexive self-reckoning, and do not assume the first-person plural automatically addresses or includes every reader.