νόμος (nomos) in Romans 3:19: Noun Nominative Singular Masculine
νόμος (nomos) in Romans 3:19
Textual Witness
In the supplied textus receptus witness, the surface form is νόμος in Romans 3:19, inside the clause ὅσα ὁ νόμος λέγει.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
The form supports a reading in which law is the subject of the quotation clause, reinforcing the verse's argument that the law speaks to expose universal accountability.
How To Communicate It
In teaching or translation notes, this form can be described as the grammatical subject of the speaking clause, helping readers connect the law's words with the judgment theme of the passage.
What Not To Say
- Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
- The masculine gender here is grammatical, not a theological gender claim.
- Case and number help identify role, but the surrounding clause controls the final interpretation.
What Does The Label Mean?
Noun: the word names a reality or concept here, namely law, and the noun form points to the idea being discussed in the clause.
Nominative: the form usually marks a subject or related clause role, and here it fits the statement about what the law says.
Singular: the form is grammatically singular in this occurrence, so the clause treats law as a single referent or governing idea.
Masculine: the noun belongs to the masculine grammatical class, which is a lexical feature and does not by itself make a theological gender claim.
What The Form Does In This Verse
ὁ
The article and noun work together in the clause ὅσα ὁ νόμος λέγει, identifying the law as the speaking subject within the quoted thought.
It functions as the subject of λέγει, presenting law as the source of the statements that follow.
It is not best read here as a predicate noun or as a separate abstract label detached from the clause.
How Much The Form Matters Here
High: The nominative noun presents the law as the speaking subject whose words expose universal accountability.
Nominative singular subject of the speech verb. identifies the law as the source of the cited speech in Paul's argument. Attached to ὁ νόμος. Governed by λέγει. The grammar presents law as speaking by its written content; do not turn the form into an independent personification claim beyond the argument.
What is said to speak in this clause? The nominative noun identifies the law as the speaking subject in Paul's argument.
Direct: The nominative directly supports rendering the law as the subject of says.
The speech language refers to the law's content in Paul's argument. The form does not by itself settle the full scope of law in the passage.
Subject role turns law into an independent personal agent: The grammar supports the law as the speaking subject in the argument, but the context frames this as the law's written testimony. case ending settles all law theology: The case marks subject role; Romans 3 supplies the theological claim.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
In the supplied textus receptus witness, the surface form is νόμος in Romans 3:19, inside the clause ὅσα ὁ νόμος λέγει.
The lemma is νόμος, which can refer to law in general or, in this context, the Mosaic Law as the source of divine instruction.
The nominative singular form, with the article, identifies the law as the subject of the verb λέγει. That grammar supports reading the clause as attributing the spoken content to the law itself, while the nearby dative phrase clarifies the recipients of that speech.
Paul's point is that whatever the law says is addressed to those under the law, with the result that every mouth is stopped and the whole world is shown accountable to God.
This fits the wider biblical use of law as God's revealed standard, especially in Pauline argumentation where law exposes sin and establishes accountability.
For readers, the grammar helps show that the verse is not merely naming law as a topic, but treating it as the speaking source behind the cited indictment.
Do not derive from the nominative form alone any claim that law is an independent speaker, that the noun changes meaning, or that grammatical gender carries theological content.