πικρίας (pikrias) in Romans 3:14: Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
πικρίας (pikrias) in Romans 3:14
Textual Witness
The witness reads πικρίας in Romans 3:14 within the phrase ἀρᾶς καὶ πικρίας γέμει, so the form is secure as part of the received wording.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
The form strengthens the sense that bitterness is part of what characterizes the mouth, but the verse's meaning still comes from the whole clause, not the case ending alone.
How To Communicate It
In teaching or translation notes, this form can be rendered as part of a phrase like 'full of cursing and bitterness,' with the grammar serving the context of moral description.
What Not To Say
- Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
- Genitive case suggests relation, but the nearby clause and lexical sense determine the best reading.
- Grammatical gender is a language category here and does not create a theological gender claim.
What Does The Label Mean?
Noun: the word names a quality or condition, here the idea of bitterness in a concrete or figurative sense.
Genitive: the form usually marks a relationship to another word, often describing content, source, or an associated quality in the phrase.
Singular: the form is grammatically singular in this occurrence, presenting bitterness as one shared quality rather than separate items.
Feminine: the noun belongs to the feminine grammatical class, which is a language form and does not by itself make a theological gender claim.
What The Form Does In This Verse
It is attached to the cluster with ἀρᾶς under the verb γέμει.
The genitive is governed by the phrase of fullness, where both genitives describe what fills the mouth without forcing a more specific relation than the context gives.
It contributes a second content term in the list, showing that the mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
It is not a standalone subject or the main action of the verse, and the case form does not by itself decide the exact shade beyond the context of what fills the mouth.
How Much The Form Matters Here
Moderate: The genitive noun completes the description of a mouth full of cursing and bitterness in Paul's indictment.
Noun genitive singular feminine. names bitterness as content associated with the mouth. Attached to the mouth-fullness clause in Romans 3:14. Governed by the verb and phrase describing what fills the mouth. The genitive contributes content to the moral description and should be read with the paired term cursing.
What fills the mouth in the indictment? The mouth is described as full of cursing and bitterness.
Direct: The form directly supports of bitterness or and bitterness in the fullness phrase.
Genitive content should be read with the fullness wording. Feminine gender is grammatical and not a theological claim. The moral force comes from the whole Scripture citation in Paul's argument.
Genitive alone supplies the whole moral claim: The genitive names content; the verse and citation supply the indictment. grammatical gender creates gendered meaning: The feminine form belongs to the noun's grammar and does not add gendered theology.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
The witness reads πικρίας in Romans 3:14 within the phrase ἀρᾶς καὶ πικρίας γέμει, so the form is secure as part of the received wording.
The lemma πικρία means bitterness or acridity, literally or figuratively, and here the word names a moral or relational quality in the sentence.
Its genitive form fits the phrase after καὶ and before γέμει, so it functions as one of the things the mouth is said to be full of.
The verse portrays speech marked by cursing and bitterness, so the grammar supports a picture of inward corruption expressed outwardly in speech.
Within the broader biblical pattern, bitterness is regularly used for a harmful disposition or outcome, and this verse aligns with that moral usage.
For readers and teachers, the form helps show that the verse is not merely about isolated words but about a settled condition filling speech.
Do not derive a precise technical genitive category, a hidden theological system, or a claim that the noun alone determines the full force of the verse.