πόδες (podes) in Romans 3:15: Noun Nominative Plural Masculine
πόδες (podes) in Romans 3:15
Textual Witness
The witness reads ὀξεῖς οἱ πόδες αὐτῶν ἐκχέαι αἷμα, so the noun appears in a compact description of their feet in relation to bloodshed.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
The form helps the reader hear a vivid image of feet characterized by readiness for violence, but the moral force comes from the full clause, not from the case ending alone.
How To Communicate It
A clear communicative rendering should preserve the image of the feet and the bloodshed language, while letting the verse's context supply the accusation and urgency.
What Not To Say
- Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
- Nominative plural here describes the noun phrase, but it does not by itself settle every syntactic detail.
- Grammatical gender is a form-class label here and should not be turned into a theological gender claim.
What Does The Label Mean?
Noun: this form names a body part, and here it can also stand by metonymy for the persons whose feet are described.
Nominative: this form normally marks the subject or a predicate role, and here it fits the noun phrase that is being described.
Plural: this form is grammatically plural in this occurrence, so it presents more than one foot within the phrase.
Masculine: this is the noun's grammatical class in this form, and it does not by itself make a theological or biological claim.
What The Form Does In This Verse
ὀξεῖς οἱ πόδες
The nominative form belongs with the article and adjective in the clause's noun phrase, and the surrounding phrase identifies what is being described.
It functions as the head noun of the description, presenting the feet as swift or sharp in the imagery and opening the path to the action named by the infinitive phrase.
It does not by itself make the feet the grammatical subject of a finite verb, and it does not control the full sense apart from the phrase that follows.
How Much The Form Matters Here
Moderate: The nominative plural names the feet in a vivid body-part image tied to violent action.
Nominative head of an image phrase. names the body part characterized by readiness for bloodshed. Attached to the description of swift feet. Governed by the descriptive phrase that follows. The form supports the image, but the moral force comes from the whole quotation sequence.
What body part is being characterized in the image? The feet are the nominative noun described as swift toward bloodshed.
Direct: The form directly supports rendering feet as the head of the described phrase.
The body-part image should be read as part of the quoted moral portrait rather than as anatomical detail alone.
Body-part grammar carries the whole doctrine of sin: The noun supports one image; the argument across Romans 3 carries the larger diagnosis.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
The witness reads ὀξεῖς οἱ πόδες αὐτῶν ἐκχέαι αἷμα, so the noun appears in a compact description of their feet in relation to bloodshed.
The lemma πούς means a foot, literally or figuratively, and this form keeps that basic identity while the context invites figurative force.
The nominative plural fits the article and adjective in a descriptive phrase, so the grammar supports a portrayal of feet as swift, active, or dangerous.
In this verse the phrase contributes to the charge that their conduct is ready for violence, using feet as a concrete image for movement toward harm.
Within the wider biblical use of the word, feet can denote literal walking or figurative motion, and this verse uses that familiar imagery in a negative way.
For teaching or translation, the form supports a readable rendering that keeps the bodily image and its moral implication clear without overstating the grammar.
Do not derive a hidden doctrine from nominative case, plural number, or masculine gender alone, and do not treat the form as replacing the context or the lexeme.