ἀνδρός, (andros) in John 1:13: Noun Genitive Singular Masculine
ἀνδρός, (andros) in John 1:13
Textual Witness
The witness reads ἀνδρός in John 1:13 within the phrase οὐδὲ ἐκ θελήματος ἀνδρός.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
The form helps the reader see that the verse excludes human agency as the source of the birth and points instead to God as the source.
How To Communicate It
For readers, this grammar supports a clear contrast: not from a man's will, but from God.
What Not To Say
- Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
- Masculine gender here is a grammatical feature, not a theological gender claim.
- The genitive case signals relationship in context, but the verse's meaning comes from the whole sentence, not from case alone.
What Does The Label Mean?
Noun: this form names a person, here a male human being, and it functions as a noun within the clause.
Genitive: this form usually marks relationship, source, or association, and here it sits inside a prepositional phrase.
Singular: the form is grammatically singular in this occurrence and points to one man in the phrase.
Masculine: the noun belongs to the masculine grammatical class, which describes form and does not by itself make a theological claim about gender.
What The Form Does In This Verse
ἐκ θελήματος
The preposition ἐκ governs the genitive phrase, so ἀνδρός belongs to the source or origin expression in the line.
It contributes to the negative sequence, saying the birth in view did not come from a man's will.
It is not the subject of the verb and it does not state that a man is being discussed as the main actor in the verse.
How Much The Form Matters Here
High: The genitive phrase helps exclude human will as the source of the birth from God.
Genitive noun within an ek source phrase. names a human-will source that the verse explicitly denies. Attached to the phrase from the will of a man. Governed by the preposition ek and the will noun. The form supports source exclusion, while the sentence contrasts human origin with birth from God.
What human source does the verse exclude? It excludes birth from a man's will, along with other human-source explanations.
Direct: The form directly supports of man or of a man within the source phrase.
The masculine noun should not be used to elevate male agency or create a separate gender doctrine. The point is source exclusion in the birth statement, not a detached anthropology claim.
Masculine genitive becomes a gender hierarchy claim: The form belongs to a source phrase that denies human origin and points to birth from God.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
The witness reads ἀνδρός in John 1:13 within the phrase οὐδὲ ἐκ θελήματος ἀνδρός.
The lemma ἀνήρ means a man, specifically a male person, and here it is used in the genitive singular.
With ἐκ and the surrounding negatives, the grammar presents one possible human source that is excluded from the birth just described.
The verse denies that this new birth came from human bloodlines, fleshly desire, or a man's will, and contrasts that with being born from God.
This fits the verse's larger contrast between merely human origin and divine action in giving life.
In translation and teaching, the phrase can be rendered plainly as a man's will or human will, while keeping the contrast with God clear.
Do not derive a claim that the masculine form itself elevates men, excludes women as a separate doctrinal point, or changes the meaning beyond the context of source and will.