ῥίζα (riza) in Revelation 22:16: Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
ῥίζα (riza) in Revelation 22:16
Textual Witness
The witness reads "ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ῥίζα καὶ τὸ γένος τοῦ Δαβίδ," so the form appears in a direct saying of Jesus.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
The form supports a predicative identification, so the verse communicates Jesus as the root image in relation to David rather than as a mere item in a list.
How To Communicate It
Readers can hear a concise self-description that ties authority, origin, and Davidic fulfillment together in one phrase.
What Not To Say
- Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
- Nominative form here helps identify function, but the clause and its imagery determine the sense.
- Do not turn feminine gender into a theological gender claim, and do not overstate certainty from morphology alone.
What Does The Label Mean?
Noun: the word names a thing or image, here a root image used to speak about origin or source in context.
Nominative: the form usually marks a subject or a predicate nominative, and here it functions in an identification statement with "I am."
Singular: the form is grammatically singular in this occurrence, presenting one root image rather than a collection of roots.
Feminine: the noun belongs to the feminine grammatical class, which helps agreement with the article but does not create a theological gender claim.
What The Form Does In This Verse
It stands with the article ἡ after εἰμι in the clause "ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ῥίζα".
It is governed by the equative pattern with εἰμι, so the noun functions as a predicate description in Jesus' self-identification.
It helps identify Jesus as the root image in relation to David, supporting the claim of origin or source in the verse.
It does not by itself determine a separate subject, and it does not force a hidden technical sense beyond what the sentence and context express.
How Much The Form Matters Here
High: The predicate noun is part of Jesus' self-identification as the root and offspring of David.
Predicate nominative in an I am statement. identifies Jesus with the root image in relation to David. Attached to ἡ ῥίζα. Governed by εἰμι. The form supports the identification statement; the Davidic context supplies the messianic significance.
What image does Jesus use for himself in this clause? The noun identifies him as the root in relation to David.
Direct: The predicate nominative directly supports rendering I am the root.
The feminine grammatical form belongs to the noun root and is not a gendered claim about Jesus.
Feminine noun gender creates a gender claim: The grammatical gender belongs to the Greek noun; the verse's claim is Jesus' Davidic identity.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
The witness reads "ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ῥίζα καὶ τὸ γένος τοῦ Δαβίδ," so the form appears in a direct saying of Jesus.
The lemma ῥίζα means a root, literally or figuratively, and can carry the sense of source, origin, or that from which growth comes.
The nominative singular works with the article and the verb "I am" to mark a descriptive role, not a standalone topic unrelated to the clause.
The grammar supports reading Jesus as the root of David, a claim about origin and relation, while the parallel phrase "the offspring of David" keeps the focus on messianic identity.
Within the wider canon, the root image fits biblical speech about source, growth, and Davidic fulfillment without needing the grammar to carry the whole theology by itself.
For communication, the form lets the verse speak succinctly and vividly: Jesus identifies himself with a root image that conveys source, support, and lineage.
Do not derive from nominative singular alone that the word must mean only one thing, that it is a title in a technical sense, or that grammatical gender implies male or female theology.