ὑστεροῦνται (usterountai) in Romans 3:23: Verb Third Person Plural Present Passive Indicative

Verb: the form expresses the condition of lacking or falling short that Paul predicates of all the people in view.

Present: portrays the shortfall as the condition asserted in this clause. It need not be expanded into a claim about uninterrupted action at every instant.

Passive: presents the plural subjects as experiencing the lack. The morphology alone does not identify someone who causes or imposes that lack.

Indicative: makes a direct assertion in Paul's explanation of why no human distinction can support boasting.

Third person: reports what is true of the group named as all rather than addressing them as you.

Not applicable: as a finite verb, this form does not use noun case to establish its function.

Plural: matches πάντες and carries the second predicate across the same comprehensive subject.

Not applicable: this finite verb has no grammatical gender feature.

The verb shares the subject πάντες with ἥμαρτον and is completed by the genitive phrase τῆς δόξης τοῦ Θεοῦ, which identifies the glory they lack.

The explanatory statement beginning with γὰρ, for, that grounds the preceding claim that there is no distinction.

It serves as the verse's second coordinated finite predicate and describes the present shortfall of the same all who have sinned.

It does not name an agent who withholds glory, define every dimension of God's glory, or explain the means of justification by morphology alone.

High: The predicate completes Paul's universal diagnosis and directly prepares the reader for justification by grace.

Plural present passive indicative predicate. coordinates with ἥμαρτον to state the second truth about the same group. Attached to the continuing subject πάντες, all, and the complement τῆς δόξης τοῦ Θεοῦ. Governed by Romans 3:23's explanatory statement introduced by γὰρ. The complement identifies the lack; the passive morphology does not independently identify a causal agent.

What shared condition does Paul add after saying that all have sinned? He says that all fall short of God's glory, a need met not by boasting but by God's freely given grace.

Direct: The plural present predicate directly supports fall short and keeps all as its subject.

The passive form can present an experienced condition without specifying who causes it. Present aspect describes the shortfall asserted in the clause but does not calculate its frequency or duration. The genitive phrase identifies God's glory as what is lacked; it does not by itself settle every theological sense of glory.

Passive voice means God causes the shortfall: No agent is expressed here; let the clause state the experienced lack without inventing one. present tense proves nonstop repeated falling: Present aspect presents the condition in this assertion but does not encode an adverb such as continually. grammar alone defines the glory of God: The complement names what is lacking, while the passage and wider canon govern its theological explanation.

The clause καὶ ὑστεροῦνται τῆς δόξης τοῦ Θεοῦ contains ὑστεροῦνται as V-PPI-3P, coordinated with the preceding aorist verb.

Its lemma is ὑστερέω, to lack or fall short. The explanation applies that identity only to the witnessed form in Romans 3:23.

Plural agreement keeps the subject πάντες in force, the present aspect presents their shortfall as the condition asserted, and the following genitive names what is lacking. Passive morphology does not supply a hidden agent.

Paul joins universal sin with universal shortfall before God's glory, then announces in verse 24 that justification is freely given by grace through Christ's redemption.

Within Romans 3, this predicate supports the leveling of Jew and Gentile and the exclusion of boasting, while the surrounding passage locates righteousness in God's gracious action.

Read the two predicates as one diagnosis: all have sinned and all fall short. Let the next verse answer that need with free justification by grace.

Do not infer from the passive form alone that God is the grammatical agent withholding glory, and do not make present aspect prove a mechanically continuous process.