φασί (phasin) in Romans 3:8: Verb Third Person Plural Present Active Indicative
φασί (phasin) in Romans 3:8
Textual Witness
The witness reads φασί in Romans 3:8, within the phrase καθώς φασί τινες ἡμᾶς λέγειν ὅτι.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
The form helps the reader hear this as a reported accusation or claim, not as Paul's own endorsement of the statement.
How To Communicate It
In translation or teaching, the form is best used to mark reported speech clearly, so the verse's rebuttal remains the main point.
What Not To Say
- Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
- Third person plural here can be conventional or impersonal, so it should not be pressed beyond the reported-speech frame.
- Do not make verbal aspect, number, or mood carry more meaning than the sentence can bear.
What Does The Label Mean?
Verb: the form names an act of speaking or asserting, and here it appears in a reported-speech frame.
Present: often views the action as in progress, customary, or presently in view. Context decides the exact force.
Active: presents the subject as doing or carrying the action.
Indicative: presents the verbal idea as an assertion or statement in the clause.
Third person: the form speaks about someone or something rather than directly as I/we or you.
Not applicable: this verb form is not using noun case to mark its sentence role.
Plural: the ending marks the verb as third person plural, which can signal more than one speaker or a conventional impersonal use.
Not applicable: this verb form does not use grammatical gender to make its point.
What The Form Does In This Verse
It is attached to καθώς and leads into τινες ἡμᾶς λέγειν.
It functions within a reported statement introduced by καθώς and followed by an infinitive phrase, so it supports the sense of what some people are saying.
The form supplies the saying or alleging in the clause, marking a present report or claim rather than narrating a completed event.
It does not itself identify who the speakers are or prove the truth of the claim; that must be learned from the wider sentence.
How Much The Form Matters Here
High: The form helps readers distinguish a reported accusation from Paul's own claim.
Reported-speech verb. introduces an allegation rather than endorsing its content. Attached to the clause reporting what some people say. Governed by the argumentative sentence and the reported-speech frame. The surrounding sentence decides how the reported claim is evaluated.
Is this Paul's claim or a reported accusation? The verb marks what some people say, so the reader should hear a reported accusation.
Direct: The form directly supports wording such as "some say" or "they say."
The third person plural form does not identify the speakers by itself; the wider argument supplies that frame.
Reported speech equals approval: A speech-reporting verb can introduce a claim the passage rejects; the syntax does not make it Paul's teaching.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
The witness reads φασί in Romans 3:8, within the phrase καθώς φασί τινες ἡμᾶς λέγειν ὅτι.
The lemma is φημί, a verb of saying or asserting, so the form naturally fits a quoted or reported claim.
The present indicative suits an ongoing or current allegation in the argument, but the syntax only supports a report, not a judgment on its accuracy.
In this verse the form helps present an objection or slander that others are making about the speakers, before the verse rejects the inference.
Across Scripture this verb often introduces reported speech, and here it serves that same communicative function in a polemical context.
For readers and translators, the form can be rendered simply as they say or some say, keeping the focus on reported speech.
Do not derive speaker identity, certainty, or approval from the tense or number alone, and do not let the form override the verse's argumentative setting.