ἀρᾶς (aras) in Romans 3:14: Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
ἀρᾶς (aras) in Romans 3:14
Textual Witness
The witness reads ἀρᾶς in Romans 3:14 within the phrase ὧν τὸ στόμα ἀρᾶς καὶ πικρίας γέμει.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
The form supports reading curse as part of the mouth's contents, intensifying the picture of speech filled with curse and bitterness.
How To Communicate It
In teaching or translation, this form can be explained as a genitive that helps describe the mouth's contents in a compact, vivid way.
What Not To Say
- Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
- Genitive case can suggest relationship, but the verse context must determine the best reading.
- Grammatical gender is a language category here and should not be turned into a theological gender claim.
What Does The Label Mean?
Noun: the form names a thing or reality, here the idea of a curse or imprecation rather than an action.
Genitive: the form usually marks a relationship to another noun, often describing content, source, or close association in the phrase.
Singular: the form is grammatically singular here, presenting one kind of reality rather than a plural collection.
Feminine: the noun belongs to the feminine grammatical class, which is a language feature and does not itself make a theological gender claim.
What The Form Does In This Verse
τὸ στόμα
It is part of the noun phrase before γέμει, and the genitive relation ties it closely to what the mouth is full of.
It functions as part of the description of the mouth's content, naming one of the things that fills it along with bitterness.
It is not the subject of the clause, and the form by itself does not decide a more precise syntactic label beyond the genitive relation in context.
How Much The Form Matters Here
High: The genitive contributes to Paul's description of corrupt speech in Romans 3.
Genitive singular in a content relation with mouth. names curse as one element filling the mouth. Attached to the mouth full of curse and bitterness phrase. Governed by the clause describing what the mouth contains. The genitive relation is contextual and should not be treated as a technical label that outruns the phrase.
What does the genitive help describe? It describes the mouth as filled with curse, alongside bitterness.
Supporting: The genitive supports the compact rendering of what the mouth is full of.
The genitive relation should be read with the mouth and full-of language. Feminine grammatical gender is a form feature, not a theological gender claim. The case contributes to the mouth-content wording but does not define the whole theology of sinful speech.
Genitive case by itself proves the exact semantic relation: The surrounding phrase about the mouth being full supplies the content relation.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
The witness reads ἀρᾶς in Romans 3:14 within the phrase ὧν τὸ στόμα ἀρᾶς καὶ πικρίας γέμει.
The lemma ἀρά can mean curse or imprecation here, and the lexicon summary supports that sense in this verse.
The genitive singular fits a phrase naming what fills the mouth, alongside πικρίας, so the grammar points to content associated with speech.
The verse portrays destructive speech as saturated with curse and bitterness, without requiring the grammar to add more than the context already says.
This reading fits the wider argument about sinful speech by keeping the form's contribution aligned with the verse's moral description.
For communication, the form identifies curse as part of the mouth's output or contents, not a separate event.
Do not derive a technical doctrine from the feminine gender, and do not make the case override the immediate sense of hostile speech.