αὐτῶν (auton) in Romans 3:15: Genitive Plural Masculine
αὐτῶν (auton) in Romans 3:15
Textual Witness
The witness reads αὐτῶν in Romans 3:15 within the phrase ὀξεῖς οἱ πόδες αὐτῶν ἐκχέαι αἷμα.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
The form sharpens the image by showing that the feet belong to the people described, which makes the statement about violence more direct and personal.
How To Communicate It
For readers, this grammar helps the verse communicate culpability by linking the action to the persons implied in the surrounding context.
What Not To Say
- Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
- Do not turn grammatical gender into a gendered theological claim.
- Do not make the pronoun identify more than the verse context clearly supports.
What Does The Label Mean?
Pronoun: the word refers back to identifiable persons or things, or can mark emphasis by pointing to them.
Genitive: the form usually shows a relationship, such as possession, association, or source, and here it links the feet to their owners.
Plural: the form is grammatically plural in this occurrence, so it refers to more than one person or group.
Masculine: the form is in the masculine grammatical class, but that is a grammatical category here and not a theological gender claim.
What The Form Does In This Verse
The form is attached to the noun phrase οἱ πόδες αὐτῶν and identifies whose feet are described.
The genitive form stands with the noun phrase and most naturally identifies whose feet are in view, without needing to add anything beyond the immediate clause.
It functions as a possessive or associative genitive, indicating that the feet belong to or are associated with the persons under description.
It is not the main subject of the clause, and it does not by itself tell the reader which specific people are meant.
How Much The Form Matters Here
Moderate: The genitive pronoun connects the violent image of swift feet to the people under indictment.
Genitive plural masculine pronoun. marks the feet as belonging to the people being described. Attached to the feet phrase in Romans 3:15. Governed by the Scripture citation's body-part image. The pronoun personalizes the image while the citation supplies the moral indictment.
Whose feet are described as swift? The feet belong to the people being indicted in the citation.
Direct: The pronoun directly supports their feet.
The referent comes from the surrounding indictment in Romans 3. Masculine plural agreement should not be used as a gender limitation. The body-part image is rhetorical and should be read with the citation.
Pronoun alone identifies the whole group: The pronoun refers to the people in context; Romans 3 supplies the group frame. body-part grammar supplies the whole moral claim: The image contributes to the indictment, but the citation carries the claim.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
The witness reads αὐτῶν in Romans 3:15 within the phrase ὀξεῖς οἱ πόδες αὐτῶν ἐκχέαι αἷμα.
The lemma αὐτός can mean he, she, it, they, them, or same, and in this context it functions as a referring pronoun rather than a different lexical item.
The genitive plural form most naturally ties the feet to the people being described, so the line speaks of their feet as swift to shed blood.
The verse portrays violent conduct by the persons in view and does so by attaching the pronoun to the noun phrase that names their feet.
Within the wider passage, the form supports the catalog of human wrongdoing by identifying the agents whose conduct is under judgment.
In translation and teaching, the pronoun should be rendered in a way that keeps the possession or association clear, such as 'their feet.'
Do not derive a specific gender, a separate theological emphasis, or a more precise referent than the context warrants.