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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Romans 13:4 - 13:4
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
A minister of God (theou diakonos). General sense of diakonos. Of course even Nero was God’s minister “to thee (soi ethical dative) for good (eis to agathon, for the good).” That is the ideal, the goal.
Beareth (phorei). Present active indicative of phoreō, old frequentative form of pherō, to bear, to wear.
But if thou do (ean de poiēis). Condition of third class, ean and present active subjunctive of poieō, “if thou continue to do.”
Sword (machairan). Symbol of authority as to-day policemen carry clubs or pistols. “The Emperor Trajan presented to a provincial governor on starting for his province, a dagger, with the words, ‘For me. If I deserve it, in me’” (Vincent).
An avenger (ekdikos). Old adjective from ek and dikē (right), “outside of penalty,” unjust, then in later Greek “exacting penalty from one,” in N.T. only here and 1Th 4:6.