Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

ROMANS 9:20KJV
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Romans 9:20 (KJV)

What does Romans 9:20 mean?

Romans 9:20 presents Paul’s answer to a person who challenges God’s right to make people as he chooses. Paul uses the picture of something shaped by a maker to emphasize the difference between human beings and God.

Paul speaks to an imagined questioner after the objection raised in verse 19. His question about “the thing formed” brings to mind a potter shaping clay, an image he continues in verse 21.

The Greek behind Romans 9:20

  • “against” — ἀνταποκρίνομαι (antapokrinomai): The Greek carries the sense of answering back or arguing in reply. It gives “repliest against God” the force of a challenge, rather than a request for information.
  • “formed” — πλάσμα (plasma): This word means something shaped or molded. It presents the person in Paul’s image as the object being shaped, in contrast to the one doing the shaping.

Why Romans 9:20 matters

  • Paul directs his response at the questioner’s position before God. “Who art thou” makes the relationship between the speaker and the one being challenged central to his reply.
  • The image is about the maker’s authority over what is made. In verse 21, Paul develops that image by asking whether a potter has power over the clay to make different vessels.
  • Christians differ on how Paul’s picture relates God’s choices to human responsibility. The question in verse 19 and Paul’s answer in verse 20 are important to those readings.

Where else these words appear

“against” Greek G470 · used in 2 verses

  • Luke 14:6 And they could not answer him again to these things.

“formed” Greek G4111 · used in 2 verses

“but” Greek G3304 · used in 4 verses

  • Luke 11:28 But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
  • Romans 10:18 But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.
  • Philippians 3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

“O” Greek G5599 · used in 17 verses

  • Matthew 15:28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.
  • Acts 1:1 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,
  • Romans 2:3 And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?