Romans 13:1

Authorized King James Version (1611)

¶ Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

Πᾶσα ψυχὴ ἐξουσίαις ὑπερεχούσαις ὑποτασσέσθω. Οὐ γάρ ἐστιν ἐξουσία εἰ μὴ ἀπὸ Θεοῦ: αἱ δὲ οὖσαι ἐξουσίαι ὑπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ τεταγμέναι εἰσίν.

Transliteration

Every psychē to exousiais hyperechousais let be hypotassesthō. Not gar is exousia except from Theou: the de being exousiai by the Theou tetagmenai are.

Grammar Details

• *psychē*: nominative, feminine, singular - soul/life
• *exousiais*: dative, feminine, plural - authorities/powers
• *hyperechousais*: present active participle, dative, feminine, plural - higher/superior
• *hypotassesthō*: present middle/passive imperative, 3rd singular - let be subject to
• *gar*: postpositive conjunction - for/because
• *exousia*: nominative, feminine, singular - authority/power
• *Theou*: genitive, masculine, singular - of God
• *de*: postpositive conjunction - but/and/now
• *exousiai*: nominative, feminine, plural - authorities/powers
• *tetagmenai*: perfect passive participle, nominative, feminine, plural - having been appointed/ordered

Word Meanings

• *psychē*: soul/person/life/being
• *exousia*: authority/power/jurisdiction/right
• *hyperechousais*: higher/superior/eminent/governing
• *hypotassesthō*: be subject to/submit to/obey
• *tetagmenai*: appointed/ordained/established/arranged

Referenced Verses

• Titus 3:1 : 1 ¶ Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work,
• 1 Pet 2:13-17 : 13 ¶ Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; 14 Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. 15 For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: 16 As free, and not using [your] liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. 17 Honour all [men]. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.
• John 19:11 : 11 Jesus answered, ‹Thou couldest have no power› [at all] ‹against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.›
• Eph 5:21 : 21 ¶ Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
• Matt 6:13 : 13 ‹And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.›
• 2 Pet 2:10-11 : 10 ¶ But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous [are they], selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. 11 Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.
• Jude 1:8 : 8 ¶ Likewise also these [filthy] dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
• Prov 8:15-16 : 15 By me kings reign, and princes decree justice. 16 By me princes rule, and nobles, [even] all the judges of the earth.
• Dan 2:21 : 21 And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding:
• Dan 4:32 : 32 And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling [shall be] with the beasts of the field: they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.
• Dan 5:18-23 : 18 O thou king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honour: 19 And for the majesty that he gave him, all people, nations, and languages, trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew; and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he set up; and whom he would he put down. 20 But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him: 21 And he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling [was] with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and [that] he appointeth over it whomsoever he will. 22 And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this; 23 But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath [is], and whose [are] all thy ways, hast thou not glorified:
• Jer 27:5-8 : 5 I have made the earth, the man and the beast that [are] upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me. 6 And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him. 7 And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him. 8 And it shall come to pass, [that] the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.
• 1 Chr 28:4-5 : 4 Howbeit the LORD God of Israel chose me before all the house of my father to be king over Israel for ever: for he hath chosen Judah [to be] the ruler; and of the house of Judah, the house of my father; and among the sons of my father he liked me to make [me] king over all Israel: 5 And of all my sons, (for the LORD hath given me many sons,) he hath chosen Solomon my son to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of the LORD over Israel.
• Ps 62:11 : 11 God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power [belongeth] unto God.
• Rev 1:5 : 5 And from Jesus Christ, [who is] the faithful witness, [and] the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
• Rev 17:14 : 14 ¶ These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him [are] called, and chosen, and faithful.
• Rev 19:16 : 16 And he hath on [his] vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
• Deut 17:12 : 12 And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the LORD thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel.
• 1 Sam 2:8 : 8 He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, [and] lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set [them] among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth [are] the LORD'S, and he hath set the world upon them.