Romans 9:20
in Romans 9But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why didst thou make me thus?
KJV
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?
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This verse in Romans 9
Commentary
17 notes on this verseIn the same way the potter, too, has it in his power, by tempering the blast of his fire, to modify his clayey material into a stiffer one, and to mould one form after another more beautiful than the original substance, and now possessing both a kind and name of its own. For although the Scripture says, "Shall the clay say to the potter? " that is, Shall man contend with God? although the apostle speaks of "earthen vessels" he refers to man, who was originally clay.
This site's exposition
why does God still find fault
on Romans 9:19-21
The objector asks why God still finds fault if no one can resist His will. Paul answers with the potter and the clay from Jeremiah 18:1 to 6. The potter holds the right over the same lump, and the thing formed does not question its maker.
This site's exposition
who are you, O man
Origen limits the rebuke. It falls on the man who accuses God of fault and leaves the faithful questioner alone.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
As long as you are just a creature, says Paul, like this lump of clay, and you have not been led to spiritual things, so that as a spiritual man you might judge all things and be judged by no one, it is right for you to hold back from this kind of inquiry and not to answer back to God. For everyone who wants to know God's plan ought first to be received into his friendship, and this is only possible for spiritual people who already bear the image of the heavenly.
A commentator
Theodore of MopsuestiaPAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH · Written before 428.
proposed
How can the thing which is made blame its Maker for the construction of its own nature? Everything must be content with its own nature, whatever that may be.
A commentator
Origen of AlexandriaCOMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS · Written before 253.
proposed
"O man, who are you who answer back to God? Does the thing formed say to him who formed it: Why have you made me thus? Or does not the potter have power over the clay, out of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another indeed unto dishonor?" We read also in the Gospels that those who insolently and faithlessly inquired of the Lord by what power he did the things he was doing, and who had given him this power, were not held worthy even of an answer. Likewise in the present passage too we see the Apostle moved against insolent questions, and, through the things he answers, confounding the obstinacy of the one who puts them forward. For he says: "O man, who are you who answer back to God?" For man is to God what clay is to the potter. And just as, in the case of a worthless servant, if perhaps it seems to the master that some work ought to be done which is full of both reason and usefulness, but the servant, unwilling to work, begins to scrutinize what the master commands and to demand of his master: Why do you order this work to be done? Whom does it profit? For whom is it necessary? — what answer will be so fitting for such a contumacious servant as that it be said to him: "Who are you who answer back" to your master? So it pleases him; so it seems good to the master. But I do not think that if a faithful and prudent servant asks, wishing to understand and to marvel at his master's wisdom, it would be said to him: "Who are you?" Indeed, when Daniel the prophet had desired to know the will of the Lord — whence also he was called "a man of desires" — it was not said to him: "Who are you?" but an angel was sent who might instruct him concerning all the dispensations and judgments of God. […]
A commentator
Theodoret of CyrusINTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS · Written before 458.
proposed
If you did not have your own independence, and if you did not choose what you do by your own free will, you would have to be quiet in the way that inanimate objects are and simply acquiesce in what is given to you. But …
"Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?" This he does to take down the objector's unseasonable inquisitiveness, and excessive curiosity, and to put a check upon it, and teach him to know what God is, and what man, and how incomprehensible His foreknowledge is, and how far above our reason, and how obedience to Him in all points is binding. So when he has made this preparatory step in his hearer, and has hushed and softened down his spirit, then with great felicity he introduces the answer, having made what he says easy of admittance with him. And he does not say, it is impossible to answer questions of this kind, but that it is presumptuous to raise them. For our business is to obey what God does, not to be curious even if we do not know the reason of them. Wherefore he said, "Who art thou that repliest against God?" You see how very light he makes of him, how he bears down his swelling spirit! "Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?" Here it is not to do away with free-will that he says this, but to show, up to what point we ought to obey God. For in respect of calling God to account, we ought to be as little disposed to it as the clay is. For we ought to abstain not from gainsaying or questioning only, but even from speaking or thinking of it at all, and to become like that lifeless matter, which followeth the potter's hands, and lets itself be drawn about anywhere he may please. And this is the only point he applied the illustration to, not, that is, to any enunciation of the rule of life, but to the complete obedience and silence enforced upon us. […]
9 more voices on this verse
The Church Fathers2 voices
Such a rebuke does not refer to one who is faithful and lives a good and righteous life and has confidence towards God.… This rebuke is not for the faithful and the saints but for the unfaithful and the ungodly.
It is a great indignity and presumption for a man to answer back to God—the unjust to the just, the evil to the good, the imperfect to the perfect, the weak to the strong, the corruptible to the incorrupt, the mortal to the immortal, the …
The Medieval Church2 voices
Then he answers the question, at O man, who are you. To understand his answer it should be noted that with regard to the election of the good and the rejection of the wicked two questions can arise. One is general, namely, why does God …
Do you see how he stops untimely curiosity, puts on a bridle, and teaches one to know the difference between God and man? "But who are you?" Do you share with God in governance? Are you a judge of what He ought to do or …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Nay, but O man, who art thou that repliest against God?.... Or "answerest again to God": some have been so weak and wicked as to suggest, that the apostle met with an objection he could not answer, or give a fair solution of, and therefore takes the method he does: but when the several things returned in answer by the apostle are considered, it will appear that he has taken the wisest method to silence such an audacious objector, and that he abundantly clears God from the charge of cruelty and unmercifulness.
God is our master, and we are his servants; and it does not become servants to answer again, Tit. ii. By resolving all into the divine sovereignty. We are the thing formed, and he is the former; and it does not become us to challenge or arraign his wisdom in ordering and disposing of us into this or that shape of figure.
Nay, but who art thou, O man - Little, impotent, ignorant man. That repliest against God - That accusest God of injustice, for himself fixing the terms on which he will show mercy?
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
Nay but, O man, who art thou - As if he had said: Weak, ignorant man, darest thou retort on the infinitely good and righteous God? Reflect on thyself; and tell me, after thou hast abused the grace of God, and transgressed his laws, wilt thou cavil at his dispensations? God hath made, created, formed the Jewish nation; and shall the thing formed, when it hath corrupted itself, pretend to correct the wise and gracious Author of its being, and say, Why hast thou made me thus? Why hast thou constituted me in this manner?
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Nay but, O man ... - To this objection the apostle replies in two ways; first, by asserting the sovereignty of God, and affirming that he had a right to do it Rom 9:20-21; and secondly, by showing that he did it according to the principles of justice and mercy, or that it was involved of necessity in his dispensing justice and mercy to mankind; Rom 9:22-24. Who art thou ... - Paul here strongly reproves the impiety and wickedness of arraigning God. This impiety appears, (1) Because man is a creature of arraigning God. This impiety appears, Because man is a creature of God, and it is improper that he should arraign his Maker. (2) He is unqualified to understand the subject. “Who art thou?” What qualifications has a creature of a day, a being just in the infancy of his existence; of so limited faculties; so perverse, blinded, and interested as man, to sit in judgment on the doings of the Infinite Mind? Who gave him the authority, or invested him with the prerogatives of a judge over his Maker’s doings? (3) Even if man were qualified to investigate those subjects, what right has he to reply against God, to arraign him, or to follow out a train of argument tending to involve his Creator in shame and disgrace? No where is there to be found a more cutting or humbling reply to the pride of man than this. And on no subject was it more needed. The experience of every age has shown that this has been a prominent topic of objection against the government of God; and that there has been no point in the Christian theology to which the human heart has been so ready to make objections as to the doctrine of the sovereignty of God. Repliest against God - Margin, “Answerest again; or, disputest with God.” The passage conveys the idea of answering again; or of arguing to the dishonor of God. It implies that when God declares his will, man should be still. […]
The words behind it
20 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ὦ | o | O | G5599 → | 17 times |
| ἄνθρωπε, | anthrope | man, | G444 → | 549 times |
| μενοῦνγε, | menounge | but rather, | G3304 → | |
| σὺ | su | you yourself | G4771 → | 2973 times |
| τίς | tis | who | G5101 → | 563 times |
| εἶ | ei | are | G1510 → | 2333 times |
| ὁ | ho | who | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| ἀνταποκρινόμενος | antapokrinomenos | is answering against | G470 → | |
| τῷ | to | <the> | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| θεῷ; | theo | to God? | G2316 → | 1312 times |
| μὴ | me | Not | G3361 → | 1066 times |
| ἐρεῖ | erei | will say | G4483 → | 46 times |
| τὸ | to | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| πλάσμα | plasma | thing formed | G4110 → | |
| τῷ | to | to the [One] | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| πλάσαντι· | plasanti | having formed [it]; | G4111 → | |
| τί | ti | Why | G5101 → | 563 times |
| με | me | me | G3165 → | 1936 times |
| ἐποίησας | epoiesas | did you make | G4160 → | 569 times |
| οὕτως; | houtos | like this? | G3779 → | 208 times |
ὦO
oG5599 →17 times
ἄνθρωπε,man,
anthropeG444 →549 times
μενοῦνγε,but rather,
menoungeG3304 →
σὺyou yourself
suG4771 →2973 times
τίςwho
tisG5101 →563 times
εἶare
eiG1510 →2333 times
ὁwho
hoG3588 →19766 times
ἀνταποκρινόμενοςis answering against
antapokrinomenosG470 →
τῷ<the>
toG3588 →19766 times
θεῷ;to God?
theoG2316 →1312 times
μὴNot
meG3361 →1066 times
ἐρεῖwill say
ereiG4483 →46 times
τὸthe
toG3588 →19766 times
πλάσμαthing formed
plasmaG4110 →
τῷto the [One]
toG3588 →19766 times
πλάσαντι·having formed [it];
plasantiG4111 →
τίWhy
tiG5101 →563 times
μεme
meG3165 →1936 times
ἐποίησαςdid you make
epoiesasG4160 →569 times
οὕτως;like this?
houtosG3779 →208 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Isaiah 64:8But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.
it leads to
- Ephesians 2:10
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.
- Psalms 119:73
Your hands have made me and fashioned me; give me understanding to learn Your commandments.
- Jeremiah 18:2–6
“Go down at once to the potter’s house, and there I will reveal My message to you.”
- Psalms 138:8
The LORD will fulfill His purpose for me. O LORD, Your loving devotion endures forever— do not abandon the works of Your hands.
- Psalms 100:3
Know that the LORD is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.
- Ephesians 2:10
Through
Isaiah 29:16You have turned things upside down, as if the potter were regarded as clay. Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “He did not make me”? Can the pottery say of…
it leads to
- Romans 9:19–21
One of you will say to me, “Then why does God still find fault? For who can resist His will?”
- Isaiah 64:8
But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.
- Romans 9:19–21
Through
Job 40:2“Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Let him who argues with God give an answer.”
it leads to
- 1 Corinthians 2:16
“For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
- 1 Corinthians 2:16
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies21
About Romans
This page draws on 17 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ambrosiaster, COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES; Augustine of Hippo, AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 62; Charles Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, sermons on Romans 9; John Chrysostom, Homily on Romans 16; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.1.22; Origen of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS; Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh; Theodore of Mopsuestia, PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH; Theodoret of Cyrus, INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS; Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Romans and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Romans.