Tag Archives: Romans 11:18

Μὴ κατακαυχῶ τῶν κλάδων· εἰ δὲ κατακαυχᾶσαι, οὐ σὺ τὴν ῥίζαν βαστάζεις, ἀλλὰ ἡ ῥίζα σέ. (Romans 11:18)

Do not boast over the branches; but if you do boast, it is not you who carry the root, but the root carries you.

The Architecture of Prohibition and Reversal: How Imperative and Indicative Collide

The verse is structured around a sharp syntactic progression that begins with prohibition and culminates in reversal, and this movement is encoded through the deliberate sequencing of mood and clause type. The opening negative imperative μὴ κατακαυχῶ establishes an immediate boundary of behavior, using the present imperative with μή to forbid an ongoing or habitual action rather than a single occurrence.… Learn Koine Greek