Sermon Central
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Decieves The Hearts Of The Simple (Lesson 3) Series
Contributed by Ron Freeman, Evangelist on Feb 22, 2025 (message contributor)
Summary: To herald Paul’s solemn plea and message to the church in Rome, to mark and turn away from those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine they had heard, learned, believed, and obeyed according to “The faith, once delivered to the saints.”
3. The word “simple” in Gr., is ákakos, translated as “innocent or naïve.” [Most interlinear translations render the article and adjective “ton akakon” or “to the simple” to read “the innocent or naïve.”] The word “ákakos” could have been mistranslated in the text. Here’s why! Reviewing several interlinear, we have discovered the following. Observe,
NOTE: Interlinear references: The CSB, “the naïve ones,” page 773; the NGE, “the simple,” page 569; the ESV, “the naïve ones,” page 701; the EGNT, “the innocent,” page 435; and the NRSV, “the simple,” page 577. The BLB renders it “unsuspecting: —harmless, simple.”
a. However, Romans 16:19 translates the Greek word “akeraiosa” as “simple and harmless.” The Greek word “akeraios” is translated as “harmless” in Matthew 10:16 and Philippians 2:15. Their Greek Parsing codes are G185 and A-NPM. It is translated as “simple” in Romans 16:19 and coded in Greek as G185, A-APM. It might be that the Greek word “ákakos” and its translation “simple” could be an error. A-NPM is Adjective-Nominative Plural Masculine, and A-APM is Adjective-Accusative Plural Masculine. I speak now from experience in the word of God, not education!
b. In my judgment, the adjective “ákakos” or “simple” in Romans 16:18 could have been translated without the negative particle: “a” or “alpha”; instead, as “kakos” and translated “evil or wicked” G-2556, A-ASN.
NOTE: A-ASN means Adjective-Accusative Singular Neuter. See also G2549 “wicked;” and G4189 “wickedness,” except in (Acts 3:26), where it is translated as “iniquities.”
NOTE: The EGNT did not translate the Greek word “poneria” in Acts 3:26 as “iniquities” but “wickedness” G4189, N-GPF, or Noun-Genitive Plural Feminine, as with six other scriptures. These six other scriptures may indicate Acts 3:26 is possibly mistranslated. Please review my work here for your edification and satisfaction.
1) As mentioned earlier, Jesus called the temptation of Him by the Pharisees “wickedness” G4189. See Matthew 22:16-18. The Master called their works “wickedness” or “poneria” G4189, N-ASF, from a heart “of evil purpose or desire.”
2) The Greek word “poneria” describes the character of the men or women who “make divisions and offenses” in the church, Romans 16:17. This phrase, “the simple” in Romans 16:18, defines the ones causing “the divisions and offenses,” not the ones being fooled or deceived by such divisions or offenses.
3) They are the perpetrators of wickedness and the victims of their teachings and evil works.
NOTE: All 5 Interlinear mentioned earlier translated “poneria” as “wicked, wickedness, wicked ways, or evil” but not as “iniquities.”
c. Recall the deceived, while deceiving, become deceived themselves. This condition refers to the Jewish “fathers or the Pharisees” and “the men from James.” Of course, I cannot say definitively why this is so, but the context of the text supports this translation. The Greek Parsing presented earlier has justly classified these men or deceivers as “the fathers” in Romans 15:8. Paul means the Jewish leaders, the representative of the Jewish religion, and “the people,” Acts 3:25-26.
