Greek word · G4110

πλάσμα

plasma

formed thing

πλάσσω means to form or mold something soft (clay, wax, dough) with the hands. πλάσμα is the resulting molded object: a figure, an image, a formed thing. The words were also used of fabrication, as in a made-up story, but the physical sense of molding governs here.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

πλάσμα, -τος, τό

(πλάσσω), [in LXX chiefly for יֵצֶר ;]

that which is moulded or formed : Romans 9:20 (LXX).†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Romans 9:20

Range of meaning

πλάσσω means to form or mold something soft (clay, wax, dough) with the hands. πλάσμα is the resulting molded object: a figure, an image, a formed thing. The words were also used of fabrication, as in a made-up story, but the physical sense of molding governs here.

Against the English

"Thing formed" (KJV, WEB, YLT) and "what is formed" (BSB) are accurate. What English loses is how concrete the word is: it is the language of a potter's hands and wet clay, and of the creation of Adam.

Used elsewhere in the period

Greek Genesis 2:7–8: God "molded" (eplasen) the human from dust. 1 Timothy 2:13: "Adam was formed (eplasthē) first." Isaiah 29:16 in the Greek Old Testament, which Paul quotes word for word: "Shall the thing formed (plasma) say to the one who formed (plasanti) it…?" Compare Isaiah 45:9 and Jeremiah 18:1–6 (the potter's house). Wisdom of Solomon 15:7 describes a potter who, "from the same clay," makes vessels for clean uses and their opposites, very close to Romans 9:21. The Dead Sea Scrolls regularly call a human "a thing shaped from clay" (Hebrew yetser ḥomer, e.g. 1QS XI 22 and throughout the Thanksgiving Hymns).

Where it appears

Romans · 1

  1. Romans 9:20 πλάσμα thing formed

    But 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?”

    Here: Something shaped by hand, especially from clay or wax. The potter picture is already present in this word, and so is Genesis 2:7, where God "molded" (eplasen) the human from the dust.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.