Where does Paul get the potter and the clay quotation in Romans 9:20?
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Whosoever Will, There Is No Calvinist Potter in the Bible: People treat that as Paul's own line. It is not. It is a quotation, and I can show you the exact source. The opening of Romans 9:20 is six words lifted straight out of the Greek of Isaiah 29:16: mē erei to plasma tō plasanti (μὴ ἐρεῖ τὸ πλάσμα τῷ πλάσαντι), the thing formed and the one who formed it. Then Paul recasts the clay's question. Isaiah's clay says “he made me not.” Paul's says “why hast thou made me thus?” He took a text about men hiding from God and turned its line into the exact objection he was answering at 9:19. That is not sloppiness. That is design. And those are Isaiah 29's words. They are not the words of Isaiah 45, which people often assume is the source. Isaiah 45 says clay and potter. Paul says thing-formed and former, which is Isaiah 29. Scripture, King James Version: Romans 9:20, "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?"; Isaiah 29:16, "Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?".
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Verified. Every scripture quotation on this page has been checked word-for-word against the King James text. Last reviewed 2026-10-18.
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Where does Paul get the potter and the clay quotation in Romans 9:20? → wsb.bible/answers/where-does-paul-get-the-potter-and-the-clay-quotation-in-romans-9-20
This answer is the short form. The argument is made at length in There Is No Calvinist Potter in the Bible: The verse Paul actually quoted.