powerless: lacking the strength or ability to do something, said of a person
This is the everyday Greek sense of the word, the one it carries in ordinary letters and legal petitions from the world of the New Testament, where it describes real people who could not farm, could not see, or could not walk. It is simply the opposite of δυνατός, "able" or "strong."
The word covers two shades of this powerlessness: a body that cannot do something, as with the man at Lystra who had never been able to use his feet, and a group of people who are weak or dependent, named together as "the powerless." In both, the accent falls on lacking capacity, not merely poor health, which is the nuance that sets it slightly apart from the gentler word ἀσθενής, "weak."
Nuances
What kind of weakness the label names at Romans 15:1: weakness of faith and conviction, or low social and economic standing.
- majorityThe powerless are those whose faith leads them to abstain from certain foods and to keep special days, while the strong are those confident they may eat anything; the contrast is about conviction, not social class.; C.E.B. Cranfield, The Epistle to the Romans (ICC), 2:730-737; Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans (NICNT), 866-871
- minorityThe labels also carry real social weight: the strong were largely settled, higher-status residents and the powerless poorer, more marginal members, so the appeal reaches across lines of status as well as conviction.; Mark Reasoner, The Strong and the Weak: Romans 14:1-15:13 in Context (SNTSMS 103); Robert Jewett, Romans (Hermeneia), 833-836