Romans 1: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Paul opens his letter to the believers in Rome by introducing himself as an apostle set apart for the good news about God's Son, who was descended from David and shown to be the Son of God by rising from the dead. He thanks God for their faith, tells them how often he has planned to visit and been kept from it, and states his theme: he is not ashamed of the good news, because it is God's power to save everyone who believes, and in it God's righteousness is revealed by faith. The rest of the chapter says God's anger is being revealed against people who suppress the truth, who knew God from what he has made but honored created things instead, and whom God handed over to impurity, shameful desires, and a corrupt mind. It closes with a list of wrongs they do, adding that they know God's ruling and still approve of others who do the same.

Claim by Claim

1. 1:1
   • Paul is the writer of this letter.
   • Paul is a slave of Christ Jesus.
   • Paul is called to be an apostle.
   • Paul has been set apart for the gospel of God.
2. 1:2
   • God promised this gospel beforehand.
   • God promised it through his prophets.
   • God promised it in holy scriptures.
3. 1:3
   • The gospel concerns God's Son.
   • God's Son is Jesus Christ our Lord.
   • God's Son came from the seed of David.
   • He came from David's seed according to the flesh.
4. 1:4
   • He was declared to be the Son of God with power.
   • This was according to the spirit of holiness.
   • This was by the resurrection from the dead.
5. 1:5
   • Through him we received grace and apostleship.
   • The grace and apostleship are for bringing about obedience of faith among all the nations.
   • This is for the sake of his name.
6. 1:6
   • The recipients are among those nations.
   • The recipients are called ones of Jesus Christ.
7. 1:7
   • The letter is addressed to all who are in Rome.
   • Those in Rome are beloved of God.
   • Those in Rome are called to be saints.
   • Paul wishes them grace and peace.
   • The grace and peace come from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
8. 1:8
   • Paul thanks his God first of all.
   • He gives thanks through Jesus Christ.
   • He gives thanks concerning all of them.
   • Their faith is proclaimed in the whole world.
9. 1:9
   • God is Paul's witness.
   • Paul serves God with his spirit.
   • Paul serves God in the gospel of his Son.
   • Paul mentions them without ceasing.
10. 1:10
    • Paul mentions them always in his prayers.
    • Paul asks that somehow at last he may have a successful journey.
    • The journey depends on the will of God.
    • The purpose of the journey is to come to them.
11. 1:11
    • Paul longs to see them.
    • Paul wants to impart some spiritual gift to them.
    • The purpose is that they may be strengthened.
12. 1:12
    • Paul clarifies what he means.
    • He means that he may be encouraged together with them.
    • The encouragement comes through the faith they share, both theirs and his.
13. 1:13
    • Paul does not want them to be ignorant.
    • Paul addresses them as brothers.
    • Paul often purposed to come to them.
    • Paul was hindered until now.
    • His purpose was to have some fruit among them.
    • He has had such fruit among the other Gentiles.
14. 1:14
    • Paul is a debtor to Greeks and to barbarians.
    • Paul is a debtor to the wise and to the foolish.
15. 1:15
    • Paul is eager, as far as it depends on him, to preach the gospel to those in Rome also.
16. 1:16
    • Paul is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
    • The gospel is the power of God unto salvation.
    • It is such to everyone who believes.
    • It is to the Jew first.
    • It is also to the Greek.
17. 1:17
    • In the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed.
    • It is revealed from faith to faith.
    • This accords with what is written.
    • It is written that the righteous one will live by faith.
18. 1:18
    • The wrath of God is revealed from heaven.
    • It is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
    • These men hold down the truth in unrighteousness.
19. 1:19
    • What can be known of God is plain among them.
    • God made it plain to them.
20. 1:20
    • God's invisible attributes have been clearly seen since the creation of the world.
    • They are understood by the things that are made.
    • These attributes are his eternal power and his divine nature.
    • The result is that they are without excuse.
21. 1:21
    • They knew God.
    • They did not glorify him as God.
    • They did not give thanks to him.
    • They became futile in their reasonings.
    • Their senseless heart was darkened.
22. 1:22
    • They claimed to be wise.
    • They became fools.
23. 1:23
    • They exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for a likeness of an image.
    • The image was of corruptible man.
    • The image was also of birds.
    • The image was also of four-footed animals.
    • The image was also of creeping things.
24. 1:24
    • Therefore God gave them up to uncleanness.
    • He gave them up in the lusts of their hearts.
    • The result was that their bodies were dishonored among themselves.
25. 1:25
    • They exchanged the truth of God for the lie.
    • They worshipped and served the creation rather than the Creator.
    • The Creator is blessed forever.
    • Amen.
26. 1:26
    • For this reason God gave them up to passions of dishonor.
    • Their females exchanged the natural use for that which is contrary to nature.
27. 1:27
    • Likewise the males abandoned the natural use of the female.
    • They were inflamed in their desire toward one another.
    • Males committed indecency with males.
    • They received in themselves the due recompense of their error.
28. 1:28
    • They did not see fit to keep God in their knowledge.
    • God gave them over to a reprobate mind.
    • The result was that they do the things that are not fitting.
29. 1:29
    • They are filled with all unrighteousness.
    • They are filled with fornication.
    • They are filled with wickedness.
    • They are filled with covetousness.
    • They are filled with maliciousness.
    • They are full of envy.
    • They are full of murder.
    • They are full of strife.
    • They are full of deceit.
    • They are full of malignity.
    • They are whisperers.
30. 1:30
    • They are backbiters.
    • They are haters of God.
    • They are insolent.
    • They are proud.
    • They are boasters.
    • They are inventors of evil things.
    • They are disobedient to parents.
31. 1:31
    • They are without understanding.
    • They are covenant-breakers.
    • They are without natural affection.
    • They are implacable.
    • They are unmerciful.
32. 1:32
    • They know the righteous decree of God.
    • That decree is that those who practice such things are worthy of death.
    • They not only do these things themselves.
    • They also approve of those who practice them.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

1:1

The King James "servant" translates the Greek doulos, a slave: someone owned by a master, with no independent claim on his own time. Jewish writers had long used the same word as a title of honor for figures like Moses and David, who are called the Lord's servants. "Apostle" is Greek apostolos, an envoy sent out with authority to speak and act for whoever sent him. "Gospel" translates euangelion, simply "good news"; in the Roman world the word was used for public announcements such as a military victory or the birth of an emperor. "Separated unto" is the language of marking something off and setting it aside for one particular use.

1:2

The "holy scriptures" are the Jewish scriptures, the collection later called the Old Testament. There was no Christian New Testament yet when Paul wrote, so when he appeals to what is written, these are the writings he means. "Afore" is simply "beforehand."

1:3

"The seed of David" means a descendant of King David, who had ruled Israel about a thousand years earlier. Old promises said the rightful king would come from David's family line, so descent from David was a claim about royal legitimacy and not merely a fact of ancestry. "According to the flesh" is Paul's idiom for "so far as his human descent goes," setting up the contrast with the next line.

1:4

"Declared to be" translates a Greek verb that can mean either "shown to be" or "appointed to be," and readers have long divided over which sense is meant here; the Greek permits both. "The spirit of holiness" is a Hebrew-sounding phrase that may point to the Holy Spirit or to the holy nature of the Son himself, and the wording leaves that open too. The tight, formulaic phrasing of verses 3 and 4 has struck many readers as wording Paul is quoting rather than composing, language the Roman Christians would already have known.

1:5

"Grace" is Greek charis, a favor or gift given freely, not earned and not owed. "Obedience to the faith" renders a Greek phrase whose grammar is open: it can mean the obedience that consists in faith, or the obedience that comes out of faith. "All nations" is the ordinary word for Gentiles, everyone who is not Jewish. "For his name" means on behalf of his reputation, what his name stands for.

1:6

Rome was a huge, powerful city far away from Paul. The rulers there ruled over many lands and many people.

1:7

"Saints" translates hagioi, "holy ones," people set apart as God's own. It was a standard term for the whole membership of a congregation, not a rank and not a comment on anyone's exceptional goodness. "Grace to you and peace" fuses two greetings: the everyday Greek greeting word, which Paul reshapes into "grace," and the ordinary Hebrew greeting shalom, peace.

1:8

"Throughout the whole world" is the normal warm exaggeration of a letter opening. "The world" for Paul's readers meant the Roman empire and the lands they knew of, and Rome sat at its center, so news from a church there traveled along every road.

1:9

"God is my witness" is an oath formula: Paul calls God to vouch for a claim nobody else could verify, since praying happens where no one can see it.

1:10

"A prosperous journey" translates a Greek verb that literally means to be given a good road. It covers everything a traveler could not control: weather, sailing season, bandits, and money for the trip.

1:11

"Spiritual gift" translates charisma, a thing freely given, with an adjective marking it as coming from God's Spirit. "Established" means made firm or braced, the way a building is made to stand.

1:12

"Comforted" in 1611 English is broader and stronger than it is now: it means strengthened and encouraged, not consoled in grief. The Greek verb here carries a prefix meaning "together with," which is why Paul presses the point that the encouragement runs in both directions.

1:13

"Let" in 1611 English means hindered or prevented, the exact opposite of what the word suggests today; the phrase means he has been blocked until now. "Brethren" addresses the whole congregation, women included. "Fruit" is a harvest image for the results of his work. "Gentiles" means non-Jewish people.

1:14

"Barbarian" was the ordinary Greek word for anyone who did not speak Greek. It began as a mimicking of unintelligible speech, "bar bar," and marked an outsider to Greek language and culture rather than a savage. Paul is splitting the whole world into two halves, twice over, and saying he is under obligation to both.

1:16

"Greek" here stands for non-Jews generally, since Greek was the shared language and culture of the eastern Roman world. "To the Jew first" states an order or priority without spelling out what kind, and readers have understood it in more than one way.

1:17

"The righteousness of God" translates a phrase that can mean God's own just character, or the right standing with God that he gives to people, or his action in setting things right. Paul's Greek does not choose between these, and much of the letter's argument hangs on the phrase. "From faith to faith" is obscure in Greek as well, and has been read as "from start to finish," as "from God's faithfulness to human faith," and as growth from one measure of faith to another. The quotation is from the prophet Habakkuk, where the Hebrew word behind "faith" also means faithfulness or steady reliability, and where it is unclear whether "by faith" attaches to "the just" or to "shall live."

1:18

"Hold the truth in unrighteousness" uses "hold" in its old sense of holding down or holding back, as you hold a lid on something. The verb does not mean they possess the truth; it means they are pinning it down. "Wrath" is the standard word for settled anger and judicial displeasure, not a flare of temper.

1:19

The Greek phrase behind "manifest in them" can mean either "plain within them," in their own minds, or "plain among them," out in public where they live. Translators divide over it.

1:20

"Godhead" in 1611 English means divine nature, the quality of being God. It is not being used here as a name for the Trinity. "The things that are made" renders a single Greek word for what has been crafted, the finished workmanship of a maker. "Without excuse" is courtroom language: they have no defense to enter.

1:21

"Imaginations" in 1611 English means reasonings, lines of thought, not flights of fancy. "Vain" means empty, leading nowhere. "Heart" in Hebrew and Greek usage covers the mind and the will, the place where a person thinks and decides, and is not restricted to feeling.

1:23

"Uncorruptible" and "corruptible" mean not subject to decay and subject to decay: the contrast is between a God who cannot die and creatures that rot. The sequence of human, bird, four-footed animal and creeping thing follows the categories of living creatures in Genesis, and also describes the animal forms used in Egyptian and other ancient worship. The wording closely echoes Psalm 106, where Israel is said to have exchanged its glory for the image of an ox that eats grass.

1:24

"Gave them up" translates a verb used for handing a prisoner over to the authorities or to a sentence; it describes a deliberate act of release, not indifference. "Uncleanness" is the vocabulary of impurity, drawn from Jewish categories of what is defiled and unfit to come near God. "Dishonour their own bodies" is the language of shame and loss of standing, the opposite of the honor a person's body carries in public.

1:25

"The creature" in 1611 English means anything created, not an animal in particular, and the contrast is with "the Creator." "Who is blessed for ever. Amen" is a set Jewish blessing formula routinely added when God is named. "Amen" is a Hebrew word meaning roughly "truly" or "so be it," spoken to endorse what has just been said.

1:26

"Vile affections" means passions that bring dishonor; "affections" in 1611 English means strong feelings or drives, not fondness. "Natural use" is a restrained Greek expression for sexual relations. "Against nature," para physin in Greek, was a stock phrase in Greek and Roman moral writing, where "nature" meant the settled order of how things are and observably work.

1:27

"Unseemly" means shameful or indecent. "Recompence" is a payment made back, a word from the world of wages and debts. "Which was meet" uses "meet" in its old sense of fitting or due, so the phrase means the return that matched what was done.

1:28

There is a word play in the Greek that English cannot carry: the verb for what they refused to do to God, roughly "test and approve," is the root of the adjective describing the mind they were handed over to. "Reprobate" translates adokimos, a word used of metal or coinage that has been assayed and rejected as counterfeit. "Not convenient" in 1611 English means not fitting, not proper; it has nothing to do with convenience in the modern sense.

1:29

This is a vice list, a familiar literary form in Greek and Roman moralists and in Jewish writing of the period, built to be heard as a rush of sound rather than read as a sorted inventory; several of the Greek words are near neighbors picked partly for their ring. "Debate" in 1611 English means quarreling and strife, not discussion. "Malignity" means ill will, the habit of reading everything in the worst possible light. "Whisperers" are people who spread damaging talk in private. Some early manuscripts of the letter do not have "fornication" in this list.

1:30

"Backbiters" are slanderers, people who run others down out loud; the pairing with "whisperers" at the end of the previous verse contrasts doing it in secret with doing it openly. "Despiteful" translates a word for the insolent person who humiliates others and enjoys it. "Inventors of evil things" describes people not satisfied with the familiar wrongs, who devise new ones.

1:31

"Covenantbreakers" means people who do not keep the agreements they enter. "Without natural affection" is one Greek word for lacking the affection that normally holds a family together, between parents and children above all. "Implacable" renders a word that literally means "without a truce," someone who will not come to terms or accept peace.

1:32

"The judgment of God" here translates a word meaning a righteous decree or standing requirement, the ruling itself rather than a verdict in one case. "Worthy of death" is sentencing language: these are offenses that carry a death penalty. "Have pleasure in" is stronger in Greek than it sounds in English; the verb means to agree with, to give consent and take the other person's side.