Romans

This letter is from Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ. God called me to be an apostle, one sent out with his message, and set me apart to carry the good news that comes from God.

1Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,

NoteThe 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.

2God promised this good news long ago through his prophets, in the holy writings.

2(Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)

NoteThe "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."

3The good news is about his Son. As a human being, he was born from the family line of King David.

3Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;

Note"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.

4By the Spirit of holiness, he was shown with power to be the Son of God when God raised him from the dead. He is Jesus Christ our Lord.

4And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:

Note"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.

5Through him we received grace, God's free kindness, and the work of being apostles. Our task is to bring people in all nations to trust and obey him, for the honor of his name.

5By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:

Note"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.

6You in Rome are among those people, because you too have been called to belong to Jesus Christ.

6Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ:

7I am writing to all of you in Rome whom God loves and has called to be his holy people. May grace and peace be yours from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

7To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Note"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.

8First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because people all over the world are talking about your faith.

8First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

Note"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.

9God knows I am telling the truth. I serve him with my whole heart by telling the good news about his Son, and I mention you again and again

9For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;

Note"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.

10whenever I pray. I keep asking that somehow, if God is willing, the way will at last open for me to have a good trip and come to you.

10Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.

Note"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.

11I really want to see you, so I can share with you some gift from God's Spirit that will make you strong.

11For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established;

Note"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.

12What I mean is that you and I can encourage each other, you by my faith and I by yours.

12That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.

Note"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.

13Brothers and sisters, I want you to know that I have often planned to come to you, but until now something has stopped me. I wanted to see good results among you, as I have among other people who are not Jewish.

13Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.

Note"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.

14I owe a debt to Greeks and to people who are not Greek, to the wise and to the foolish alike.

14I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.

Note"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.

15That is why I am eager to do all I can to tell the good news to you in Rome as well.

15So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.

16I am not ashamed of the good news about Christ. It is God's power to save everyone who believes it, the Jew first and also the Greek.

16For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

Note"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.

17In that message God shows how he makes people right with himself, and it is by faith from start to finish. As the Scriptures say, "The person who is right with God will live by faith."

17For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

Note"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."

18God's anger is being revealed from heaven against every ungodly and wrong thing people do, because by their wrongdoing they hold the truth down and keep it from coming out.

18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

Note"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.

19What can be known about God is plain to them, because God himself has made it plain to them.

19Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

NoteThe 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.

20Ever since the world was made, the things about God that cannot be seen, his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly understood from the things he has made. So people have no excuse.

20For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Note"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.

21They knew God, yet they did not honor him as God or thank him. Instead their thinking became empty and worthless, and their foolish hearts grew dark.

21Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Note"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.

22They claimed to be wise, but they became fools.

22Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

23They traded the glory of the God who never dies for images that look like human beings, who do die, and like birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

23And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

Note"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.

24So God handed them over to the impure things their own hearts craved, so that they degraded their bodies with one another.

24Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

Note"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.

25They traded the truth about God for a lie. They worshiped and served created things instead of the Creator, who is to be praised forever. Amen.

25Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

Note"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.

26For this reason God handed them over to shameful desires. Even their women traded natural relations for what is against nature.

26For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

Note"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.

27In the same way the men gave up natural relations with women and burned with desire for one another. Men did shameful things with men, and in themselves they received the penalty their error deserved.

27And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

Note"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.

28Since they did not think it worth their while to keep God in their knowledge, God handed them over to a corrupt mind, so that they did things that should never be done.

28And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

NoteThere 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.

29They are filled with every kind of wrongdoing, sexual sin, evil, greed, and meanness. They are full of envy, murder, fighting, lying, and spite. They spread gossip;

29Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,

NoteThis 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.

30they say harmful things about others behind their backs; they hate God; they are insulting, proud, and boastful; they think up new ways to do evil; they disobey their parents;

30Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,

Note"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.

31they have no sense; they break their promises; they have no love for their own families; they will not make peace; they show no mercy.

31Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

Note"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.

32They know God's ruling that people who do such things deserve to die. Yet they not only keep doing them, they also approve of others who do them.

32Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

Note"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.