Romans 1
Salutation
1Paul, a servanta of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, 3the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spiritb of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name, 6including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,
7To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Prayer of Thanksgiving
8First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world. 9For God, whom I serve with my spirit by announcing the gospelc of his Son, is my witness that without ceasing I remember you always in my prayers, 10asking that by God’s will I may somehow at last succeed in coming to you. 11For I am longing to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—12or rather so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13I want you to know, brothers and sisters,d that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as I have among the rest of the Gentiles. 14I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish 15—hence my eagerness to proclaim the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
The Power of the Gospel
16For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.”e
The Guilt of Humankind
18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth. 19For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; 21for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened. 22Claiming to be wise, they became fools; 23and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.
24Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves, 25because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creat or, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, 27and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.
28And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done. 29They were filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters,f insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents, 31foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32They know God’s decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die—yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practice them.
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a Gk slave
b Or Spirit
c Gk my spirit in the gospel
d Gk brothers
e Or The one who is righteous through faith will live
f Or God-hated
1.1–7 To introduce himself, Paul expands the conventional salutation (writer, reader, greeting) with a summary of his gospel.
1.1 Servant (lit. “slave”). A slave is at the disposition of the owner, here Christ; see also 6.16–22; 12.11; 14.18; 16.18; Gal 1.10; Phil 1.1. Apostle, an emissary.
1.2 Prophets, probably generally the writers of the scriptures, which are the OT.
1.3–4 Paul probably quotes a confession, perhaps known in Rome, that viewed Jesus as the Son of David who was installed into the office of Son of God by his resurrection (see Acts 13.33); others think Paul simply uses traditional ideas. Paul himself believed that God’s preexisting Son became Jesus; see 2 Cor 8.9; Phil 2.6–11.
1.4 Spirit of holiness (a phrase found only here in the NT), probably the Holy Spirit (see text note b).
1.5 Obedience of faith, obedience grounded in and shaped by faith. See 16.26. On Paul’s mission to the Gentiles, see v. 13; 11.13; 15.16; Gal 2.1–10.
1.7 In the NT all Christians, not only outstanding ones, are saints (lit. “holy ones”). A few manuscripts omit “in Rome” (see Introduction).
1.8–15 A paragraph expressing gratitude to God for some aspect of the readers’ faith and life is a standard element in Paul’s Letters following the salutation.
1.8 Faith, here not the readers’ personal trust in God but the presence of Christian faith in Rome. Throughout the world should not be taken literally.
1.13 See Acts 19.21–22.
1.14 Greeks and…barbarians, a traditional Greek way of classifying people, means all people; wise and…foolish means the same. The language should not be pressed; Paul is simply establishing rapport with the readers.
1.16–17 The theme of the Letter.
1.16 I am not ashamed, probably a stylistic understatement meaning “I am proud of.” On the power of God, see v. 20; 9.17; 1 Cor 1.18, 24; 2.5; 6.14. On the special status of the Jew, see 2.9–10; 3.1–2; chs. 9–11; cf. 3.9. First can refer to either a temporal or a theological priority.
1.17 The righteousness (or “justice”) of God, a key theme in Romans; see 3.21–26; 10.3; see also Pss 31.1; 35.24; 71.2; Isa 45.8, 21; 46.13 (“deliverance”); 51.8. Here Paul understands it to mean the divine rectitude that rectifies (makes right) the relation between the Creator and the unrighteous person who believes the gospel. Is revealed (lit. “is being revealed”). The passive voice implies that God, not Paul, is doing the revealing. Faith, rendered faithfulness in 3.3, so its meaning here is not obvious. Perhaps through faith refers to God’s faithfulness and for faith to the human response to it. The quotation (Hab 2.4) does not agree exactly with either the Hebrew or the Greek text; it may be Paul’s own rendering (see text note e).
1.18–3.20 In this argument, carefully designed to lead up to the conclusion in 3.20, Paul shows that the gospel, which brings salvation to everyone who believes it (v. 16), deals with a dilemma shared by all humans, whether they are Jews or Gentiles (see also 3.23; 10.12).
1.18–32 An indictment of Gentiles.
1.18 The wrath of God, God’s rightful response to what humans have done; see also 2.5, 8; 3.5; 4.15; 5.9; 9.22; 12.19; 13.5. Is revealed. See note on 1.17. Ungodliness refers to the relationship between God and humans, wickedness (lit. “unrighteousness”) to human relationships, as in the two tables of the Decalogue (see Ex 20.2–17). The truth about God’s identity (see v. 19) is suppressed by wickedness because human behavior reflects what persons take God to be and stand for.
1.19 Because God has shown it to them nullifies an excuse of ignorance (v. 20).
1.20 That one could infer the invisible Creator from the created world was a familiar idea in Paul’s time; see Wis 13.1–9.
1.21 The refusal to honor (lit. “glorify”) God as God is humanity’s root sin, the source of the human dilemma; cf. 15.6, 9; 1 Cor 6.20; 2 Cor 9.13. They became futile, lit. “they were made futile” (by God).
1.22–32 These verses clearly refer to Gentiles, as seen
from the standpoint of Jewish horror of idolatry (Deut 4.16–18), but cf. Ps 106.20; Jer 2.11.
1.22 They became fools, lit. “they were made foolish” (by God).
1.24–25 The first of three expositions of the same point (see also vv. 26, 28): from idolatry follow all sorts of moral confusions (see Wis 13–15). God gave them up (lit. “handed them over”) to those confusions, i.e., allowed immoralities to gain control. Thus the immoralities are themselves the symptoms of God’s wrath, which is now disclosed by the gospel (see v. 18).
1.26–27 Some think that Paul here condemns homosexual acts by heterosexual people (i.e., unnatural means “unnatural for them”); others that he condemns pederasty (sexual activity between adult men and boys). It is questionable whether Paul thought of homosexuality as a condition or a disposition (see also 1 Cor 6.9). The repetition of the word exchanged (see v. 25) is deliberate: moral confusion follows idolatry, as Jewish thought had long maintained (see Wis 14.12).
1.28 They did not see fit…a debased mind. Paul’s pun resists translation; reading debased as “unfit” conveys the idea.
1.29–31 Lists of vices (and of virtues) were common in Paul’s day; see Gal 5.19–23; Col 3.5, 8; 1 Tim 1.9–10; 6.4; 2 Tim 3.2–4; Titus 3.3; 1 Pet 4.3. The order within the list is rhetorical.
1.32 The Greek word translated decree suggests “right verdict.” On deserve to die, see 6.23; see also 5.12–21; Gen 3. Paul is not calling for capital punishment.
Romans 2
The Righteous Judgment of God
1Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. 2You say,a “We know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is in accordance with truth.” 3Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God? 4Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. 6For he will repay according to each one’s deeds: 7to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. 9There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11For God shows no partiality.
12All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. 15They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them 16on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all.
The Jews and the Law
17But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of your relation to God 18and know his will and determine what is best because you are instructed in the law, 19and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth, 21you, then, that teach others, will you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? 22You that forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You that abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23You that boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? 24For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
25Circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law; but if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26So, if those who are uncircumcised keep the requirements of the law, will not their uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27Then those who are physically uncircumcised but keep the law will condemn you that have the written code and circumcision but break the law. 28For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something external and physical. 29Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart—it is spiritual and not literal. Such a person receives praise not from others but from God.
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a Gk lacks You say
2.1–16 An indictment of the person who judges others (cf. 1.32). It is unlikely that here Paul thinks of the Jews, to whom he turns in v. 17.
2.1–5 Paul changes to the diatribe style, writing as if confronting an individual with a truth that demands a response. This was a well-established way of teaching used by philosophical schools as well as by traveling teachers such as Paul himself.
2.1 The judge is doing the very same things because all sins, whether gross or minor, express the same root sin (1.21).
2.2 The quotation marks are inferred (see text note b on p. 1912).
2.4 One of Paul’s rare references to repentance; see 2 Cor 7.9–10; 12.21.
2.5 The motif of the day of wrath (“the last judgment”) is anchored deeply in the Bible; Paul refers to it often (5.9; 12.19; 13.4–5; 14.10; 1 Cor 4.4–5; 11.31–32; 2 Cor 5.10; 1 Thess 1.9–10). God’s judgment will be revealed as the confirmation and final recompense of the wrath already being revealed (1.18).
2.6–16 Paul returns to the discursive style, which develops an idea in order to persuade.
2.6 This saying appears in various contexts; see Ps 62.12; Prov 24.12; Mt 16.27; 2 Cor 11.15; 2 Tim 4.14.
2.9–10 God will punish the Jew first (see also note on 1.16), because with priority in status goes priority in judgment. The Greek, i.e., the Gentile.
2.11 The impartiality of God’s judgment is basic for the whole argument in 1.18–3.20.
2.12 The difference between will…perish and will be judged is more stylistic than substantial. Those who live under the law are the Jews.
2.13 To be righteous in God’s sight and to be justified (declared to be in the right) are the same. See note on 3.20.
2.14 Instinctively (lit. “by nature”) interprets the Greek as the manner in which Gentiles obey the law; the wording more likely reflects the fact that Gentiles do not possess the Jewish law “by nature.”
2.15 The idea of a conscience, an inner judge of one’s deeds, implies a standard, a “law” to which Gentiles are accountable; whether Paul alludes to Jer 31.33 is debated. It is unlikely that here and in v. 14 Paul thinks of the Christian Gentiles.
2.17–29 Not an indictment of Judaism or all Jews, but of the arrogant Jew in vv. 17–24 who does not see the contradiction between privileged status and actual performance. In vv. 17–24 Paul uses the diatribe style.
2.24 See Isa 52.5; Ezek 36.20.
2.25 Circumcision, the sign of the Jews’ covenant with God (see Gen 17.1–14). According to rabbinic thought, all Jews (except apostates) will share in the “world to come” because God honors the covenant commitment and has provided atonement for sins. God’s impartiality (v. 11) underlies the argument in vv. 25–29.
2.29 Circumcision…of the heart. See Deut 10.16.
Romans 3
1Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? 2Much, in every way. For in the first place the Jewsa were entrusted with the oracles of God. 3What if some were unfaithful? Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? 4By no means! Although everyone is a liar, let God be proved true, as it is written,
“So that you may be justified in your words,
and prevail in your judging.”b
5But if our injustice serves to confirm the justice of God,
what should we say? That God is unjust to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) 6By no means! For then how could God judge the world? 7But if through my falsehood God’s truthfulness abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? 8And why not say (as some people slander us by saying that we say), “Let us do evil so that good may come”? Their condemnation is deserved!
None Is Righteous
9What then? Are we any better off?c No, not at all; for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, 10as it is written:
“There is no one who is righteous, not even one;
11there is no one who has understanding,
there is no one who seeks God.
12All have turned aside, together they have become worthless;
there is no one who shows kindness,
there is not even one.”
13“Their throats are opened graves;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of vipers is under their lips.”
14“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
15“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16ruin and misery are in their paths,
17and the way of peace they have not known.”
18“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20For “no human being will be justified in his sight” by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
HarperCollins Study Bible Page 502
