Paul’s Letter to the Romans

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, a chosen apostle set apart for God’s gospel 2 which he had previously promised in holy scripture through his prophets, 3 about his Son, who came of David’s stock in the way of flesh 4* and who was betokened God’s son in power in the way of spirit of holiness by resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we received grace and a mission on behalf of his name to bring about obedience of faith among all the nations, 6 among whom are you too, Jesus Christ’s called men,— 7 to all who are at Rome, dear to God, holy men called: grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all because your faith is reported all over the world. 9 For God, to whom I perform service in my spirit in carrying the gospel of his Son, is my witness how I uninterruptedly make mention of you at all times in my prayers, 10* petitioning in the hope that at long last I may by God’s will have a chance to come to you; 11 for I am longing to see you in order that I may pass on to you a share in some spiritual gift with a view to your being fortified— 12 that is, to enjoying mutual encouragement among you through each other’s faith, yours and mine. 13* And I do not want you to be without the knowledge, brothers, that several times I intended to come to you and hitherto was prevented; I wanted to have some fruit in you too, as I had in the rest of the nations. 14 I owe a duty both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise men and to stupid men; 15* thus I on my part am heartily ready to preach the gospel to you at Rome too.

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel; for it is a power of God’s for salvation to everybody who believes, Jew first, Greek too; 17 for a righteousness of God’s is revealed in it, coming out of faith, leading into faith, as it is written “But the righteous man shall have life out of faith.”

18 For God’s anger is revealed from heaven against every impiety and crime of men, who keep the truth down by crime,— 19* because knowledge of God is manifest in them, for God manifested it to them; 20 for since the creation of the world what is invisible of him has been under observation, sensed by what he has made, his eternal power and his divinity, so as to make them inexcusable 21 because when they knew God they did not glorify or thank him as God but ran into fatuity in their conceptions, and their unintelligent heart was darkened. 22 While professing to be wise they grew foolish, 23 and changed the glory of the imperishable God for the likeness of an image of perishable man and of birds and quadrupeds and reptiles. 24* Wherefore God gave them up in their hearts’ desires to the uncleanness of having their bodies dishonored while they wear them, 25 whereas they exchanged God’s truth for falsehood and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the Creator—who is blessed forever; amen! 26* That was why God gave them up to dishonorable passions; for the females of them changed the natural intercourse for the unnatural, 27** and so did the males too, leaving off the natural intercourse with the female, get inflamed with appetite for each other, males committing indecency with males and receiving in themselves the requital that they ought to for their misguided course. 28* And as they did not think well of recognizing God, God gave them up to a mind that cannot be thought well of, to do what ought not to be done, 29 crammed with all injustice, villainy, greed, viciousness, full of envy, murder, quarreling, fraud, malice; whisperers, 30* detractors, God-haters, bullies, proud, pretentious, inventors of vices, disobedient to parents, 31 senseless, faithless, loveless, pitiless— 32* who, aware of God’s verdict that those who commit such things deserve death, not only do the things but even approve of doing them.

2 Wherefore you are inexcusable, man, any man that passes judgment; for in the judgment you pass on the other man you are condemning yourself, for you who pass it are committing the same things. 2 And we know that God’s judgment is truthfully against those who commit such things. 3 And do you count on this, man passing judgment on those who commit such things and doing them, that you will escape God’s judgment? 4 or do you despise his wealth of kindness and tolerance and patience, ignorant of the fact that God’s kindness is leading you toward repentance, 5* but with your stiffness and unrepenting heart store up for yourself anger on the day of God’s anger and revelation of just judgment? 6 who will repay each man according to his deeds: 7 those who seek for glory and honor and immortality by way of steadfastness in good work, with eternal life; 8 but those who act by self-interest and disobey the truth, but obey wrong, with anger and wrath; 9 distress and anguish upon every soul of evil-doing man, Jew first and Greek too, 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does what is good, Jew first and Greek too, 11 for there is no favoritism with God. 12 For as many as sinned without law will perish without law, and as many as sinned under the law will be judged by the law; 13 for it is not the audience of the law that are righteous with God, but it is the doers of the law that are justified. 14* For when heathens who do not have the law do by nature what the law commands, these, not having the law, are a law for themselves, 15* displaying as they do the work of the law in writing on their hearts, their own consciences joining in the testimony and their mutual thoughts bringing accusations or, as the case may be, defenses, 16 on the day in which God is going to judge what is covered up in men, in accordance with my gospel, through Christ Jesus.

17 But if you wear the name of Jew, and rest on the law, and boast of God, 18** and know his will and are a judge of the things he cares about, being schooled out of the law, 19 and feel assured that you are a guide for blind men, a light for those who are in the dark, 20 a preceptor for silly men, a teacher for infants, having in the law the formulation of knowledge and truth,— 21 then do you who are teaching somebody else not teach yourself? do you who preach not to steal steal? 22 do you who tell them not to commit adultery commit adultery? do you who abominate idols rob temples? 23 do you who boast of the law dishonor God by violation of the law? 24 for God’s name gets vilified among the nations because of you, as is written.

25 For circumcision is worth while if you live up to the law; but if you are a violator of the law your circumcision is turned to uncircumcision. 26 So if uncircumcision keeps the prescriptions of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision, 27 and natural uncircumcision, fulfilling the law, pass judgment on you who with letter and circumcision are a violator of the law? 28 For it is not the one who is visibly such that is a Jew, nor is it the visible, in the flesh, that is circumcision, 29* but the Jew who is such in what is out of sight, and heart-circumcision in spirit, not in a literal sense; of which the praise comes not from men but from God.

3 Then what is the Jew’s special privilege, or what is the good of circumcision? 2 Much every way. For, in the first place, that they had God’s revelation entrusted to them— 3 for what if some were faithless? is their faithlessness to abrogate God’s faith? 4 away with the thought, but let God prove true, and every man a liar! as it is written, “so that thou mayest be found to have been in the right in thy words, and mayest win when thou comest into court.”

5 But if our wrongness brings out God’s righteousness, what, shall we say? is God doing a wrong when he comes down with anger?—I speak from a human point of view. 6 Away with the thought, for how is God to judge the world? 7 But if by my lie God’s truth came out the more abundant to his glory, why am even I any longer judged as a sinner, 8* and not as the gibe against us goes, and as some do assert that we say, “Let us do the bad things so that we may have the good consequences,”—on whom judgment is well-deserved.

9* What follows then? are we outranked? no, decidedly. For we previously indicted both Jews and Greeks as being all under sin, 10 as it is written “There is not one single right-doer, 11 none that understands, none that seeks God; 12 all have gone wrong, together they are good for nothing; there is none that is acting humanely, not even one”; 13* “their throat is an open grave, they have used their tongues insidiously,” “there is cobras’ venom under their lips,” 14 “whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness,” 15 “their feet are swift to shed blood, 16 havoc and wretchedness are along their roads, 17 and they have not known the road to peace,” 18 “there is no fear of God before their eyes.” 19* And we know that in anything that the law says it is speaking to those who are within the law’s jurisdiction, in order that every mouth may be stopped and all the world become liable to judgment by God, 20 because out of deeds under the law no mortal will be justified before him. For through the law comes recognition of sin.

21 But now apart from the law a righteousness of God’s has been disclosed, attested by the law and the prophets, 22* but a righteousness of God’s through faith in Jesus Christ to reach all who believe; for there is no distinction, 23 for all have sinned and come short of God’s glory, 24 getting their justification gratuitously by his grace through the redemption by Christ Jesus, 25* whom God put forward to be propitiatory through faith by his blood for a display of his righteousness, because of the way in which under God’s forbearance previous sins had been let pass; 26 with a view to the displaying of his righteousness at the present time, so that he should be righteous and be justifying the one who lives by faith in Jesus.

27 So what becomes of boasting? it is shut off. By what law? of deeds? no, but by the law of faith, 28 for we count that a man is justified by faith apart from deeds under the law. 29* Or is God the God of the Jews only? is he not of the nations too? Yes, of the nations too, 30 if it be true that God is one, who will justify circumcised men on the basis of faith and uncircumcised by means of faith. 31 Are we superseding the law by faith, then? away with the thought, we are making good the law.

4* Then what shall we say that Abraham, our forefather in the way of flesh, had found? 2* For if Abraham was justified as the outcome of deeds, he does have something to boast of. But not to God, 3 for what does the text say? “And Abraham believed God, and it was counted righteousness for him.” 4 But one who works does not have the pay counted to him in the way of grace but of debt; 5 but one who does not work but puts faith in him who justifies an impious man has his faith counted for righteousness, 6 in the same way as David tells of the happy state of the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 7 “Happy they whose wickednesses are forgiven and whose sins are covered up; 8 happy a man for whom the Lord does not count sin.” 9 Is this happy state, then, pronounced upon circumcision, or upon uncircumcision too? for we are saying “Faith was counted righteousness for Abraham.” 10 How was it counted then, when he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision but in uncircumcision; 11 and he got the token of circumcision as a seal of his righteousness of faith in uncircumcision, so that he should be father of all who believe while uncircumcised so that righteousness should be counted to them, 12 and father of circumcision for those who are not of circumcision only but who also walk in the tracks of the faith our father Abraham had during uncircumcision. 13 For it is not through the law that there is the promise to Abraham or to his descendants, that he is to be heir of the world, but through righteousness of faith. 14 For if those who are on the basis of law are heirs, faith is nullified and the promise is superseded; 15 for the law evolves anger, and where there is not law there is not violation either. 16 Hence, on the basis of faith in order to be in the way of grace, so that the promise may be securely settled to all the descendants, not only the line which is based on the law but also that which is based on Abraham’s faith, his who is father of all of us 17 (as it is written “I have made you father of many nations”) before the God whom he believed, him who brings the dead to life and calls what does not exist as though it did; 18* his who in a hopeless case had the hopefulness to believe, so as to become father of many nations in accordance with what it says, “Such shall your descendants be,” 19* and did not weaken in faith as he observed his own body gone dead, he being a hundred years or so old, and the deadening of Sarah’s womb; 20 but he did not unbelievingly doubt at God’s promise, but had his faith invigorated, giving glory to God 21* and feeling convinced that what he has promised he is able to go on and do; 22 which is why it was counted for righteousness to him. 23 And it was not written on his account only that it was counted to him, 24 but on ours too, to whom it is going to be counted, us who believe on the one that raised from the dead our Lord Jesus, 25 who was handed over to death on account of our offenses and was raised on account of our justification.

5** So, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2* by whose agency we have also had the introduction into this grace in which we stand, and boast of the hope of God’s glory. 3* And not only this, but we also boast of our distresses, knowing that distress develops endurance; 4 and endurance, positive experience; and positive experience, hope; 5* and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit that was given to us. 6* For while we still were weak Christ died for impious men in time of need. 7 For one will scarcely die for a saint—for a good man maybe someone does even venture to die— 8 but God vouches for his own love to us in that while we were still sinful Christ died for us; much more, 9* then, now that we have been justified by his blood we shall be saved from God’s anger through him. 10 For if when enemies we were reconciled to God by his Son’s death, much more when reconciled shall we be saved in his life; 11 and not only saved but also boasting of God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we did now receive the reconciliation.

12 For this reason, just as it was through one man that sin came into the world, and, through sin, death, and thus death went on to all men inasmuch as all sinned— 13 for until the law there was sin in the world, but sin is not charged in the account when there is no law, 14 yet death reigned from Adam to Moses even over those who had not sinned in a way parallel to the violation by Adam, who is a type of the one that was to be. 15 But the act of grace is not just as the offense was. For if by the one man’s offense the many died, much more did God’s grace and the gift in grace, the grace of the one man Jesus Christ, come amply to the many. 16** And what is given is not as in the case of the one’s sinning; for the judgment followed from one to condemnation, but the act of grace from many offenses to justification. 17 For if by the one’s offense death reigned through the one, much more shall those who receive the amplitude of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. 18** So then as through one offense the consequence followed to all men to condemnation, so too through one deed of right it follows to all men to justification into life; 19 for as the many were rendered sinful through the one man’s failure to obey, so too the many will be rendered righteous through the one’s obedience. 20 And the law stepped in to play its part so that there should be plenty of the offense; but where there was plenty of sin there was superabundance of grace, 21 in order that as sin did reign in death, so too grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ.

6 What shall we therefore say? “let us keep on with sin so that there may be plenty of grace”? 2 away with the thought! We who died to sin, how are we to live in it still? 3 Or are you unaware that we, whoever were baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death? 4 so we were buried together with him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the Father’s glory, so we too should walk on the new footing of life. 5 For if we have come to be twinned with the likeness of his death, yet so shall we of his resurrection; 6 knowing this, that the old man of us was crucified with him in order that sin’s body might be discontinued so that we should no longer belong to sin; 7 for he who has died is acquitted of sin. 8 And if we died with Christ we believe that we shall also live with him, 9 knowing that Christ risen from the dead does not die anymore; death no longer has jurisdiction over him; 10 because his dying he did to sin, once for all, but his living he is doing to God. 11 So you too: count it that you are dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12 So let sin not reign in your mortal body to have you obey its desires, 13** and do not present your organs to be sin’s instruments for wrong-doing, but present yourselves to God like men alive from the dead and your organs to be God’s instruments for right-doing. 14 For sin is not to have jurisdiction over you; for you are not under the law but under grace.

15 What then? are we to sin because we are not under the law but under grace? away with the thought! 16* Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves as his for obedience, his you are, his whom you obey? either sin’s, for death, or obedience’s, for righteousness. 17* But thanks be to God that you were slaves to sin but obeyed with goodwill the pattern of teaching under which you were put, 18 and, set free from sin, were enslaved to righteousness— 19** I use human language in view of the weakness of your flesh; for, as you did present your organs in servitude to uncleanness and wickedness for wickedness, so now present your organs in servitude to righteousness for sanctification. 20 For when you were in servitude to sin you were free as regards righteousness; 21 so what fruit did you have then? things you are now ashamed of. For the end of those things is death; 22 but now, set free from sin but enslaved to God, you have your fruit for sanctification, and the end eternal life. 23 For sin’s pay is death, but God’s gracious gift is eternal life in our Lord Christ Jesus.

7 Or are you unaware, brothers (for I am speaking to men who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over man so long as he is alive? 2 For the wedded woman is bound to the living husband by the law; but if the husband dies she is disengaged from the husband’s law. 3 So while the husband is alive she will be called an adulteress if another man gets her; but if the husband dies she is free from the law so as not to be an adulteress when another man does get her. 4 Hence, my brothers, you too were brought into death to the law through the Christ’s body so that another might get you, he who rose from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5* For when we were in the flesh the susceptibilities to sin that come by the law were at work in our organism so that we should bear fruit for death, 6* but now we have been disengaged, having died, from the law in which we were held under, so that we serve in the new relation of spirit and not in the old relation of letter.

7 What shall we therefore say? “the law is sin”? away with the thought! but I should not have known sin except through the law. For I should not know about coveting if the law did not say “You shall not covet.” 8* But sin, getting a start by the commandment, produced in me a coveting of everything. For without the law sin is dead; 9 and I was alive without the law once. But when the commandment came sin came to life, and I died; 10 and for me the commandment, the very thing that led to life, was found to lead to death, 11 since sin, getting a start by the commandment, tricked me, and killed me through it.

12 Consequently: the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.— 13 Then did the good become death for me? away with the thought, but sin did, in order that it might appear as sin, producing death for me through the good, in order that sin might come out supremely sinful through the commandment.

14 For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of flesh, sold under sin. 15* For I do not know the product I am working out. For it is not just what I have a will for that I am busy at, it is just what I hate that I am doing; 16* but if I am doing just what I have no will for, I agree that the law is fine. 17* And now it is no longer I that work out what ensues, but my inmate sin. 18 For I know that there does not reside in me, that is, in my flesh, anything good; for to will is within my reach, but to work out what would be a fine thing is not, 19 for I do not do the good thing which I will, but it is just the bad thing which I do not will that I am busy at. 20 But if it is just what I do not will that I do, it is no longer I that work out what ensues, but sin residing in me. 21 I find the law, then, for me who have the will to do the fine thing, that the bad is what is laid out for me. 22 For I am in sympathy with the law of God as to my inward man, 23* but I see another law in my organism waging war with the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin that is in my organism. 24* Wretched man I! who will deliver me out of the body that carries this death? 25* thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ!—So then I myself belong in mind to the service of God’s law, but in flesh to that of sin’s law.

8 Then there is no condemnation now for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2* for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has given freedom from the law of sin and of death. 3 For, what was impossible to the law in that it was weak by the flesh, God, sending his own son in the likeness of sinning flesh and on account of sin, condemned sin in the flesh 4 in order that the prescription of the law might be fully realized in us who walk along the line not of flesh but of spirit. 5 For those who are along the line of flesh are of the flesh’s mind, but those who are along the line of spirit are of the Spirit’s. 6 For the flesh’s mind is death, but the Spirit’s mind is life and peace. 7 For the flesh’s mind is enmity to God, for it does not submit itself to God’s law, it even cannot; 8 and those who are in flesh cannot please God. 9 But you are not in flesh but in spirit, if God’s Spirit does reside in you; but if anybody does not have Christ’s Spirit, that man is not his. 10* But if Christ is in you, the body is dead on account of sin, but the spirit is life on account of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead resides in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will bring to life your mortal bodies too through his Spirit your inmate.

12 So then, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh to live along the line of flesh, 13 for if you live along the line of flesh you are going to die; but if by spirit you bring the body’s practices to their death you will live. 14 For as many as are led by God’s Spirit, these are sons of God. 15* For you did not receive a spirit of slavery, back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, in which we cry Abba, “Father.” 16 The Spirit itself joins with our spirit in testifying that we are children of God— 17 and if children, heirs too: heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ, if we are indeed his co-sufferers in order that we may share also his glory.

18* For I figure that the sufferings of the present are not worth counting in comparison with the glory that is going to be revealed for us. 19* For the expectancy of all creation is awaiting the revelation of the sons of God. 20** For the creation became subject to futility not of its own free will, but for the purposes of him who created it, with the hope 21 that creation itself is to be set free out of slavery to decay, into the liberty of the glory of God’s children. 22* For we know that all creation together is in groans and pangs up to now; 23 and not only this, but we ourselves too, having as we do the firstfruits of the Spirit, are groaning in ourselves as we await adoption, the redemption of our body. 24 For we were saved by hope; but a seen hope is not a hope (for who hopes for what he sees?), 25* but if we are hoping for what we do not see we await it steadily. 26 And in the same way the Spirit too takes hold to help our weakness; for we do not know what prayers to make as we need to, but the Spirit itself intercedes by groans which cannot be put into words. 27 And he who searches the hearts knows what is the Spirit’s mind, that he is interceding in God’s way for God’s people. 28 And we know that to those who love God, God gives all cooperation for good, to those who, as suited his purpose, are called— 29 because those whom he foreknew he did also foreordain to be shaped into the image of his Son so that he should be firstborn among many brothers; 30 and those whom he foreordained, these he also called; and those whom he called, these he also justified; and those whom he justified, these he also glorified.

31 So what shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32* He who did not stop short of his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how should he do otherwise than bestow everything on us with him? 33 Who will bring charges against God’s chosen? it is God that justifies, 34* who is it that condemns? It was Christ that died, or rather rose, he who is at God’s right hand, he who is even interceding for us; 35 who will separate us from Christ’s love? will distress or anguish or persecution or hunger or nakedness or danger or the sword, 36 as it is written “On your account we are being done to death all day, we were rated like sheep for slaughtering”? 37 but in all these things we are overwhelmingly victorious through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor governments nor present conditions nor future nor powers 39 nor height nor depth nor any other creature will be able to separate us from God’s love in our Lord Christ Jesus.

9 I am speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying, as in Holy Spirit my conscience bears me out in attesting, 2 that I have a great grief and my heart an unceasing ache. 3 For I could pray that I might myself be for God’s doom cutting me off from Christ in favor of my brothers, my kinsfolk in the way of flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom belong the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the gift of the law and the divine service and the promises; 5*** whose are the fathers, and from whom in the way of flesh comes the Christ, he who is over everything, God blessed forever—Amen!

6 But it is not any such thing as that God’s word has fallen through. For it is not just everybody who comes from Israel that are Israel. 7 Neither because they are Abraham’s issue are all of them children, but “it will be by Isaac that issue shall be called yours”; 8 that is, it is not just the children of the flesh that are children of God’s, but the children of the promise are counted as issue; 9 for this word, “at this date I will come and Sarah shall have a son,” is one of promise. 10 And not only this, but Rebecca too, having impregnation by one man, our father Isaac,— 11 for when they were not yet born nor had done any good or evil act, in order that God’s purpose in the way of choice might remain in force not on the basis of deeds but on the basis of him who gave the call, 12 she was told “the senior shall be enslaved to the junior,” 13 as it is written “I loved Jacob, but Esau I hated.”

14 What shall we therefore say? is there injustice with God? away with the thought! 15 For he says to Moses “I will take pity on whom I do take pity on, and have compassion for whom I do have compassion for.” 16 So then it belongs not to the one who has the will nor to the one who does the running, but to God who takes pity. 17 For the text says to the Pharaoh “I raised you up for this sake, for the sake of showing my power on you, and of having my fame told of throughout the earth.” 18 So then he takes pity on whom he will, but whom he will he hardens.

19* So you will say to me “Why does he go on finding fault? for who stands up against his wish?” 20 Rather, man, who are you that answer back to God? is the product to say to the manufacturer “Why did you make me like this?” 21 Or does the potter not have a right to manage the clay, to make out of the same mass part into a vessel destined for honor and part into one for ignominy? 22 And if God, having a will to show his anger and make known what he could do, endured with great patience vessels for anger, adapted to go to destruction; 23 and, in order to make known the richness of his glory upon vessels for mercy which he had prepared for glory, 24 us whom he also called not only out of the Jews but out of the nations too— 25* the same as he says to Hosea “I will call him who was not my people my people, and her who was not loved loved, 26 and in the place where they were told ‘you are not my people,’ there they shall be called sons of the living God.” 27 And Isaiah cries out about Israel “If the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved, 28 for the Lord will put a word in effect sweepingly and summarily on earth.” 29* And, as Isaiah had said before, “if the Lord of Sabaoth had not left us seed we should have come to be like Sodom and a parallel to Gomorrah.”

30 So what shall we say? That foreign nations, those that did not go in for righteousness, arrived at righteousness, but the righteousness that comes of faith; 31 but Israel, going in for the law of righteousness, did not attain to the law. 32* Why? because they were not trying on the basis of faith, but as if on that of deeds; they struck on the “stone to strike against,” 33 as it is written “Here I am laying in Sion a stone to strike against and a rock to stumble over; and he who believes in him will not be put to shame.”

10* Brothers, my heart’s goodwill and entreaty to God is in their favor for their salvation. 2 For I testify that they have zeal for God, but not with insight; 3* for, not knowing about God’s righteousness and trying to make good their own, they did not let themselves depend on God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every believer. 5 For Moses writes of righteousness on the basis of law “the man who does the things will have life” by it; 6 but righteousness on the basis of faith says thus: “Do not say to yourself ‘Who will go up to the sky?’” (that is, to bring Christ down;) 7 “or ‘Who will go down into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”; that is, the word of faith which we are proclaiming; 9 because if by your mouth you acknowledge Jesus to be Lord, and in your heart you believe that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with a heart believing is done leading to righteousness, and it is with a mouth acknowledgment is made leading to salvation. 11 For the text says “Anyone who believes in him will not be put to shame”; 12* for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same one is Lord of all, rich toward all who call on him; 13 for “everyone who shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

14 How are they then to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without a proclaimer? 15 And how are they to proclaim unless they are sent? as it is written “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the news of good!”

16 But they did not all listen to the good news; for Isaiah says “Lord, who believed what they heard from us?” 17* Then believing comes out of hearing; and hearing, through Christ’s word. 18 But I say, did they not hear? why, “the noise of them went out into all the earth and their words to the ends of the world.” 19 But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says “I will challenge your jealousy with what is not a people, provoke you with an insensate nation.” 20 And Isaiah comes out boldly and says “I was found by those who were not looking for me, I showed myself to those who were not inquiring of me.” 21 But as to Israel he says “all day I have spread out my hands to a disobedient and dissident people.”

11 So I am saying, Did God reject his people? Away with the thought! for I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God did not reject his people whom he foreknew. Or do you not know in the story of Elijah what the text says, when he is expostulating with God against Israel 3 “Lord, they killed thy prophets, they demolished thy altars, and I was the only one left, and they are after my life”— 4 but what does the divine voice say to him? “I left myself seven thousand men who did not bend a knee to the Baal.” 5* Thus then at the present time too there are leavings in accordance with the choice made by grace. 6* But if it is by grace it is no longer on the basis of deeds, else grace would no longer be grace.

7* What then? The very thing that Israel is hunting after, this thing it did not win: the chosen ones did win it, but the rest turned callous, 8 as it is written “God gave them a spirit of trance, eyes not to see and ears not to hear, up to this day”; 9 and David says “Let their table become a trap and toils and the bait on a trigger and retribution to them, 10 let their eyes be darkened out of seeing, and break down their back all the time.”

11 So I am saying, Did they stumble in order that they might fall? Away with the thought; but by their falling into offense the foreign nations get salvation to stir their jealousy. 12 But if their falling into offense is wealth to the world and their failure is wealth to the nations, how much more their full coming in! 13 But to you foreigners I say, Then so far as I am an apostle to foreigners I make much of my office 14* in the hope that I may stir the jealousy of my kindred and save some of them. 15* For if throwing them overboard means reconciliation for the world, what will taking them in be but life from the dead? 16 And if the piece taken out first is sacred, so is the batch; and if the root is sacred, so are the branches. 17* And if some of the branches were broken out, and you, being a piece of wild olive, were grafted in among them and came to share with them the root of the olive-tree’s fatness, 18 do not flout the branches; if you do, it is not you that are carrying the root but the root that is carrying you. 19* Then will you say “Branches were broken out to have me grafted in”? 20 All right: they were broken out by unbelief, and you stand by faith; do not get lofty ideas, but have fears, 21 for if God did not spare the natural branches neither will he spare you. 22* See, then, a kindness and a rigorousness of God’s: toward those who fell rigorousness, but toward you God’s kindness if you keep in touch with the kindness—else you too will be cut out. 23 And they, if they do not stick to unbelief, will be grafted in; for God is able to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut out of the natural wild tree and grafted unnaturally into a quality tree, how much more shall these, the natural ones, be grafted on their own tree!

25* For I do not want you to be without the knowledge of this secret, brothers, in order that you may not feel sagacious, that there has come to Israel a partial callousing until the fullness of the nations gets in, 26 and thus all Israel will be saved, as it is written “He will come out of Sion who shall execute deliverance; he will turn away crimes from Jacob; 27 and this is the covenant from me for them, when I remove their sins.” 28 As to the gospel they are enemies on your account, but as to the choice they are dear on account of the fathers; 29 for God’s gracious gifts and his call are not liable to a change of mind. 30 For as you were formerly disobedient to God but now have come to receive mercy by the disobedience of these, 31 so it was that these too were disobedient now in order that by the mercy to you they too may receive mercy. 32 For God locked everybody up into disobedience in order that he may have mercy on everybody.

33** O the vastness of God’s wealth in both wisdom and knowledge! how unsearchable are his judgments and how untraceable his courses! 34 “For who has known the Lord’s mind? or who has been adviser to him?” 35 “or who has advanced any sum to him and is to have it paid back?” 36** because out of him and through him and into him comes everything. To him be glory forever; amen.

12 So, brothers, I urge you by God’s compassion to present your bodies a holy living sacrifice acceptable to God, your rational form of worship; 2* and do not shape yourselves to fit in with these times, but be transformed by reconstitution of your mind so that you may be judges of what is God’s good and acceptable and perfect will.

3* For through the grace given to me let me tell each man among you not to be more lofty-minded than is right, but to mind that he keeps in his right mind, each as God has allotted him a measure of faith. 4 For as we have many organs in one body, but the organs do not all have the same function, 5 so we who are so many are one body in Christ, and individually organs of each other, 6 but having different gifts according to the grace given to us— 7* be it prophecy in proportion to faith, be it servitorship in serving, be it the teacher in teaching, 8* be it the exhorter in exhortation; the giver of his goods in largeheartedness, the manager of affairs in devotion to duty, the comforter of misfortunes in cheeriness; 9 love with no sham about it; detesting what is wicked, sticking tight to what is good; 10 in brotherliness mutually affectionate, in honor showing mutual deference, 11* in earnestness not slack, enthusiastic in spirit, conscious of being bound to the Lord’s service, 12 blithe in hope, steadfast in distress, devoted to prayer, 13 showing solidarity with the needs of God’s people, forward in hospitality. 14 Bless your persecutors: bless and do not curse. 15 Gladness with men who are being glad, weeping with weepers. 16 Interested along the same line, for each other; not occupied with thoughts of high things, but drawn into the interests of lowly people; do not feel as if you were great thinkers. 17 Not paying anybody back a bad turn for a bad, keeping in mind what is going to be good before all men; 18 if possible, as far as depends on you, keeping at peace with all men; 19* not taking your own revenges, dear ones, but leave room for God’s anger; for it is written “Mine is vengeance, I will requite, says the Lord.” 20 But “if your enemy is hungry feed him, if he is thirsty give him a drink, for in doing this you will be piling live coals on his head.” 21 Do not be beaten by the bad, but beat the bad with the good.

13 Let every soul be submissive to superior authorities; for there is no authority except by God, and those that there are are given their positions by God, 2 so that he who sets himself against authority is opposing God’s institution; and those who oppose it will have judgment passed on them. 3* For rulers are not a terror to the good deed but to the bad; and you want not to be afraid of the authority? do the good, and you will have praise from it, 4 for it is to you an agent of God’s for the good. But if you do the bad, do be afraid, for it is not for nothing he wears his sword; for he is an avenging agent of God’s for anger to him who commits the bad deed; 5* for which reason it is necessary to be submissive not only on account of his anger but also on account of your conscience. 6 For this is why you pay taxes too; for they are servitors of God’s steadily at work for that very purpose. 7 Pay everybody what is due him: for whom it is the tax, the tax; for whom the tariff, the tariff; for whom fear, fear; for whom honor, honor. 8 Do not owe anybody anything, except to love each other; for he who loves the other has fulfilled the law. 9 For “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this sentence, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does not do anything bad to a neighbor; so love is fulfillment of the law.

11 And this knowing the crisis, that it is already time you woke up out of sleep, for salvation is nearer us now than when we first believed. 12 It is far on in the night, and day is almost here; so let us throw off the activities of darkness and put on the armor of light; 13 let us behave respectably, as in daylight, not with wild parties and getting drunk, not with sexualism and indecency, not with quarreling and jealousy; 14* but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and do not make arrangements for the flesh for gratifications.

14 And take in the one who is sickly in faith, not for decisions on problems: 2 one man has the faith to eat everything, but the sickly one eats vegetables— 3 let the eater not scorn the non-eater nor the non-eater pass judgment on the eater, for God has taken him in. 4 Who are you that are passing judgment on somebody else’s servant? it is to his own master he stands or falls. And he will be kept standing, for God is powerful to keep him standing. 5** The one rates day above day, the other rates every day—let each have his own conviction. 6 He who recognizes the day is recognizing it for the Lord; and he who eats is eating for the Lord, for he thanks God; and he who does not eat does his not eating for the Lord, and thanks God. 7 For no one of us lives for himself and no one dies for himself; 8 for if we live we live for the Lord and if we die we die for the Lord. So, live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 For it was for this that Christ died and came to life, that he might be lord over both dead and living. 10 But why do you pass judgment on your brother? or you, why do you scorn your brother? for we shall all be brought up before God’s bench. 11 For it is written “As I live, says the Lord, to me every knee shall bend and every tongue shall make acknowledgment to God”; 12*** each of us, then, will give account for himself.

13* So let us no longer pass judgment on each other; but do come to this decision rather, not to set anything to trip one’s brother up. 14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unholy of itself, only that for the one who thinks something unholy, for him it is unholy. 15 For if because of an article of food your brother is pained, you are no longer going in the way of love. 16 Do not by your food bring him to destruction, one for whom Christ died. So do not have your good point made a butt for vilification. 17 For the Reign of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit; 18 for he who lives in this servitude to the Christ is acceptable to God and estimable to men. 19* So then we will aim at what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding; 20 do not tear God’s work down on account of an article of food. Everything is clean, but it is a bad thing for the man who runs himself against a snag by his eating. 21** It is a good thing not to eat meat nor drink wine nor one thing that your brother snags himself on. 22 Have faith yourself, such as you have, on your own account before God; happy he who does not pass judgment on himself in regard to what he holds to be right. 23 But he who is in suspense, if he eats, is under condemnation because it is not on the basis of faith, but everything that is not on the basis of faith is a sin.

15 And we powerful ones ought to carry the weakenings of the feeble and not to please ourselves; 2 let each of us please his neighbor in what is good toward upbuilding. 3 For neither did the Christ please himself, but, as it is written, “the insults of those who were insulting you fell on me.” 4 For whatever was written before was written for our instruction in order that through the steadfastness and encouragement in the scriptures we may have hope.

5 And may the God of steadfastness and of encouragement grant you to take the same views among yourselves in Christ Jesus’s way, 6 so that you may with one accord, with a single mind, glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

7* Wherefore take each other in in the same way as the Christ took you in, to the glory of God. 8*** For I tell you that Christ was made a serving-man to circumcised men on account of God’s truth so as to assure the promises made to the fathers, 9 and so that the nations should glorify God on account of mercy, as it is written “Because of this I will make acknowledgments to thee among the nations and sing psalms to thy name”; 10 and again it says “Jubilate, nations, with his people”; 11 and again “Praise the Lord, all nations, and let all the peoples laud him”; 12 and again Isaiah says “There shall be Jesse’s root and he who is set up to rule the nations; upon him the nations shall set their hopes.” 13 And may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you may be plentiful in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

14 And I am persuaded as to you myself, brothers, that you too are replete with goodness, filled with all knowledge, able to admonish each other yourselves. 15 But I have written to you, somewhat audaciously in parts, by way of reminding you, because of the grace that was given me from God 16 that I should be a chaplain of Christ Jesus’s to the nations, administering the sacramental service of God’s gospel in order that the nations’ offering should become acceptable, hallowed in Holy Spirit. 17* So I have my boasting in Christ Jesus as to God’s affairs; 18 for I will not venture to make any talk of what Christ did not accomplish through me toward the obedience of the nations, by word and act, 19** in the power of tokens and wonders, in the power of the Spirit, so that from Jerusalem clear round to Illyricum I have thoroughly spread the Christ’s gospel, 20 and making it my ambition to preach it in this way, not where Christ had been named, in order not to build on somebody else’s foundation, 21 but, as it is written, “they shall see who had not been told of him, and they shall realize who have not heard.”

22 Which is why I have generally been blocked from coming to you. 23 But now, no longer having any place in these territories, and having for several years past had a longing to come to you 24* when I am on my way to Spain—for I hope to take a look at you as I pass through and to be given a send-off on my way there by you, if I have first had my craving for you partly satisfied— 25 now I am taking a trip to Jerusalem on an errand of service to God’s people. 26 For Macedonia and Achaea have been pleased to do a certain act of solidarity toward the poor among God’s people at Jerusalem— 27** have been pleased to do it and owed it as a debt; for if the nations came to partake of their spiritual goods they ought also to do them service with material goods. 28 So when I have got through with this and set the seal on this fruit for them I will go to Spain by way of you; 29 and I know that when I come to you I shall come in the fullness of Christ’s blessing.

30** And I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in wrestling in prayer to God for me 31 that I may be delivered from the disobedient in Jerusalem and my errand of service to Jerusalem may turn out acceptable to God’s people, 32* in order that I may come to you with gladness by God’s will. 33 And the God of peace be with you all; amen.

16** And I commend to you our sister Phebe, who is withal a deaconess of the church at Cenchreae, 2* that you receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of God’s people and assist her in whatever affair she wants anything of you in; for she herself has proved a friend in need to many, including me.

6 Give my greetings to Mary, who did a great deal of hard work for you.

7 Give my greetings to my kinsmen and fellow-prisoners Andronicus and Junias, who are prominent among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.

8 Give my greetings to Ampliatus, my dear friend in the Lord.

9 Give my greetings to Urbanus, my co-worker in Christ, and my dear friend Stachys.

10* Give my greetings to Apelles, the tried and true in Christ.

Give my greetings to those who are among Aristobulus’s people.

11 Give my greetings to my kinsman Herodion.

Give my greetings to those of Narcissus’s people who are in the Lord.

12 Give my greetings to Tryphena and Tryphosa, who are working hard in the Lord.

13* Give my greetings to Rufus the chosen in the Lord, and to his mother, who was a mother to me too.

14 Give my greetings to Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them.

15 Give my greetings to Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all God’s people who are with them.

24* —— 25* And to him who can fortify you in accordance with my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, in conformity with the revelation of the secret that had been kept in silence through eternal times 26 but has now been disclosed and through prophetic Scripture, by order of the eternal God, made known throughout the nations for obedience to the faith; 27* to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ,—to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

MARGINAL NOTES TO ROMANS