SIL Translator’s Notes on Romans 14:9

14:9a

This verse begins with a Greek conjunction that is often translated as “for.” Here this word introduces the basis for what Paul said in 14:8. Some translations, such as the Berean Standard Bible, leave this word implicit and allow the context to imply the connection.

For this reason Christ died and returned to life:
The Greek is more literally “to/for this Christ died and lived.” The phrase “to/for this” indicates that the purpose of Jesus dying and living again was so that he would be lord of all believers, both those living and those who die. The purpose of Jesus dying and living again was accomplished at that time. Here are other ways to translate this phrase:

Christ died and then lived so that
-or-
Christ died and then lived, and so

14:9b

that He might be the Lord of both the dead and the living: This is a purpose clause. This purpose was fulfilled when Jesus died and God resurrected him. In some languages a result clause must be used to indicate that the purpose was fulfilled. For example:

and so he became Lord both of the dead and of the living

be the Lord: This phrase refers to ruling over someone. Here are other ways to translate this phrase:

establish his lordship over (Revised English Bible)
-or-
rule
-or-
is our Leader

© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

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