The Greek of these two verses is elliptical (that is, certain elements in the sentences must be supplied by the reader), but the Good News Translation rendering captures the meaning that is assumed by most translators and commentators. However, there is one clause which is interpreted differently by a number of exegetes: which is the work of God’s Spirit, not of the written Law. In Romans 7.6 and 2 Corinthians 3.6 similar expressions occur, and in both of these passages it is agreed that the reference is to the Holy Spirit. But in the present passage a number of translations take Paul’s expression (literally “in spirit not letter”) to mean “spiritual and not literal” (so Revised Standard Version, Moffatt, An American Translation*). The Jerusalem Bible seems also to go in this direction with its rendering: “something not of the letter but of the spirit.” The New English Bible agrees with the Good News Translation in its interpretation: “directed not by written precepts but by the Spirit.”
The transitional phrase after all introduces a conclusion and may be rendered in some languages as “in conclusion,” “all this means that…,” or “all that has been said adds up to…”
The initial question, who is a real Jew, truly circumcised?, must in many languages be changed into a statement. The equivalent may be “a man who seems to be a real Jew may not be one,” “not everyone is a Jew who appears to be a Jew,” “not all are Jews whom people think are Jews.” Another equivalent may be “being circumcised does not really make a person a Jew” or “if a person is circumcised this does not mean that he is really a Jew.” The second sentence in verse 28 may likewise need to be semantically restructured as “a man is not a Jew just because he has received cutting in his body” or “by being circumcised a man does not necessarily become a Jew.”
The transitional particle rather beginning verse 29 is particularly important and may be emphasized in some languages as “quite the contrary,” “in contrast with this,” or even “but indeed.”
A Jew on the inside may be rendered in some languages as “a Jew in his heart” or “a Jew in his inside being.”
The clause whose heart has been circumcised is particularly difficult to render. One cannot usually speak of “cutting the skin of the heart.” In fact in some languages one must simply drop the semantic association between “heart” and “circumcised.” An equivalent may be “whose heart has been prepared” or “whose heart has been marked as belonging to God.”
The conjunction which, introducing the clause which is the work of God’s Spirit, not of the written Law, refers specifically to the “circumcision of the heart,” but it likewise refers to the total concept of “being a true Jew.” Since this final clause is primarily related to the preceding clause as a causative, it is sometimes necessary to make a separate sentence of this last portion of the first sentence of verse 29—for example, “God’s Spirit is the one which causes this, the written Law does not cause it.” If the pronouns “this” and “it” are not specific enough, it may be possible to say: “God’s Spirit causes a person to be a Jew on the inside; the words of the Law do not cause this.” In some instances an inversion of the order may be appropriate—for example, “on the other hand, the real Jew is the man who is a Jew on the inside—a person who has been made a Jew by God’s Spirit and not by any written Law, since being a real Jew is a matter of the heart and not of the body.” By contrasting “heart” and “body,” one can indicate clearly the significance of “circumcised of heart.”
On the other hand, if, as suggested above, the Greek expression which is literally “in Spirit not letter” is to be taken to mean “spiritually and not literally,” this reference to circumcision can be rendered as “this is not something done to his body but something which happens to his heart” or “this does not mean a cutting of the body but a change in a person’s spirit.”
The phrase receives his praise is a kind of substitute passive, since it is God who is the agent of such praise. An active equivalent may be “it is God who praises such a man; it is not other men who do so.” An alternative form may be “praise for such a man comes from God and not from men.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1973. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .