Paul’s question, What shall we say, then?, indicates the beginning of a new section in which he once again uses the style of a philosophical argument (see 2.1).

In some languages the equivalent of the two initial questions would be “some people may argue, The Law itself is sinful” or “some people might insist that the Law itself is bad.”

Of course not reflects a typical Pauline formula by which he rejects a statement as being not true; elsewhere in Romans it has been rendered as certainly not and by no means (see 3.4, 6, 31; 6.2, 15; it will also appear in 7.13; 9.14; 11.1, 11). An appropriate rendering in some languages may be “but of course this is not true” or “certainly the Law is not bad.”

Once again throughout this passage Paul uses the term Law primarily in the sense of the Jewish Law, though he would probably intend a wider application and so to include any command that comes from God in any form whatsoever.

Know is used, not in the sense of theoretical knowledge, but to indicate a concrete experience. It will be helpful to expand this statement further. All men are selfish and inwardly rebellious against God. However, sin cannot be brought to light in such a way that it can be seen and measured apart from its rejection of a specific commandment of God. This is what Paul means by “knowing sin”; he rejected God’s command and so became conscious of himself as a sinful being. He uses the specific example of the tenth commandment to illustrate what he means. He would never have known what it is to covet if the Law had not said, “Do not covet.”

The word translated covet means literally “desire” and is sometimes used in the New Testament in a good sense (see Luke 22.15), but generally it is found with evil connotations. Paul is here following a rather typical Jewish viewpoint, which speaks of the three stages of desire, sin, and death (cf. James 1.15). Of course, this concept has its roots in Genesis 3.

Although Paul uses two different tenses for the verb know in this verse (the first an aorist, and the second a pluperfect with the meaning of an imperfect), it is doubtful if any special difference in meaning is to be understood. In fact, the verbs themselves come from different roots, but they are used synonymously here.

The particular significance of know in this context may be expressed in some languages as “really know.” In most languages it is better to use an expression meaning “to experience.” In certain languages, however, the concept of knowing may be expressed as “feeling” or “know by doing.”

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 .