Paul now speaks of the two ways of seeking salvation, the way of the Law and the way of faith, and illustrates these from Old Testament passages.
About being put right with God by obeying the Law is literally “about the righteousness which is from the Law.” Here again “righteousness” is taken to mean the act of being put right with God, while the phrase “which is from the Law” is best understood in the sense of “which comes from obeying the Law.” It is obvious that Law here refers specifically to the Jewish Law.
This verse has a textual problem, and one solution is reflected in the Good News Translation (cf. Moffatt, New English Bible, Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible), while another solution is reflected in the Revised Standard Version (cf. An American Translation*). The question is whether the words rendered in the Good News Translation as about being put right with God by obeying the Law are to be taken as a part of what Moses wrote, or as an introduction to the words which Moses wrote. If the solution of the Revised Standard Version is followed, then the translation into current English would read: “Moses wrote, Whoever does what the Law commands in order to be put right with God will live by it.” Although the manuscript evidence is fairly well divided, the solution of the Good News Translation is favored, because its manuscript support is early and diversified, and because it is easier to see why the scribes would tend to make changes in one direction rather than in the other.
The pronoun this in the introductory expression this is what Moses wrote about being put right with God by obeying the Law refers to what follows, and in many languages it must be placed immediately before the direct discourse, or else the introductory expression must be rather radically modified—for example, “Moses wrote about how God puts men right with himself because they obey the Law [or “by their obeying the Law”]. He had this to say…” or “When Moses wrote about how people are put right with God by obeying the Law, he said….”
The quotation in this verse comes from Leviticus 18.5, but the words what the Law commands are not explicit in this quotation. However, in light of the first part of this verse, it is important to make this information explicit in a translation (note Jerusalem Bible “when Moses refers to being justified by the Law, he writes: those who keep the Law will draw life from it”).
The direct quotation “Whoever does…” is a general statement and may apply to any and all persons. As such, it may also be considered as a conditional—for example, “If a man does what the Law commands, he will live by it.” However, the reference to the Law in the phrase by it, as an expression of the means by which a person lives, may require considerable modification in languages in which such an expression of means becomes the agent of a verb of cause—for example, “If a man does what the Law commands, the Law will cause him to live.” One must avoid the meaning of “live in conformity to the Law,” which could be the meaning of the English expression live by it.
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 .