This verse reinforces the argument that Paul has just presented and at the same time serves as a transition to his further arguments. The verse is literally “so then faith from hearing, but hearing through the word of Christ.” The Greek is clear without a verb, but for the English reader it is necessary to supply a verb (Good News Translation comes), as practically all translations do. Moreover, the Good News Translation makes the object of hearing explicit: the message (An American Translation* “what is told”).

Since the phrase from hearing the message indicates the means which leads to the result of having faith, this relation may be expressed in some languages as “by hearing the message, people come to have faith.” In other languages means may be expressed in the same way as cause—for example, “because they hear the message, they come to have faith.” In certain languages, however, the relation may be left implicit and expressed best by two events in normal sequence—for example, “so they first hear the message and then they believe.”

In the second clause “the hearing” is again taken in the sense of “the hearing of the message,” but here it is translated the message.

Finally, the phrase “word of Christ” means either “preaching about Christ” or “the message about Christ.” The Good News Translation takes it in the sense of “preaching about Christ” and so translates through preaching Christ (An American Translation* “through the message about Christ”). The New English Bible employs essentially the same exegesis as the Good News Bible, though the form of expression is quite different: “we conclude that faith is awakened by the message, and the message that awakens it comes through the word of Christ.”

As in the first part of verse 17, the second part also expresses the relation of means and result, that is to say, preaching Christ is the means by which the message comes. This relation may be indicated in some languages as “by someone’s preaching about Christ the people hear the message” or “someone preaches about Christ and the people hear the message.”

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 .