The commandments (Revised Standard Version, New English Bible, Jerusalem Bible, An American Translation*) is literally “for the” (King James Version “for this”). This may seem a strange way to begin a sentence, but in Greek this is a normal use of the neuter article “the”; the article may be used in a summary way to refer to a series that follows. In the present passage the series is a list of commandments; in the Good News Translation this information is made explicit for the English reader. The commandments quoted come from Exodus 20.13-15, 17, and the parallels in Deuteronomy 5.17-19, 21.

All these, and any others besides may simply be rendered as “all these commands and all the other commands” or “all commands, whether these or others.”

Are summed up in the one command may be rendered as “are equal to just one command,” “are no more than just one command,” or “mean just one command.”

Love your fellow-man as yourself is a quotation from Leviticus 19.18. The importance of the one command to love is observed by the fact that it is quoted in the New Testament in several places: Matthew 5.43; 19.19; 22.39; Mark 12.31; Luke 10.27; Galatians 5.14; James 2.8. The fact that this command, love your fellow-man as yourself, is in the singular may be quite confusing in some languages. In fact, readers may respond by asking “Which fellow-man?” or “Which neighbor?” It is necessary, therefore, in order to make the statement generally applicable, to employ a plural: “you should love all other people just as you love yourselves” or, in some languages, “each one of you should love his neighbors as he loves himself.” In every instance it is any and all fellow human beings, not merely a single neighbor, who must be loved.

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 .