SIL Translator’s Notes on Romans 14:14

14:14a

I am convinced and fully persuaded: The word I is not repeated in English for a natural translation. In some languages the word must be repeated for a natural translation. For example:

I know and I believe in my heart

convinced: The Greek word refers to understanding something.

fully persuaded: The Greek word here refers to being certain something is true. It implies that the person is certain based on his own thinking about it. Paul thought about what believers should call unclean and became convinced that they should not call anything unclean. Here are other ways to translate this phrase:

am convinced (New American Standard Bible)
-or-
am certain

in the Lord Jesus: Here the word in indicates that Paul’s knowledge and certainty are connected to the Lord Jesus. In particular, that knowledge and certainty came from his relationship to Jesus.

14:14b

nothing is unclean in itself: Here the word nothing refers to food. There is no food that is unclean in itself. There is nothing in the characteristics of some foods that makes them unclean. For example:

no food, in and of itself, is wrong to eat (New Living Translation (2004))

unclean: Here this word refers to something which is not fitting for use in serving or worshiping God. Here are other ways to translate this word:

ritually unclean (Good News Translation)
-or-
unacceptable (God’s Word)
-or-
impure (Revised English Bible)

14:14c

But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean: If a believer thinks that a kind of food would make them bad before God, he should not eat it. Here are other ways to translate this clause:

if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean (New International Version)
-or-
it is unacceptable to a person who thinks it is (God’s Word)

unclean: Here this word has the same meaning as in 14:14b.

© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

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