Once again Paul argues from the lesser to the greater (see v. 12).

When they were rejected is literally a noun phrase, “their rejection.” If it is necessary to indicate who rejected them, then the meaning is “when God rejected them.”

The world was made friends with God is also the translation of a noun phrase “the reconciliation of the world.” The Greek phrase “reconciliation of the world” means simply “the world was reconciled (to God).” “Reconciliation” has essentially the same force as the word translated “to be put in a right relation with God”; but it comes from a different area of life and has a somewhat different coloring, which the Good News Translation tries to bring out. Whereas “to be put right with God” comes from the language of the court, “to be made friends with God” comes from the language of everyday life. It is the picture of two persons who were once enemies but are now brought together and made friends. It is possible that the reconciliation spoken of refers specifically to the uniting of Jews and Gentiles as God’s people, but in the context this is not so likely as the other interpretation.

If the clause the world was made friends with God must be transformed into an active expression, then God is the agent, and the world may become “the other peoples in the world”—for example, “God made the other peoples in the world friends with himself”—for example, “God caused the other peoples of the world to be his friends.”

In the same way that God must be understood as the agent involved in the verb were rejected, so he is the understood agent of the verb are accepted.

When Paul says it will be life for the dead (literally “life from the dead”), a number of commentators understand him to be saying that the conversion of the Jews will be an eschatological event which will result in the final resurrection. However, it seems that Paul is merely using these words as his way of expressing the greatest blessing imaginable. That is, he is saying that the conversion of the Jews will be such a wonderful event that it can be compared to giving life to the dead.

As in so many instances, the question and answer in verse 15 may need to be changed into a direct statement. But such a statement needs to be emphatic if it is to reflect satisfactorily the stylistic device of question-answer employed in Greek. One may render this expression as “when they are accepted, however, it will most certainly be just like the dead coming back to life.”

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 .