The verb rendered despise literally means “boast over” (so Revised Standard Version), and may have the meaning of “think yourself superior to” (Jerusalem Bible). The Greek text literally has “do not boast over the branches.” The branches referred to are those which have been broken off (see v. 17). The Good News Translation makes this information explicit and changes the metaphor into a simile, those who were … like branches.

If the agent of the process of “breaking off” must be stipulated, it can only be God—for example, “you must not, therefore, despise those whom God broke off like branches.”

The question how can you be proud? may be made into a statement: “you must not be proud” or “there is absolutely no reason for you to be proud.”

The last past of this verse is handled in a way similar to the first part. You are just a branch does not appear as such in the Greek text, though it is important that this information be made explicit for the English reader.

In translating the term support it is important not to suggest “hold up” but rather “nourish.” One may even translate literally “you do not supply sap to the root, but the root supplies sap to you” or “you do not cause the root to be strong; the root causes you to be strong.”

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 .