They exchange the truth about God for a lie may involve certain complications because of the semantic difficulty of “exchanging truth for a lie.” It may be necessary to recast this clause as “they refuse to believe the truth about God, and accordingly they believe a lie,” “they give up believing the truth about God, and they accept what is a lie,” or “… what is untrue.”

Worship and serve may be rendered as “worship and obey” or “worship and do reverence to.” Serve translates the most general Greek term for religious activity in honor of a deity.

The contrast between what God has created and the Creator himself may be made explicit in some languages as “they worship and serve what God has made; they do not worship and serve the very one who made everything.”

To be praised translates a Greek passive verbal adjective; it is used in the New Testament always of God, and describes the praise of worship that man should render to God. This may be looked upon as the conclusion of Paul’s argument; he has proved his point, and now he presents a series of illustrations, adding no new information until verse 32.

Who is to be praised forever must be made somewhat more explicit in some languages—for example, “whom people should praise forever” or “who deserves that people should praise him forever.”

In a high percentage of languages the terminal particle amen has been borrowed and therefore can be introduced in this type of expression. However, it is liable to be almost meaningless, since it will probably have been borrowed merely as a traditional device for indicating the end of prayers. A more appropriate equivalent in some languages may have a meaning such as “this is surely so” or “indeed this is true.”

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 .