For if what God promises is to be given to those who obey the Law is literally “for if the heirs are from the law.” “Heirs” must be understood in the sense mentioned in verse 13; and “from the law” refers to persons who obey the (Jewish) Law. In Paul’s literal expression “faith has been emptied,” “faith” is certainly to be taken in the sense of man’s faith, and the verb “to be empty” (New English Bible “faith is empty”) must be taken in the extended sense of “empty of all meaning” (Moffatt), that is, means nothing. This same verb occurs in 1 Corinthians 1.17 (robbed of its power) and is used in 1 Corinthians 9.15 in combination with “boasting” (to turn my rightful boast into empty words; see also 2 Corinthians 9.3 that our boasting … may not turn out to be empty words). The Greek expression “the promise” refers, of course, to God’s promise. The verb is worthless (Jerusalem Bible “worth nothing”; An American Translation* “amounts to nothing”) has as its basic meaning “to make powerless or inoperative,” and is a favorite verb of Paul’s, appearing some twenty-five times in his writings.

It is not easy to relate verse 14 to the preceding verse, and the introductory structure, as indicated by the Good News Translation sequence for if what, is particularly complex. In some languages one may restructure this as follows: “But let us suppose that God promises to give to those who obey the Law; if that were the case, then a man’s trust in God would have no value, and the fact that God had made a promise would not have any worth.” In some instances man’s faith means nothing may be rendered as “it is worth nothing if a man trusts God” or “it helps not in the least if a man trusts God.” Likewise, God’s promise is worthless may be rendered as “it means nothing at all that God had made a promise” or “God may have promised, but this is of no value.”

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 .