This verse follows closely the preceding verse (6.23). It is not without significance that Paul addresses his readers directly in this verse and again in verse 4 as my brothers. He introduces this section with an emphatic negative question (literally “do you not know?”) which the Good News Translation makes into a positive statement, certainly you understand (see Moffatt “surely you know”). As noted previously, my brothers may be translated either by a general term for kinship which would be applicable to the extended in-group of the church, or by an expression such as “fellow believers,” since this is its significance in this type of context.

What I am about to say … because all of you know about law is literally “because I am speaking to those who know law.” It may be that Paul is using “law” in a specific sense either as a reference to the Roman law or to the Jewish Law, though most commentators believe that he is simply referring to the idea of law in general. Paul is not speaking to specialists in the law (so Jerusalem Bible “who have studied law”), but to persons who have some general knowledge about law (New English Bible “who have some knowledge of law”). It is true that his illustration from marriage is more closely in keeping with the Jewish Law, but for Paul the Mosaic Law represents a specific expression of what is right for human conduct in general (see 2.12-16).

It is important that the expression what I am about to say be translated in such a way as to refer specifically to what follows. In some languages the equivalent may be “what I will say now,” “what you will soon be reading,” or “what I say, which follows.”

A generic statement concerning law may in many languages be better expressed as a plural—for example, “all of you know about laws” or even “… how laws are applied.”

Rules over a man may be rendered in some languages as “controls a man,” “says what he must do,” or “puts a man under obligation.”

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 .