The first part of this verse in Greek is in the form of a double negative statement: “I will not dare to speak of what Christ did not do through me.” This is transformed into a strong positive statement by the Good News Translation.

I will be bold and speak may be rendered as “I will speak boldly.”

To lead the Gentiles to obey God is a transform of the Greek phrase “for obedience of the Gentiles.” The preposition “for” denotes purpose (to lead), while the genitive expression “obedience of the Gentiles” means “that the Gentiles might obey (God).”

In a sense there are two causative relations in the central portion of verse 18: (1) has done through me and (2) to lead the Gentiles to obey God. The first may be expressed in some languages as “what Christ has caused me to do,” “what Christ has accomplished by using me,” or “what Christ did; he caused me to do it.” Similarly, the second, to lead the Gentiles to obey God, may be translated as “to cause the Gentiles to obey God.” Putting the two causative expressions together, one may translate as “what Christ did by causing me to lead the Gentiles to obey God” or “what Christ did; he caused me to lead the Gentiles to obey God.”

By means of words and deeds is singular in Greek (“by word and deed”), but the plural is more natural in English. The expression of means in the phrase by means of words and deeds must be understood with the verb to lead, not with to obey. This may require a change of word order in some languages—for example, “by words and by deeds I caused the Gentiles to obey God” or “by what I said and by what I did I caused the Gentiles to obey God.” It may, however, be more satisfactory to make a break immediately after the phrase to obey God and to begin a new sentence so that words and deeds may also be combined with the expressions power of signs and miracles and the power of the Spirit in verse 19—for example, “I used words and deeds, strong signs and miracles, and the Spirit caused this by his power.” Or, somewhat differently, one may say: “This happened because of the words that I spoke and the deeds that I did, because of the strong signs and miracles that happened, and because of the way in which the Spirit acted so powerfully”.

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 .

Timothy was evidently with Paul when he wrote this letter; he is mentioned in a number of Paul’s letters and in several places in the book of Acts (see especially Acts 16.1-3). Nothing definite is known about the other persons mentioned. There is a Lucius mentioned in Acts 13; a Jason is mentioned in Acts 17.5-9; and a Sopater (not Sosipater) is mentioned in Acts 20.4.

Paul evidently dictated this letter as he did other of his letters (see 1 Corinthians 16.21; Galatians 6.11; Colossians 4.18; and 2 Thessalonians 3.17).

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 .

The Greek of this verse is difficult to translate, though the meaning is clear. Paul wants to avoid the implication that he looks upon his visit solely as a means of benefiting his readers: both you and I will be helped. The verb rendered helped is found only here in the New Testament, though a related verb is often used by Paul with the meaning “to encourage.”

Because of the rather succinct nature of verse 12, it may be necessary to employ a somewhat expanded form—for example, “what I mean is that I will help to strengthen you and you will help to strengthen me.” Similarly, the last clause may be rendered as “you will become strong because you know how I believe, and I will become strong because I know how you believe.” In both instances it may be necessary to introduce some direct goal of my faith and your faith—for example, “how I trust Christ” and “how you trust Christ.”

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 .

When Paul says “they show,” he evidently means their conduct shows, which may be rendered as “by what they do they show” or “by their behavior they indicate.”

“The work of the Law” may be taken either in the sense of what the Law commands (see Jerusalem Bible, An American Translation*, Revised Standard Version), or with the meaning of “the effect of the Law” (New English Bible, Moffatt).

Written in their hearts may be rendered as “exists in their hearts” or “is found in their minds.”

Show that this is true basically means “give testimony as a witness” (see New English Bible “their conscience is called as witness” and An American Translation* “their consciences will testify for them”). Paul gives three evidences to indicate that the Gentiles are a law to themselves, though they do not possess the Mosaic Law: (1) their conduct (2) their consciences, and (3) their thoughts.

It is difficult in many languages to distinguish between “heart” and “conscience.” In some instances there may be a highly idiomatic expression for conscience—for example, “the little man that stands within” or “one’s innermost.” More frequently one must combine the concepts of both thought and heart—for example, “how they think in their hearts.”

The pronoun this in the phrase this is true must refer back to the fact that what the Law commands is written in their hearts. It may be necessary to make this explicit by translating: “what they think in their hearts shows that what the Law commands is written there.”

Their thoughts sometimes accuse them and sometimes defend them is a difficult clause in Greek, though most modern translations accept the same exegesis that the Good News Translation follows. The Greek of this clause is difficult because there is no expressed object of the verb accuse or defend. It is possible to render this as the King James Version does, “their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another”; but the question is whether Paul is speaking of a person’s thoughts sometimes accusing and sometimes defending himself, or whether he is thinking of a person’s thoughts sometimes accusing and sometimes defending someone else. In light of the rest of the verse, the former of these possibilities is probably better. Accuse and defend are expressed in some languages as direct discourse—for example, “sometimes their thoughts say, You did wrong, and sometimes their thoughts say, You did right.”

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 .

The verb rendered offered (Revised Standard Version, Moffatt “put forward”; Jerusalem Bible, Phillips “appointed”; New English Bible “designed”) may be used with the special sense of “to offer as sacrifice” or even “to display publicly” (see An American Translation* “showed … publicly”). In 1.13 it is used in the sense of “to plan.”

The phrase by his death (Jerusalem Bible “to sacrifice his life”; New English Bible “by his sacrificial death”; An American Translation* “dying”) is literally “by his blood,” but “blood” is used in this passage in the same way that it is used in a number of other places in the New Testament, that is, to indicate a violent death. (See also the comments at 5.9.) The means by which men’s sins are forgiven (see New English Bible “the means of expiating sin”) is used in the Septuagint as a translation of “the mercy seat” that was a part of the covenant box (or ark), and so may also mean “the place where sins were forgiven” (see Hebrews 9.5, the only other occurrence of this word in the New Testament). Although this noun (and its related forms) is sometimes used by pagan writers in the sense of propitiation (that is, an act to appease or placate a god), it is never used this way in the Old Testament. There God never appears as the object of this noun (that is, the one who is placated), though God does appear as the subject with sin as the object, in which case the meaning is “God expiates (that is, forgives) sins.” For this reason, the meaning of expiation (equivalent to Good News Translation the means by which men’s sins are forgiven) is a much more accurate translation than propitiation (see Moffatt and Phillips “the means of propitiation”).

The Greek phrase “through faith” fits very loosely into the overall sentence structure, though it is generally agreed that it goes with the entire thought of the passage rather than with the words “in his blood” (Good News Translation by his death). The Good News Translation indicates this by making the object of “through faith” explicit (through their faith in him), while the New English Bible and the Jerusalem Bible have placed “through faith” at the end of the sentence. As was mentioned earlier, verses 23-26 in the Greek text are one sentence, which the Good News Translation makes into several shorter sentences. And in order to show the connection between the thought that follows and the earlier thought in this verse, the Good News Bible introduces the second sentence with the words God did this. The verb to demonstrate (a noun phrase in Greek) includes in its meaning the idea of “to prove.” To demonstrate his righteousness is taken by some translations (Moffatt, Jerusalem Bible) to mean “to demonstrate his justice” (New English Bible). A major question of course, is what does Paul mean by his use of “righteousness” in this context? If it refers to God’s justice, then the thought is linked rather closely with what Paul says in verse 26, to demonstrate his righteousness. On the other hand, it is possible to understand the phrase to demonstrate his righteousness in light of what is said in the earlier part of verse 25 and so take it to mean “to demonstrate how God puts men right with himself.” Moreover, this would have the advantage not only of carrying through the thought begun in the first part of this same verse, but also of tying in with what is said at the end of verse 26, in this way God shows … that he puts right everyone who believes in Jesus.

The concepts expressed in the first part of verse 25 are not only difficult, but the relations between the ideas are quite complex. The first sentence, particularly, involves a number of different relations of meaning. God offered him is the means for the purpose clause which begins with the conjunctive phrase so that. By his death is a phrase which indicates the means for the result he should become. By which men’s sins are forgiven is another expression of means, and finally, through their faith in him expressed even an additional type of means. In order to express these relations in a fully intelligible manner one may have to semantically restructure this first sentence and to divide it into more than one sentence—for example, “God offered Christ so that he would become the one by whom men’s sins are forgiven. Christ would do this by his death. By people’s faith in Christ they would experience forgiveness,” or “God offered Christ so that because Christ died he would cause men to have their sins forgiven; they would have their sins forgiven because they had faith in Christ.”

In the second sentence of verse 25 the relations are not so complex; “God offered Christ” is merely the means to accomplish the purpose of showing how “he puts men right with himself.”

God … was patient (literally “because of God’s patience”) comes from verse 26, where it concludes the clause begun in this verse. However, for English readers it more naturally comes first in the clause, and so it is placed there by the Good News Translation (see also New English Bible “because in his forbearance he had overlooked the sins of the past”). Although it is possible that the verb rendered overlooked may instead mean “forgave” (see Phillips “by the wiping out of the sins of the past”), there seems to be very little support for that interpretation here. If Paul wanted to say that God has forgiven the sins of the past, he could easily have done so and make himself clear to his readers.

In the past may be translated in some instances as “before now,” “up until now,” or “in years that are gone.”

In selecting a word for overlooked it is important not to imply that “God paid no attention to” or that “God was completely unaware of men’s sins.” Rather, one must indicate that God chose to pay no attention to such sins—for example, “God passed on as though the people had not sinned,” “God refused to look at people’s sins,” or “God passed over sins.”

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 .

In this sentence the subject, Christ, and the main verb, died, are emphatic; they occur first and last in the structure, with all the other elements coming in between. The word rendered helpless (so also An American Translation* and Jerusalem Bible) actually means “weak,” but it is agreed that it has this meaning in the present passage (see New English Bible “powerless”; Phillips “powerless to help ourselves”).

It is important that the translator realize that we are included in the group of the wicked, and not that we and wicked are set in contrast.

It is assumed by most translators and commentators that the phrase translated at the time that God chose is connected with the verb died. This phrase is related in meaning to the one in Galatians 4.4, when the right time finally came, and is rendered in a variety of ways in different translations. Perhaps the nearest thing to a literal rendering appears in the Revised Standard Version, “at the right time” (An American Translation* “at the decisive moment”; Jerusalem Bible “at his [Christ’s] appointed time”). The New English Bible appears to connect this primarily with the time of our helplessness, though it does relate it also to the time of Christ’s death (“for at the very time when we were still powerless, then Christ died”). However one translates this phrase, in this context it refers to the time that was within God’s purpose and choice. This is the reason that the translation appears as it does in the Good News Translation.

The principal difficulty in verse 6 is the occurrence of two expressions of time, both relating, but in different ways, to the main clause Christ died for the wicked. The first expression is a general term for time, equivalent in some languages to “during the time that we were still helpless.” The second expression of time is quite specific (sometimes called punctiliar) and is translated as “at the specific time.” In some languages the second expression of time is best treated as a separate sentence—for example, “while we were still helpless, Christ died for us who were wicked; he died just at the time that God chose.” It may be necessary to introduce “us who were wicked” in order to make it perfectly clear that Christ died for the same persons who were still helpless.

An expression for helplessness may be “we could not help ourselves.”

In rendering at the time that God chose, the idea of choosing a time may need to be expressed in quite a different manner from that of choosing an object. One may need to employ some other type of verbal expression—for example, “at the time that God decided” or “at the time that God decided was best.” In these contexts “time” must refer to an occasion, not to time as a continuity or a continuation of events. In some languages the expression of occasion may only be rendered as “on the day that God chose,” since “day” is also a generic expression for “occasion.”

In the phrase for the wicked the preposition for must be taken with the meaning of “for the sake of,” and not with the meaning “in place of.” Moreover, it is valuable to realize that in the present passage Paul is not dealing so much with the theology of redemption as he is with the extent to which God went in order to show his love for sinful man. In most languages there is a well-defined way of introducing benefactives, that is to say, persons who are benefited by some particular action or event, introduced generally in English by the preposition for. However, in some languages benefaction is expressed specifically by a purpose clause with the verb “to help”—for example, “Christ died in order to help us who were wicked.”

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 .

This verse takes up the thought of verse 6a and gives the reason for the statement made there. For a literal translation of the first half of this verse, see the Revised Standard Version: “for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God.” But when Paul uses the word mind in such a context, he is referring to the entire person, who is considered God’s enemy. The Jerusalem Bible expresses this thought by “that is because to limit oneself to what is unspiritual is to be at enmity with God.” It is generally agreed that law in this verse must be understood in the widest sense possible and is therefore not limited to the Jewish Law in particular.

The clause when his mind is controlled by human nature may be best interpreted in some languages as condition—for example, “and so if a man thinks only about what his body wants, he becomes an enemy of God” or “… he fights against God.”

And in fact he cannot obey it is literally “neither is it (the mind) able.” Here also “mind” is equivalent to the entire person, and so appears in the Good News Translation as he. At the same time the Good News Bible makes explicit the meaning of “is not able”: cannot obey it (“God’s law”). The Jerusalem Bible translates: “never could … submit to God’s law.”

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 .