7:11 God is a just judge;
he is angry throughout the day. 3
96:13 before the Lord, for he comes!
For he comes to judge the earth!
He judges the world fairly, 4
and the nations in accordance with his justice. 5
4:8 blessed is the one 18 against whom the Lord will never count 19 sin.” 20
19:11 Then 21 I saw heaven opened and here came 22 a white horse! The 23 one riding it was called “Faithful” and “True,” and with justice 24 he judges and goes to war.
1 tn Or “ruler.”
2 sn Will not the judge of the whole earth do what is right? For discussion of this text see J. L. Crenshaw, “Popular Questioning of the Justice of God in Ancient Israel,” ZAW 82 (1970): 380-95, and C. S. Rodd, “Shall Not the Judge of All the Earth Do What Is Just?” ExpTim 83 (1972): 137-39.
3 tn Heb “God (the divine name אֵל [’el] is used) is angry during all the day.” The verb זֹעֵם (zo’em) means “be indignant, be angry, curse.” Here God’s angry response to wrongdoing and injustice leads him to prepare to execute judgment as described in the following verses.
4 tn The verbal forms in v. 13 probably describe God’s typical, characteristic behavior, though they may depict in dramatic fashion the outworking of divine judgment or anticipate a future judgment of worldwide proportions, in which case they could be translated “will judge the world.”
5 tn Heb “and the nations with his integrity.”
6 tn Or “fixed.”
7 sn The world refers to the whole inhabited earth.
8 tn Or “appointed.” BDAG 723 s.v. ὁρίζω 2.b has “of persons appoint, designate, declare: God judges the world ἐν ἀνδρὶ ᾧ ὥρισεν through a man whom he has appointed Ac 17:31.”
9 tn The participle ἀναστήσας (anasthsa") indicates means here.
10 tn Grk “hardness.” Concerning this imagery, see Jer 4:4; Ezek 3:7; 1 En. 16:3.
11 tn Grk “in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”
12 tn Or “based on truth.”
13 tn Grk “through whom.”
14 tn Some interpreters understand the phrase “grace and apostleship” as a hendiadys, translating “grace [i.e., gift] of apostleship.” The pronoun “our” is supplied in the translation to clarify the sense of the statement.
15 tn Grk “and apostleship for obedience.”
16 tn The phrase ὑπακοὴν πίστεως has been variously understood as (1) an objective genitive (a reference to the Christian faith, “obedience to [the] faith”); (2) a subjective genitive (“the obedience faith produces [or requires]”); (3) an attributive genitive (“believing obedience”); or (4) as a genitive of apposition (“obedience, [namely] faith”) in which “faith” further defines “obedience.” These options are discussed by C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans (ICC), 1:66. Others take the phrase as deliberately ambiguous; see D. B. Garlington, “The Obedience of Faith in the Letter to the Romans: Part I: The Meaning of ὑπακοὴ πίστεως (Rom 1:5; 16:26),” WTJ 52 (1990): 201-24.
17 tn Grk “the gospel of God, which he promised.” Because of the length and complexity of this sentence in Greek, it was divided into shorter English sentences in keeping with contemporary English style. To indicate the referent of the relative pronoun (“which”), the word “gospel” was repeated at the beginning of v. 2.
18 tn The word for “man” or “individual” here is ἀνήρ (anhr), which often means “male” or “man (as opposed to woman).” However, as BDAG 79 s.v. 2 says, here it is “equivalent to τὶς someone, a person.”
19 tn The verb translated “count” here is λογίζομαι (logizomai). It occurs eight times in Rom 4:1-12, including here, each time with the sense of “place on someone’s account.” By itself the word is neutral, but in particular contexts it can take on a positive or negative connotation. The other occurrences of the verb have been translated using a form of the English verb “credit” because they refer to a positive event: the application of righteousness to the individual believer. The use here in v. 8 is negative: the application of sin. A form of the verb “credit” was not used here because of the positive connotations associated with that English word, but it is important to recognize that the same concept is used here as in the other occurrences.
20 sn A quotation from Ps 32:1-2.
21 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.
22 tn The phrase “and here came” expresses the sense of καὶ ἰδού (kai idou).
23 tn A new sentence was started in the translation at this point and καί (kai) was not translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
24 tn Or “in righteousness,” but since the context here involves the punishment of the wicked and the vindication of the saints, “justice” was preferred.