Genesis 45:10-11

45:10 You will live ¹  in the land of Goshen, and you will be near me – you, your children, your grandchildren, your flocks, your herds, and everything you have. 45:11 I will provide you with food ²  there because there will be five more years of famine. Otherwise you would become poor – you, your household, and everyone who belongs to you.”’

Genesis 47:12

47:12 Joseph also provided food for his father, his brothers, and all his father’s household, according to the number of their little children.

Matthew 5:44

5:44 But I say to you, love your enemy and ³  pray for those who persecute you,

Matthew 6:14

6:14 “For if you forgive others ⁴  their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

Romans 12:20-21

12:20 Rather, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will be heaping burning coals on his head. ⁵  12:21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Romans 12:1

Consecration of the Believer’s Life

12:1 Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, ⁶  by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice – alive, holy, and pleasing to God ⁷  – which is your reasonable service.

Romans 5:15

5:15 But the gracious gift is not like the transgression. ⁸  For if the many died through the transgression of the one man, ⁹  how much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ multiply to the many!

Romans 5:1

The Expectation of Justification

5:1 ¹⁰ Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have ¹¹  peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Romans 3:9

The Condemnation of the World

3:9 What then? Are we better off? Certainly not, for we have already charged that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin,

¹ tn The perfect verbal form with vav consecutive here expresses instruction.

² tn The verb כּוּל (kul) in the Pilpel stem means “to nourish, to support, to sustain.” As in 1 Kgs 20:27, it here means “to supply with food.”

³ tc Most mss ([D] L [W] Θ Ë¹³ 33 Ï lat) read “bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you,” before “those who persecute you.” But this is surely a motivated reading, importing the longer form of this aphorism from Luke 6:27-28. The shorter text is found in א B ˹ pc sa, as well as several fathers and versional witnesses.

⁴ tn Here ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used in a generic sense: “people, others.”

⁵ sn A quotation from Prov 25:21-22.

⁶ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

⁷ tn The participle and two adjectives “alive, holy, and pleasing to God” are taken as predicates in relation to “sacrifice,” making the exhortation more emphatic. See ExSyn 618-19.

⁸ tn Grk “but not as the transgression, so also [is] the gracious gift.”

⁹ sn Here the one man refers to Adam (cf. 5:14).

¹⁰ sn Many interpreters see Rom 5:1 as beginning the second major division of the letter.

¹¹ tc A number of important witnesses have the subjunctive ἔχωμεν (ecwmen, “let us have”) instead of ἔχομεν (ecomen, “we have”) in v. 1. Included in the subjunctive’s support are א* A B* C D K L 33 81 630 1175 1739* pm lat bo. But the indicative is not without its supporters: א¹ B² F G P Ψ 0220^vid 104 365 1241 1505 1506 1739^c 1881 2464 pm. If the problem were to be solved on an external basis only, the subjunctive would be preferred. Because of this, the “A” rating on behalf of the indicative in the UBS⁴ appears overly confident. Nevertheless, the indicative is probably correct. First, the earliest witness to Rom 5:1 has the indicative (0220^vid, third century). Second, the first set of correctors is sometimes, if not often, of equal importance with the original hand. Hence, א¹ might be given equal value with א*. Third, there is a good cross-section of witnesses for the indicative: Alexandrian (in 0220^vid, probably א¹ 1241 1506 1881 al), Western (in F G), and Byzantine (noted in NA²⁷ as pm). Thus, although the external evidence is strongly in favor of the subjunctive, the indicative is represented well enough that its ancestry could easily go back to the original. Turning to the internal evidence, the indicative gains much ground. (1) The variant may have been produced via an error of hearing (since omicron and omega were pronounced alike in ancient Greek). This, of course, does not indicate which reading was original – just that an error of hearing may have produced one of them. In light of the indecisiveness of the transcriptional evidence, intrinsic evidence could play a much larger role. This is indeed the case here. (2) The indicative fits well with the overall argument of the book to this point. Up until now, Paul has been establishing the “indicatives of the faith.” There is only one imperative (used rhetorically) and only one hortatory subjunctive (and this in a quotation within a diatribe) up till this point, while from ch. 6 on there are sixty-one imperatives and seven hortatory subjunctives. Clearly, an exhortation would be out of place in ch. 5. (3) Paul presupposes that the audience has peace with God (via reconciliation) in 5:10. This seems to assume the indicative in v. 1. (4) As C. E. B. Cranfield notes, “it would surely be strange for Paul, in such a carefully argued writing as this, to exhort his readers to enjoy or to guard a peace which he has not yet explicitly shown to be possessed by them” (Romans [ICC], 1:257). (5) The notion that εἰρήνην ἔχωμεν (eirhnhn ecwmen) can even naturally mean “enjoy peace” is problematic (ExSyn 464), yet those who embrace the subjunctive have to give the verb some such force. Thus, although the external evidence is stronger in support of the subjunctive, the internal evidence points to the indicative. Although a decision is difficult, ἔχομεν appears to be the authentic reading.