12:1 Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, 12 by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice – alive, holy, and pleasing to God 13 – which is your reasonable service.
1 tn Heb “which is called by my name.” See translator’s note on 7:10 for support.
2 tn This is an example of a question without the formal introductory particle following a conjunctive vav introducing an opposition. (See Joüon 2:609 §161.a.) It is also an example of the use of the infinitive before the finite verb in a rhetorical question involving doubt or denial. (See Joüon 2:422-23 §123.f, and compare usage in Gen 37:8.)
3 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”
4 tn Heb “Oracle of Yahweh of armies.”
5 tn Grk “by [the measure] with which you measure it will be measured to you.”
6 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
7 sn The term translated speck refers to a small piece of wood, chaff, or straw; see L&N 3.66.
8 tn Or “do not notice.”
9 sn The term beam of wood refers to a very big piece of wood, the main beam of a building, in contrast to the speck in the other’s eye (L&N 7.78).
10 tn Grk “how will you say?”
11 sn A quotation from Prov 25:21-22.
12 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.
13 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.
14 tn Verses 16-17 comprise one sentence in Greek, but this has been divided into two sentences due to English requirements.
15 tn The words “He is our father” are not in the Greek text but are supplied to show that they resume Paul’s argument from 16b. (It is also possible to supply “Abraham had faith” here [so REB], taking the relative clause [“who is the father of us all”] as part of the parenthesis, and making the connection back to “the faith of Abraham,” but such an option is not as likely [C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:243].)
16 tn “The God” is not in the Greek text but is supplied for clarity.
17 tn Or “calls into existence the things that do not exist.” The translation of ὡς ὄντα (Jw" onta) allows for two different interpretations. If it has the force of result, then creatio ex nihilo is in view and the variant rendering is to be accepted (so C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:244). A problem with this view is the scarcity of ὡς plus participle to indicate result (though for the telic idea with ὡς plus participle, cf. Rom 15:15; 1 Thess 2:4). If it has a comparative force, then the translation given in the text is to be accepted: “this interpretation fits the immediate context better than a reference to God’s creative power, for it explains the assurance with which God can speak of the ‘many nations’ that will be descended from Abraham” (D. Moo, Romans [NICNT], 282; so also W. Sanday and A. C. Headlam, Romans [ICC], 113). Further, this view is in line with a Pauline idiom, viz., verb followed by ὡς plus participle (of the same verb or, in certain contexts, its antonym) to compare present reality with what is not a present reality (cf. 1 Cor 4:7; 5:3; 7:29, 30 (three times), 31; Col 2:20 [similarly, 2 Cor 6:9, 10]).
18 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
19 tn Grk “who against hope believed,” referring to Abraham. The relative pronoun was converted to a personal pronoun and, because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
20 sn A quotation from Gen 17:5.
21 tn Grk “according to that which had been spoken.”
22 sn A quotation from Gen 15:5.