2:1 4 Therefore 5 you are without excuse, 6 whoever you are, 7 when you judge someone else. 8 For on whatever grounds 9 you judge another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge practice the same things.
5:12 So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people 14 because 15 all sinned –
15:30 Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, 24 through our Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, to join fervently with me in prayer to God on my behalf.
1 tn Grk “who.” 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.
2 tn Grk “the lie.”
3 tn Or “creature, created things.”
4 sn Rom 2:1-29 presents unusual difficulties for the interpreter. There have been several major approaches to the chapter and the group(s) it refers to: (1) Rom 2:14 refers to Gentile Christians, not Gentiles who obey the Jewish law. (2) Paul in Rom 2 is presenting a hypothetical viewpoint: If anyone could obey the law, that person would be justified, but no one can. (3) The reference to “the ones who do the law” in 2:13 are those who “do” the law in the right way, on the basis of faith, not according to Jewish legalism. (4) Rom 2:13 only speaks about Christians being judged in the future, along with such texts as Rom 14:10 and 2 Cor 5:10. (5) Paul’s material in Rom 2 is drawn heavily from Diaspora Judaism, so that the treatment of the law presented here cannot be harmonized with other things Paul says about the law elsewhere (E. P. Sanders, Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People, 123); another who sees Rom 2 as an example of Paul’s inconsistency in his treatment of the law is H. Räisänen, Paul and the Law [WUNT], 101-9. (6) The list of blessings and curses in Deut 27–30 provide the background for Rom 2; the Gentiles of 2:14 are Gentile Christians, but the condemnation of Jews in 2:17-24 addresses the failure of Jews as a nation to keep the law as a whole (A. Ito, “Romans 2: A Deuteronomistic Reading,” JSNT 59 [1995]: 21-37).
5 tn Some interpreters (e.g., C. K. Barrett, Romans [HNTC], 43) connect the inferential Διό (dio, “therefore”) with 1:32a, treating 1:32b as a parenthetical comment by Paul.
6 tn That is, “you have nothing to say in your own defense” (so translated by TCNT).
7 tn Grk “O man.”
8 tn Grk “Therefore, you are without excuse, O man, everyone [of you] who judges.”
9 tn Grk “in/by (that) which.”
7 tn The words “This was” have been repeated from the previous verse to clarify that this is a continuation of that thought. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
8 tn Grk “toward a demonstration,” repeating and expanding the purpose of God’s action in v. 25a.
9 tn Or “righteous.”
10 tn Or “of the one who has faith in Jesus.” See note on “faithfulness of Jesus Christ” in v. 22 for the rationale behind the translation “Jesus’ faithfulness.”
10 tn Here ἀνθρώπους (anqrwpou") has been translated as a generic (“people”) since both men and women are clearly intended in this context.
11 tn The translation of the phrase ἐφ᾿ ᾧ (ef Jw) has been heavily debated. For a discussion of all the possibilities, see C. E. B. Cranfield, “On Some of the Problems in the Interpretation of Romans 5.12,” SJT 22 (1969): 324-41. Only a few of the major options can be mentioned here: (1) the phrase can be taken as a relative clause in which the pronoun refers to Adam, “death spread to all people in whom [Adam] all sinned.” (2) The phrase can be taken with consecutive (resultative) force, meaning “death spread to all people with the result that all sinned.” (3) Others take the phrase as causal in force: “death spread to all people because all sinned.”
13 tn Grk “may walk in newness of life,” in which ζωῆς (zwhs) functions as an attributed genitive (see ExSyn 89-90, where this verse is given as a prime example).
16 tn Grk “in that.”
19 sn The one who raised Jesus from the dead refers to God (also in the following clause).
20 tc Several
21 tc Most
22 tn Grk “For the…” (with the word “commandments” supplied for clarity). The Greek article (“the”) is used here as a substantiver to introduce the commands that are quoted from the second half of the Decalogue (ExSyn 238).
23 sn A quotation from Exod 20:13-15, 17; Deut 5:17-19, 21.
24 sn A quotation from Lev 19:18.
25 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.