Romans 8:35-39

8:35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ¹  8:36 As it is written, “For your sake we encounter death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” ²  8:37 No, in all these things we have complete victory ³  through him ⁴  who loved us! 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers, ⁵  nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, 8:39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

¹ tn Here “sword” is a metonymy that includes both threats of violence and acts of violence, even including death (although death is not necessarily the only thing in view here).

² sn A quotation from Ps 44:22.

³ tn BDAG 1034 s.v. ὑπερνικάω states, “as a heightened form of νικᾶν prevail completely ὑπερνικῶμεν we are winning a most glorious victory Ro 8:37.”

⁴ tn Here the referent could be either God or Christ, but in v. 39 it is God’s love that is mentioned.

⁵ tn BDAG 138 s.v. ἀρχή 6 takes this term as a reference to angelic or transcendent powers (as opposed to merely human rulers). To clarify this, the adjective “heavenly” has been supplied in the translation. Some interpreters see this as a reference to fallen angels or demonic powers, and this view is reflected in some recent translations (NIV, NLT).