Romans 1:11-12

1:11 For I long to see you, so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift ¹  to strengthen you, 1:12 that is, that we may be mutually comforted by one another’s faith, ²  both yours and mine.

Romans 8:10

8:10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but ³  the Spirit is your life ⁴  because of righteousness.

Romans 16:1

Personal Greetings

16:1 Now I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant ⁵  of the church in Cenchrea,

[1:11]  ¹ sn Paul does not mean here that he is going to bestow upon the Roman believers what is commonly known as a “spiritual gift,” that is, a special enabling for service given to believers by the Holy Spirit. Instead, this is either a metonymy of cause for effect (Paul will use his own spiritual gifts to edify the Romans), or it simply means something akin to a blessing or benefit in the spiritual realm. It is possible that Paul uses this phrase to connote specifically the broader purpose of his letter, which is for the Romans to understand his gospel, but this seems less likely.

[1:12]  ² tn Grk “that is, to be comforted together with you through the faith in one another.”

[8:10]  ³ tn Greek emphasizes the contrast between these two clauses more than can be easily expressed in English.

[8:10]  ⁴ tn Or “life-giving.” Grk “the Spirit is life.”

[16:1]  ⁴ tn Or “deaconess.” It is debated whether διάκονος (diakonos) here refers to a specific office within the church. One contextual argument used to support this view is that Phoebe is associated with a particular church, Cenchrea, and as such would therefore be a deacon of that church. In the NT some who are called διάκονος are related to a particular church, yet the scholarly consensus is that such individuals are not deacons, but “servants” or “ministers” (other viable translations for διάκονος). For example, Epaphras is associated with the church in Colossians and is called a διάκονος in Col 1:7, but no contemporary translation regards him as a deacon. In 1 Tim 4:6 Paul calls Timothy a διάκονος; Timothy was associated with the church in Ephesus, but he obviously was not a deacon. In addition, the lexical evidence leans away from this view: Within the NT, the διακον- word group rarely functions with a technical nuance. In any case, the evidence is not compelling either way. The view accepted in the translation above is that Phoebe was a servant of the church, not a deaconess, although this conclusion should be regarded as tentative.