Romans 1:23

1:23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings ¹  or birds or four-footed animals ²  or reptiles.

Romans 9:4

9:4 who are Israelites. To them belong ³  the adoption as sons, ⁴  the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple worship, ⁵  and the promises.

[1:23]  ¹ tn Grk “exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God in likeness of an image of corruptible man.” Here there is a wordplay on the Greek terms ἄφθαρτος (afqarto", “immortal, imperishable, incorruptible”) and φθαρτός (fqarto", “mortal, corruptible, subject to decay”).

[1:23]  ² sn Possibly an allusion to Ps 106:19-20.

[9:4]  ³ tn Grk “of whom.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[9:4]  ⁴ tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).” Although some modern translations remove the filial sense completely and render the term merely “adoption” (cf. NAB, ESV), the retention of this component of meaning was accomplished in the present translation by the phrase “as sons.”

[9:4]  ⁵ tn Or “cultic service.”