Romans 1:3-11

1:3 concerning his Son who was a descendant ¹  of David with reference to the flesh, ²  1:4 who was appointed the Son-of-God-in-power ³  according to the Holy Spirit ⁴  by the resurrection ⁵  from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. 1:5 Through him ⁶  we have received grace and our apostleship ⁷  to bring about the obedience ⁸  of faith ⁹  among all the Gentiles on behalf of his name. 1:6 You also are among them, ¹⁰  called to belong to Jesus Christ. ¹¹  1:7 To all those loved by God in Rome, ¹²  called to be saints: ¹³  Grace and peace to you ¹⁴  from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

Paul’s Desire to Visit Rome

1:8 First of all, ¹⁵  I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world. 1:9 For God, whom I serve in my spirit by preaching the gospel ¹⁶  of his Son, is my witness that ¹⁷  I continually remember you 1:10 and I always ask ¹⁸  in my prayers, if perhaps now at last I may succeed in visiting you according to the will of God. ¹⁹  1:11 For I long to see you, so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift ²⁰  to strengthen you,

[1:3]  ¹ tn Grk “born of the seed” (an idiom).

[1:3]  ² tn Grk “according to the flesh,” indicating Jesus’ earthly life, a reference to its weakness. This phrase implies that Jesus was more than human; otherwise it would have been sufficient to say that he was a descendant of David, cf. L. Morris, Romans, 44.

[1:4]  ³ sn Appointed the Son-of-God-in-power. Most translations render the Greek participle ὁρισθέντος (Jorisqentos, from ὁρίζω, Jorizw) “declared” or “designated” in order to avoid the possible interpretation that Jesus was appointed the Son of God by the resurrection. However, the Greek term ὁρίζω is used eight times in the NT, and it always has the meaning “to determine, appoint.” Paul is not saying that Jesus was appointed the “Son of God by the resurrection” but “Son-of-God-in-power by the resurrection,” as indicated by the hyphenation. He was born in weakness in human flesh (with respect to the flesh, v. 3) and he was raised with power. This is similar to Matt 28:18 where Jesus told his disciples after the resurrection, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

[1:4]  ⁴ tn Grk “spirit of holiness.” Some interpreters take the phrase to refer to Christ’s own inner spirit, which was characterized by holiness.

[1:4]  ⁵ tn Or “by his resurrection.” Most interpreters see this as a reference to Jesus’ own resurrection, although some take it to refer to the general resurrection at the end of the age, of which Jesus’ resurrection is the first installment (cf. 1 Cor 15:23).

[1:5]  ⁶ tn Grk “through whom.”

[1:5]  ⁷ tn Some interpreters understand the phrase “grace and apostleship” as a hendiadys, translating “grace [i.e., gift] of apostleship.” The pronoun “our” is supplied in the translation to clarify the sense of the statement.

[1:5]  ⁸ tn Grk “and apostleship for obedience.”

[1:5]  ⁹ tn The phrase ὑπακοὴν πίστεως has been variously understood as (1) an objective genitive (a reference to the Christian faith, “obedience to [the] faith”); (2) a subjective genitive (“the obedience faith produces [or requires]”); (3) an attributive genitive (“believing obedience”); or (4) as a genitive of apposition (“obedience, [namely] faith”) in which “faith” further defines “obedience.” These options are discussed by C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans (ICC), 1:66. Others take the phrase as deliberately ambiguous; see D. B. Garlington, “The Obedience of Faith in the Letter to the Romans: Part I: The Meaning of ὑπακοὴ πίστεως (Rom 1:5; 16:26),” WTJ 52 (1990): 201-24.

[1:6]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “among whom you also are called.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation. The NIV, with its translation “And you also are among those who are called,” takes the phrase ἐν οἳς ἐστε to refer to the following clause rather than the preceding, so that the addressees of the letter (“you also”) are not connected with “all the Gentiles” mentioned at the end of v. 5. It is more likely, however, that the relative pronoun οἳς has τοῖς ἔθνεσιν as its antecedent, which would indicate that the church at Rome was predominantly Gentile.

[1:6]  ¹¹ tn Grk “called of Jesus Christ.”

[1:7]  ¹² map For location see JP4 A1.

[1:7]  ¹³ tn Although the first part of v. 7 is not a complete English sentence, it maintains the “From…to” pattern used in all the Pauline letters to indicate the sender and the recipients. Here, however, there are several intervening verses (vv. 2-6), which makes the first half of v. 7 appear as an isolated sentence fragment.

[1:7]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “Grace to you and peace.”

[1:8]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “First.” Paul never mentions a second point, so J. B. Phillips translated “I must begin by telling you….”

[1:9]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel.”

[1:9]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “as.”

[1:10]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “remember you, always asking.”

[1:10]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “succeed in coming to you in the will of God.”

[1:11]  ²⁰ 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.