Romans 3:19-20

3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under ¹  the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 3:20 For no one is declared righteous before him ²  by the works of the law, ³  for through the law comes ⁴  the knowledge of sin.

Romans 7:4-11

7:4 So, my brothers and sisters, ⁵  you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God. ⁶  7:5 For when we were in the flesh, ⁷  the sinful desires, ⁸  aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body ⁹  to bear fruit for death. 7:6 But now we have been released from the law, because we have died ¹⁰  to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code. ¹¹ 

7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I ¹²  would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else ¹³  if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” ¹⁴  7:8 But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires. ¹⁵  For apart from the law, sin is dead. 7:9 And I was once alive apart from the law, but with the coming of the commandment sin became alive 7:10 and I died. So ¹⁶  I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life brought death! ¹⁷  7:11 For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died. ¹⁸ 

Galatians 3:23

Sons of God Are Heirs of Promise

3:23 Now before faith ¹⁹  came we were held in custody under the law, being kept as prisoners ²⁰  until the coming faith would be revealed.

Galatians 4:4-5

4:4 But when the appropriate time ²¹  had come, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 4:5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we may be adopted as sons with full rights. ²² 

Galatians 4:21

An Appeal from Allegory

4:21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not understand the law? ²³ 

Galatians 5:18

5:18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

[3:19]  ¹ tn Grk “in,” “in connection with.”

[3:20]  ² sn An allusion to Ps 143:2.

[3:20]  ³ tn Grk “because by the works of the law no flesh is justified before him.” Some recent scholars have understood the phrase ἒργα νόμου (erga nomou, “works of the law”) to refer not to obedience to the Mosaic law generally, but specifically to portions of the law that pertain to things like circumcision and dietary laws which set the Jewish people apart from the other nations (e.g., J. D. G. Dunn, Romans [WBC], 1:155). Other interpreters, like C. E. B. Cranfield (“‘The Works of the Law’ in the Epistle to the Romans,” JSNT 43 [1991]: 89-101) reject this narrow interpretation for a number of reasons, among which the most important are: (1) The second half of v. 20, “for through the law comes the knowledge of sin,” is hard to explain if the phrase “works of the law” is understood in a restricted sense; (2) the plural phrase “works of the law” would have to be understood in a different sense from the singular phrase “the work of the law” in 2:15; (3) similar phrases involving the law in Romans (2:13, 14; 2:25, 26, 27; 7:25; 8:4; and 13:8) which are naturally related to the phrase “works of the law” cannot be taken to refer to circumcision (in fact, in 2:25 circumcision is explicitly contrasted with keeping the law). Those interpreters who reject the “narrow” interpretation of “works of the law” understand the phrase to refer to obedience to the Mosaic law in general.

[3:20]  ⁴ tn Grk “is.”

[7:4]  ⁵ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

[7:4]  ⁶ tn Grk “that we might bear fruit to God.”

[7:5]  ⁷ tn That is, before we were in Christ.

[7:5]  ⁸ tn Or “sinful passions.”

[7:5]  ⁹ tn Grk “our members”; the words “of our body” have been supplied to clarify the meaning.

[7:6]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “having died.” The participle ἀποθανόντες (apoqanonte") has been translated as a causal adverbial participle.

[7:6]  ¹¹ tn Grk “in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”

[7:7]  ¹² sn Romans 7:7-25. There has been an enormous debate over the significance of the first person singular pronouns (“I”) in this passage and how to understand their referent. Did Paul intend (1) a reference to himself and other Christians too; (2) a reference to his own pre-Christian experience as a Jew, struggling with the law and sin (and thus addressing his fellow countrymen as Jews); or (3) a reference to himself as a child of Adam, reflecting the experience of Adam that is shared by both Jews and Gentiles alike (i.e., all people everywhere)? Good arguments can be assembled for each of these views, and each has problems dealing with specific statements in the passage. The classic argument against an autobiographical interpretation was made by W. G. Kümmel, Römer 7 und die Bekehrung des Paulus. A good case for seeing at least an autobiographical element in the chapter has been made by G. Theissen, Psychologische Aspekte paulinischer Theologie [FRLANT], 181-268. One major point that seems to favor some sort of an autobiographical reading of these verses is the lack of any mention of the Holy Spirit for empowerment in the struggle described in Rom 7:7-25. The Spirit is mentioned beginning in 8:1 as the solution to the problem of the struggle with sin (8:4-6, 9).

[7:7]  ¹³ tn Grk “I would not have known covetousness.”

[7:7]  ¹⁴ sn A quotation from Exod 20:17 and Deut 5:21.

[7:8]  ¹⁵ tn Or “covetousness.”

[7:10]  ¹⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “So” to indicate the result of the statement in the previous verse. Greek style often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” but English style generally does not.

[7:10]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “and there was found in/for me the commandment which was for life – this was for death.”

[7:11]  ¹⁸ tn Or “and through it killed me.”

[3:23]  ¹⁹ tn Or “the faithfulness [of Christ] came.”

[3:23]  ²⁰ tc Instead of the present participle συγκλειόμενοι (sunkleiomenoi; found in Ì⁴⁶ א A B D* F G P Ψ 33 1739 al), C D¹ 0176 0278 Ï have the perfect συγκεκλεισμένοι (sunkekleismenoi). The syntactical implication of the perfect is that the cause or the means of being held in custody was confinement (“we were held in custody [by/because of] being confined”). The present participle of course allows for such options, but also allows for contemporaneous time (“while being confined”) and result (“with the result that we were confined”). Externally, the perfect participle has little to commend it, being restricted for the most part to later and Byzantine witnesses.

[4:4]  ²¹ tn Grk “the fullness of time” (an idiom for the totality of a period of time, with the implication of proper completion; see L&N 67.69).

[4:5]  ²² 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), the retention of this component of meaning was accomplished in the present translation by the phrase “as sons.”

[4:21]  ²³ tn Or “will you not hear what the law says?” The Greek verb ἀκούω (akouw) means “hear, listen to,” but by figurative extension it can also mean “obey.” It can also refer to the process of comprehension that follows hearing, and that sense fits the context well here.