Romans 3:19

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.

Romans 13:7

13:7 Pay everyone what is owed: taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

Romans 14:4

14:4 Who are you to pass judgment on another’s servant? Before his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord ²  is able to make him stand.

Romans 15:13-14

15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in him, ³  so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul’s Motivation for Writing the Letter

15:14 But I myself am fully convinced about you, my brothers and sisters, ⁴  that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another.

Romans 16:7

16:7 Greet Andronicus and Junia, ⁵  my compatriots ⁶  and my fellow prisoners. They are well known ⁷  to the apostles, ⁸  and they were in Christ before me.

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

[14:4]  ² tc Most mss, especially Western and Byzantine (D F G 048 33 1739 1881 Ï latt), read θεός (qeos, “God”) in place of κύριος (kurios, “Lord”) here. However, κύριος is found in many of the most important mss (Ì⁴⁶ א A B C P Ψ pc co), and θεός looks to be an assimilation to θεός in v. 3.

[15:13]  ³ tn Grk “in the believing” or “as [you] believe,” with the object “him” supplied from the context. The referent could be God (15:13a) or Christ (15:12).

[15:14]  ⁴ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

[16:7]  ⁵ tn Or “Junias.”

[16:7]  ⁶ tn Or “kinsmen,” “relatives,” “fellow countrymen.”

[16:7]  ⁷ tn Or “prominent, outstanding, famous.” The term ἐπίσημος (epishmo") is used either in an implied comparative sense (“prominent, outstanding”) or in an elative sense (“famous, well known”). The key to determining the meaning of the term in any given passage is both the general context and the specific collocation of this word with its adjuncts. When a comparative notion is seen, that to which ἐπίσημος is compared is frequently, if not usually, put in the genitive case (cf., e.g., 3 Macc 6:1 [Ελεαζαρος δέ τις ἀνὴρ ἐπίσημος τῶν ἀπὸ τής χώρας ἱερέων “Eleazar, a man prominent among the priests of the country”]; cf. also Pss. Sol. 17:30). When, however, an elative notion is found, ἐν (en) plus a personal plural dative is not uncommon (cf. Pss. Sol. 2:6). Although ἐν plus a personal dative does not indicate agency, in collocation with words of perception, (ἐν plus) dative personal nouns are often used to show the recipients. In this instance, the idea would then be “well known to the apostles.” See M. H. Burer and D. B. Wallace, “Was Junia Really an Apostle? A Re-examination of Rom 16.7,” NTS 47 (2001): 76-91, who argue for the elative notion here.

[16:7]  ⁸ tn Or “among the apostles.” See discussion in the note on “well known” for these options.