Romans 4:12

4:12 And he is also the father of the circumcised, ¹  who are not only circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham possessed when he was still uncircumcised. ² 

Romans 4:1

The Illustration of Justification

4:1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh, ³  has discovered regarding this matter? ⁴ 

Romans 9:10

9:10 Not only that, but when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, ⁵  our ancestor Isaac –

Romans 11:28

11:28 In regard to the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but in regard to election they are dearly loved for the sake of the fathers.

Romans 15:6

15:6 so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 15:8

15:8 For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised ⁶  on behalf of God’s truth to confirm the promises made to the fathers, ⁷ 

Romans 1:7

1:7 To all those loved by God in Rome, ⁸  called to be saints: ⁹  Grace and peace to you ¹⁰  from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

Romans 4:18

4:18 Against hope Abraham ¹¹  believed ¹²  in hope with the result that he became the father of many nations ¹³  according to the pronouncement, ¹⁴  “so will your descendants be.” ¹⁵ 

Romans 8:15

8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading again to fear, ¹⁶  but you received the Spirit of adoption, ¹⁷  by whom ¹⁸  we cry, “Abba, Father.”

Romans 9:5

9:5 To them belong the patriarchs, ¹⁹  and from them, ²⁰  by human descent, ²¹  came the Christ, ²²  who is God over all, blessed forever! ²³  Amen.

Romans 4:11

4:11 And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised, ²⁴  so that he would become ²⁵  the father of all those who believe but have never been circumcised, ²⁶  that they too could have righteousness credited to them.

Romans 4:16-17

4:16 For this reason it is by faith so that it may be by grace, ²⁷  with the result that the promise may be certain to all the descendants – not only to those who are under the law, but also to those who have the faith of Abraham, ²⁸  who is the father of us all 4:17 (as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”). ²⁹  He is our father ³⁰  in the presence of God whom he believed – the God who ³¹  makes the dead alive and summons the things that do not yet exist as though they already do. ³² 

Romans 6:4

6:4 Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life. ³³ 

[4:12]  ¹ tn Grk “the father of circumcision.”

[4:12]  ² tn Grk “the ‘in-uncircumcision faith’ of our father Abraham.”

[4:1]  ³ tn Or “according to natural descent” (BDAG 916 s.v. σάρξ 4).

[4:1]  ⁴ tn Grk “has found?”

[9:10]  ⁵ tn Or possibly “by one act of sexual intercourse.” See D. Moo, Romans (NICNT), 579.

[15:8]  ⁷ tn Grk “of the circumcision”; that is, the Jews.

[15:8]  ⁸ tn Or “to the patriarchs.”

[1:7]  ⁹ map For location see JP4 A1.

[1:7]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Grk “Grace to you and peace.”

[4:18]  ¹¹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:18]  ¹² tn Grk “who against hope believed,” referring to Abraham. The relative pronoun was converted to a personal pronoun and, because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[4:18]  ¹³ sn A quotation from Gen 17:5.

[4:18]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “according to that which had been spoken.”

[4:18]  ¹⁵ sn A quotation from Gen 15:5.

[8:15]  ¹³ tn Grk “slavery again to fear.”

[8:15]  ¹⁴ 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).”

[8:15]  ¹⁵ tn Or “in that.”

[9:5]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “of whom are the fathers.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[9:5]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “from whom.” Here the relative pronoun has been replaced by a personal pronoun.

[9:5]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “according to the flesh.”

[9:5]  ¹⁸ tn Or “Messiah.” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed.”)

[9:5]  ¹⁹ tn Or “the Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever,” or “the Messiah. God who is over all be blessed forever!” or “the Messiah who is over all. God be blessed forever!” The translational difficulty here is not text-critical in nature, but is a problem of punctuation. Since the genre of these opening verses of Romans 9 is a lament, it is probably best to take this as an affirmation of Christ’s deity (as the text renders it). Although the other renderings are possible, to see a note of praise to God at the end of this section seems strangely out of place. But for Paul to bring his lament to a crescendo (that is to say, his kinsmen had rejected God come in the flesh), thereby deepening his anguish, is wholly appropriate. This is also supported grammatically and stylistically: The phrase ὁ ὢν (Jo wn, “the one who is”) is most naturally taken as a phrase which modifies something in the preceding context, and Paul’s doxologies are always closely tied to the preceding context. For a detailed examination of this verse, see B. M. Metzger, “The Punctuation of Rom. 9:5,” Christ and the Spirit in the New Testament, 95-112; and M. J. Harris, Jesus as God, 144-72.

[4:11]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “of the faith, the one [existing] in uncircumcision.”

[4:11]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “that he might be,” giving the purpose of v. 11a.

[4:11]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “through uncircumcision.”

[4:16]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “that it might be according to grace.”

[4:16]  ²⁰ tn Grk “those who are of the faith of Abraham.”

[4:17]  ²¹ tn Verses 16-17 comprise one sentence in Greek, but this has been divided into two sentences due to English requirements.

[4:17]  ²² tn The words “He is our father” are not in the Greek text but are supplied to show that they resume Paul’s argument from 16b. (It is also possible to supply “Abraham had faith” here [so REB], taking the relative clause [“who is the father of us all”] as part of the parenthesis, and making the connection back to “the faith of Abraham,” but such an option is not as likely [C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:243].)

[4:17]  ²³ tn “The God” is not in the Greek text but is supplied for clarity.

[4:17]  ²⁴ tn Or “calls into existence the things that do not exist.” The translation of ὡς ὄντα (Jw" onta) allows for two different interpretations. If it has the force of result, then creatio ex nihilo is in view and the variant rendering is to be accepted (so C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:244). A problem with this view is the scarcity of ὡς plus participle to indicate result (though for the telic idea with ὡς plus participle, cf. Rom 15:15; 1 Thess 2:4). If it has a comparative force, then the translation given in the text is to be accepted: “this interpretation fits the immediate context better than a reference to God’s creative power, for it explains the assurance with which God can speak of the ‘many nations’ that will be descended from Abraham” (D. Moo, Romans [NICNT], 282; so also W. Sanday and A. C. Headlam, Romans [ICC], 113). Further, this view is in line with a Pauline idiom, viz., verb followed by ὡς plus participle (of the same verb or, in certain contexts, its antonym) to compare present reality with what is not a present reality (cf. 1 Cor 4:7; 5:3; 7:29, 30 (three times), 31; Col 2:20 [similarly, 2 Cor 6:9, 10]).

[6:4]  ²³ tn Grk “may walk in newness of life,” in which ζωῆς (zwhs) functions as an attributed genitive (see ExSyn 89-90, where this verse is given as a prime example).