Romans 1:2-3

1:2 This gospel ¹  he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, 1:3 concerning his Son who was a descendant ²  of David with reference to the flesh, ³ 

Romans 2:18

2:18 and know his will ⁴  and approve the superior things because you receive instruction from the law, ⁵ 

Romans 3:24

3:24 But they are justified ⁶  freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Romans 9:28

9:28 for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth completely and quickly.” ⁷ 

Romans 11:34

11:34 For who has known the mind of the Lord,

or who has been his counselor? ⁸ 

Romans 16:13

16:13 Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother who was also a mother to me. ⁹ 

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¹ tn Grk “the gospel of God, which he promised.” Because of the length and complexity of this sentence in Greek, it was divided into shorter English sentences in keeping with contemporary English style. To indicate the referent of the relative pronoun (“which”), the word “gospel” was repeated at the beginning of v. 2.

² tn Grk “born of the seed” (an idiom).

³ 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.

⁴ tn Grk “the will.”

⁵ tn Grk “because of being instructed out of the law.”

⁶ tn Or “declared righteous.” Grk “being justified,” as a continuation of the preceding clause. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

⁷ tc In light of the interpretive difficulty of this verse, a longer reading seems to have been added to clarify the meaning. The addition, in the middle of the sentence, makes the whole verse read as follows: “For he will execute his sentence completely and quickly in righteousness, because the Lord will do it quickly on the earth.” The shorter reading is found largely in Alexandrian mss (Ì⁴⁶ א* A B 6 1506 1739 1881 pc co), while the longer reading is found principally in Western and Byzantine mss (א² D F G Ψ 33 Ï lat). The longer reading follows Isa 10:22-23 (LXX) verbatim, while Paul in the previous verse quoted the LXX loosely. This suggests the addition was made by a copyist trying to make sense out of a difficult passage rather than by the author himself.

tn There is a wordplay in Greek (in both the LXX and here) on the phrase translated “completely and quickly” (συντελῶν καὶ συντέμνων, suntelwn kai suntemnwn). These participles are translated as adverbs for smoothness; a more literal (and more cumbersome) rendering would be: “The Lord will act by closing the account [or completing the sentence], and by cutting short the time.” The interpretation of this text is notoriously difficult. Cf. BDAG 975 s.v. συντέμνω.

sn A modified quotation from Isa 10:22-23. Since it is not exact, it has been printed as italics only.

⁸ sn A quotation from Isa 40:13.

⁹ tn Grk “and his mother and mine.”