1:8 First of all, 1 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 2 of his Son, is my witness that 3 I continually remember you 1:10 and I always ask 4 in my prayers, if perhaps now at last I may succeed in visiting you according to the will of God. 5 1:11 For I long to see you, so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift 6 to strengthen you, 1:12 that is, that we may be mutually comforted by one another’s faith, 7 both yours and mine. 1:13 I do not want you to be unaware, 8 brothers and sisters, 9 that I often intended to come to you (and was prevented until now), so that I may have some fruit even among you, just as I already have among the rest of the Gentiles. 10 1:14 I am a debtor 11 both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 1:15 Thus I am eager 12 also to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome. 13
1 tn Grk “First.” Paul never mentions a second point, so J. B. Phillips translated “I must begin by telling you….”
2 tn Grk “whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel.”
3 tn Grk “as.”
4 tn Grk “remember you, always asking.”
5 tn Grk “succeed in coming to you in the will of God.”
6 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.
7 tn Grk “that is, to be comforted together with you through the faith in one another.”
8 sn The expression “I do not want you to be unaware [Grk ignorant]” also occurs in 1 Cor 10:1; 12:1; 1 Thess 4:13. Paul uses the phrase to signal that he is about to say something very important.
9 tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited).
10 tn Grk “in order that I might have some fruit also among you just as also among the rest of the Gentiles.”
11 tn Or “obligated.”
12 tn Or “willing, ready”; Grk “so my eagerness [is] to preach…” The word πρόθυμος (proqumo", “eager, willing”) is used only elsewhere in the NT in Matt 26:41 = Mark 14:38: “the spirit indeed is willing (πρόθυμος), but the flesh is weak.”
13 map For location see JP4-A1.