3:9 What then? Are we better off? Certainly not, for we have already charged that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin,
4:9 Is this blessedness 1 then for 2 the circumcision 3 or also for 4 the uncircumcision? For we say, “faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.” 5 4:10 How then was it credited to him? Was he circumcised at the time, or not? No, he was not circumcised but uncircumcised!
5:12 So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people 9 because 10 all sinned –
6:21 So what benefit 11 did you then reap 12 from those things that you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death.
9:30 What shall we say then? – that the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness obtained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith,
1 tn Or “happiness.”
2 tn Grk “upon.”
3 sn See the note on “circumcision” in 2:25.
4 tn Grk “upon.”
5 sn A quotation from Gen 15:6.
6 tn Grk “having now been declared righteous.” The participle δικαιωθέντες (dikaiwqente") has been translated as a causal adverbial participle.
7 tn Or, according to BDF §219.3, “at the price of his blood.”
8 tn Grk “the wrath,” referring to God’s wrath as v. 10 shows.
9 tn Here ἀνθρώπους (anqrwpou") has been translated as a generic (“people”) since both men and women are clearly intended in this context.
10 tn The translation of the phrase ἐφ᾿ ᾧ (ef Jw) has been heavily debated. For a discussion of all the possibilities, see C. E. B. Cranfield, “On Some of the Problems in the Interpretation of Romans 5.12,” SJT 22 (1969): 324-41. Only a few of the major options can be mentioned here: (1) the phrase can be taken as a relative clause in which the pronoun refers to Adam, “death spread to all people in whom [Adam] all sinned.” (2) The phrase can be taken with consecutive (resultative) force, meaning “death spread to all people with the result that all sinned.” (3) Others take the phrase as causal in force: “death spread to all people because all sinned.”
11 tn Grk “fruit.”
12 tn Grk “have,” in a tense emphasizing their customary condition in the past.
13 tn Grk “firstfruits,” a term for the first part of something that has been set aside and offered to God before the remainder can be used.
14 sn Most interpreters see Paul as making use of a long-standing metaphor of the olive tree (the root…the branches) as a symbol for Israel. See, in this regard, Jer 11:16, 19. A. T. Hanson, Studies in Paul’s Technique and Theology, 121-24, cites rabbinic use of the figure of the olive tree, and goes so far as to argue that Rom 11:17-24 is a midrash on Jer 11:16-19.