Romans 10:16-21

10:16 But not all have obeyed the good news, for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?”¹ 10:17 Consequently faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the preached word² of Christ.³

10:18 But I ask, have they⁴ not heard?⁵ Yes, they have:⁶ Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.⁷ 10:19 But again I ask, didn’t Israel understand?⁸ First Moses says, “I will make you jealous by those who are not a nation; with a senseless nation I will provoke you to anger.”⁹ 10:20 And Isaiah is even bold enough to say, “I was found by those who did not seek me; I became well known to those who did not ask for me.”¹⁰ 10:21 But about Israel he says, “All day long I held out my hands to this disobedient and stubborn people!”¹¹

¹sn A quotation from Isa 53:1.

²tn The Greek term here is ῥῆμα (rJhma), which often (but not exclusively) focuses on the spoken word.

³tc Most mss (א¹ A D¹ Ψ 33 1881 Ï sy) have θεοῦ (qeou) here rather than Χριστοῦ (Cristou; found in Ì^46vid א* B C D* 6 81 629 1506 1739 pc lat co). External evidence strongly favors the reading “Christ” here. Internal evidence is also on its side, for the expression ῥῆμα Χριστοῦ (rJhma Cristou) occurs nowhere else in the NT; thus scribes would be prone to change it to a known expression.

tn The genitive could be understood as either subjective (“Christ does the speaking”) or objective (“Christ is spoken about”), but the latter is more likely here.

⁴tn That is, Israel (see the following verse).

⁵tn Grk “they have not ‘not heard,’ have they?” This question is difficult to render in English. The basic question is a negative sentence (“Have they not heard?”), but it is preceded by the particle μή (mh) which expects a negative response. The end result in English is a double negative (“They have not ‘not heard,’ have they?”). This has been changed to a positive question in the translation for clarity. See BDAG 646 s.v. μή 3.a.; D. Moo, Romans (NICNT), 666, fn. 32; and C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans (ICC), 537, for discussion.

⁶tn Here the particle μενοῦνγε (menounge) is correcting the negative response expected by the particle μή (mh) in the preceding question. Since the question has been translated positively, the translation was changed here to reflect that rendering.

⁷sn A quotation from Ps 19:4.

⁸tn Grk “Israel did not ‘not know,’ did he?” The double negative in Greek has been translated as a positive affirmation for clarity (see v. 18 above for a similar situation).

⁹sn A quotation from Deut 32:21.

¹⁰sn A quotation from Isa 65:1.

¹¹sn A quotation from Isa 65:2.