Romans 2:14-16

2:14 For whenever the Gentiles, ¹  who do not have the law, do by nature ²  the things required by the law, ³  these who do not have the law are a law to themselves. 2:15 They ⁴  show that the work of the law is written ⁵  in their hearts, as their conscience bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or else defend ⁶  them, ⁷  2:16 on the day when God will judge ⁸  the secrets of human hearts, ⁹  according to my gospel ¹⁰  through Christ Jesus.

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¹ sn Gentile is a NT term for a non-Jew.

² tn Some (e.g. C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:135-37) take the phrase φύσει (fusei, “by nature”) to go with the preceding “do not have the law,” thus: “the Gentiles who do not have the law by nature,” that is, by virtue of not being born Jewish.

³ tn Grk “do by nature the things of the law.”

⁴ tn Grk “who.” 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.

⁵ tn Grk “show the work of the law [to be] written,” with the words in brackets implied by the Greek construction.

⁶ tn Or “excuse.”

⁷ tn Grk “their conscience bearing witness and between the thoughts accusing or also defending one another.”

⁸ tn The form of the Greek word is either present or future, but it is best to translate in future because of the context of future judgment.

⁹ tn Grk “of people.”

¹⁰ sn On my gospel cf. Rom 16:25; 2 Tim 2:8.