4:9 Is this blessedness 5 then for 6 the circumcision 7 or also for 8 the uncircumcision? For we say, “faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.” 9
7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I 14 would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else 15 if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” 16
12:3 For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but to think with sober discernment, as God has distributed to each of you 20 a measure of faith. 21
1 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.
2 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).
3 tn Grk “in order that I might have some fruit also among you just as also among the rest of the Gentiles.”
4 tn Grk “heart.”
7 tn Or “happiness.”
8 tn Grk “upon.”
9 sn See the note on “circumcision” in 2:25.
10 tn Grk “upon.”
11 sn A quotation from Gen 15:6.
10 tn Or “pattern.”
11 tn Or “disobeyed”; Grk “in the likeness of Adam’s transgression.”
13 tn Grk “having died.” The participle ἀποθανόντες (apoqanonte") has been translated as a causal adverbial participle.
14 tn Grk “in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”
16 sn Romans 7:7-25. There has been an enormous debate over the significance of the first person singular pronouns (“I”) in this passage and how to understand their referent. Did Paul intend (1) a reference to himself and other Christians too; (2) a reference to his own pre-Christian experience as a Jew, struggling with the law and sin (and thus addressing his fellow countrymen as Jews); or (3) a reference to himself as a child of Adam, reflecting the experience of Adam that is shared by both Jews and Gentiles alike (i.e., all people everywhere)? Good arguments can be assembled for each of these views, and each has problems dealing with specific statements in the passage. The classic argument against an autobiographical interpretation was made by W. G. Kümmel, Römer 7 und die Bekehrung des Paulus. A good case for seeing at least an autobiographical element in the chapter has been made by G. Theissen, Psychologische Aspekte paulinischer Theologie [FRLANT], 181-268. One major point that seems to favor some sort of an autobiographical reading of these verses is the lack of any mention of the Holy Spirit for empowerment in the struggle described in Rom 7:7-25. The Spirit is mentioned beginning in 8:1 as the solution to the problem of the struggle with sin (8:4-6, 9).
17 tn Grk “I would not have known covetousness.”
18 sn A quotation from Exod 20:17 and Deut 5:21.
19 tn Grk “of whom.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
20 tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).” Although some modern translations remove the filial sense completely and render the term merely “adoption” (cf. NAB, ESV), the retention of this component of meaning was accomplished in the present translation by the phrase “as sons.”
21 tn Or “cultic service.”
22 tn The words “of you” have been supplied for clarity.
23 tn Or “to each as God has distributed a measure of faith.”
25 tn Grk “in the believing” or “as [you] believe,” with the object “him” supplied from the context. The referent could be God (15:13a) or Christ (15:12).