Roma 3:27-31

3:27 Where, then, is boasting? ¹  It is excluded! By what principle? ²  Of works? No, but by the principle of faith! 3:28 For we consider that a person ³  is declared righteous by faith apart from the works of the law. ⁴  3:29 Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles too? Yes, of the Gentiles too! 3:30 Since God is one, ⁵  he will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 3:31 Do we then nullify ⁶  the law through faith? Absolutely not! Instead ⁷  we uphold the law.

[3:27]  ¹ tn Although a number of interpreters understand the “boasting” here to refer to Jewish boasting, others (e.g. C. E. B. Cranfield, “‘The Works of the Law’ in the Epistle to the Romans,” JSNT 43 [1991]: 96) take the phrase to refer to all human boasting before God.

[3:27]  ² tn Grk “By what sort of law?”

[3:28]  ³ tn Here ἄνθρωπον (anqrwpon) is used in an indefinite and general sense (BDAG 81 s.v. ἄνθρωπος 4.a.γ).

[3:28]  ⁴ tn See the note on the phrase “works of the law” in Rom 3:20.

[3:30]  ⁵ tn Grk “but if indeed God is one.”

[3:31]  ⁶ tn Grk “render inoperative.”

[3:31]  ⁷ tn Grk “but” (Greek ἀλλά, alla).