001:001 Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle,
set apart to proclaim God's Good News,
001:002 which God had already promised through His Prophets in Holy Writ,
concerning His Son,
001:003 who, as regards His human descent, belonged to the posterity of David,
001:004 but as regards the holiness of His Spirit was decisively proved
by His Resurrection to be the Son of God--I mean concerning
Jesus Christ our Lord,
001:005 through whom we have received grace and Apostleship in His
service in order to win men to obedience to the faith,
among all Gentile peoples,
001:006 among whom you also, called, as you have been, to belong
to Jesus Christ, are numbered:
001:007 To all God's loved ones who are in Rome, called to be saints.
May grace and peace be granted to you from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
001:008 First of all, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for what He
has done for all of you; for the report of your faith is
spreading through the whole world.
001:009 I call God to witness--to whom I render priestly and spiritual
service by telling the Good News about His Son--how unceasingly
I make mention of you in His presence,
001:010 always in my prayers entreating that now, at length, if such
be His will, the way may by some means be made clear for me
to come to you.
001:011 For I am longing to see you, in order to convey to you some
spiritual help, so that you may be strengthened;
001:012 in other words that while I am among you we may be mutually
encouraged by one another's faith, yours and mine.
001:013 And I desire you to know, brethren, that I have many a time intended
to come to you--though until now I have been disappointed--
in order that among you also I might gather some fruit
from my labours, as I have already done among the rest
of the Gentile nations.
001:014 I am already under obligations alike to Greek-speaking races
and to others, to cultured and to uncultured people:
001:015 so that for my part I am willing and eager to proclaim
the Good News to you also who are in Rome.
001:016 For I am not ashamed of the Good News. It is God's power
which is at work for the salvation of every one who believes--
the Jew first, and then the Gentile.
001:017 For in the Good News a righteousness which comes from God is
being revealed, depending on faith and tending to produce faith;
as the Scripture has it, "The righteous man shall live by faith."
001:018 For God's anger is being revealed from Heaven against all
impiety and against the iniquity of men who through iniquity
suppress the truth. God is angry:
001:019 because what may be known about Him is plain to their
inmost consciousness; for He Himself has made it plain to them.
001:020 For, from the very creation of the world, His invisible perfections--
namely His eternal power and divine nature--have been
rendered intelligible and clearly visible by His works,
so that these men are without excuse.
001:021 For when they had come to know God, they did not give Him
glory as God nor render Him thanks, but they became absorbed
in useless discussions, and their senseless minds were darkened.
001:022 While boasting of their wisdom they became utter fools,
001:023 and, instead of worshipping the imperishable God, they worshipped
images resembling perishable man or resembling birds or
beasts or reptiles.
001:024 For this reason, in accordance with their own depraved cravings,
God gave them up to uncleanness, allowing them to dishonour
their bodies among themselves with impurity.
001:025 For they had bartered the reality of God for what is unreal,
and had offered divine honours and religious service
to created things, rather than to the Creator--He who is
for ever blessed. Amen.
001:026 This then is the reason why God gave them up to vile passions.
For not only did the women among them exchange the natural
use of their bodies for one which is contrary to nature,
but the men also,
001:027 in just the same way--neglecting that for which nature intends women--
burned with passion towards one another, men practising
shameful vice with men, and receiving in their own selves
the reward which necessarily followed their misconduct.
001:028 And just as they had refused to continue to have a full knowledge
of God, so it was to utterly worthless minds that God gave
them up, for them to do things which should not be done.
001:029 Their hearts overflowed with all sorts of dishonesty,
mischief, greed, malice. They were full of envy and murder,
and were quarrelsome, crafty, and spiteful.
001:030 They were secret backbiters, open slanderers; hateful to God,
insolent, haughty, boastful; inventors of new forms of sin,
disobedient to parents, destitute of common sense,
001:031 faithless to their promises, without natural affection,
without human pity.
001:032 In short, though knowing full well the sentence which God pronounces
against actions such as theirs, as things which deserve death,
they not only practise them, but even encourage and applaud
others who do them.
002:001 You are therefore without excuse, O man, whoever you are who
sit in judgement upon others. For when you pass judgement
on your fellow man, you condemn yourself; for you who sit
in judgement upon others are guilty of the same misdeeds;
002:002 and we know that God's judgement against those who commit
such sins is in accordance with the truth.
002:003 And you who pronounce judgement upon those who do such
things although your own conduct is the same as theirs--
do you imagine that you yourself will escape unpunished
when God judges?
002:004 Or is it that you think slightingly of His infinite goodness,
forbearance and patience, unaware that the goodness of God
is gently drawing you to repentance?
002:005 The fact is that in the stubbornness of your impenitent heart
you are treasuring up against yourself anger on the day
of Anger--the day when the righteousness of God's judgements
will stand revealed.
002:006 To each man He will make an award corresponding to his actions;
002:007 to those on the one hand who, by lives of persistent right-doing,
are striving for glory, honour and immortality, the Life
of the Ages;
002:008 while on the other hand upon the self-willed who disobey
the truth and obey unrighteousness will fall anger and fury,
affliction and awful distress,
002:009 coming upon the soul of every man and woman who deliberately
does wrong--upon the Jew first, and then upon the Gentile;
002:010 whereas glory, honour and peace will be given to every one
who does what is good and right--to the Jew first and then
to the Gentile.
002:011 For God pays no attention to this world's distinctions.
002:012 For all who have sinned apart from the Law will also perish
apart from the Law, and all who have sinned whilst living
under the Law, will be judged by the Law.
002:013 It is not those that merely hear the Law read who are righteous
in the sight of God, but it is those that obey the Law
who will be pronounced righteous.
002:014 For when Gentiles who have no Law obey by natural instinct
the commands of the Law, they, without having a Law,
are a Law to themselves;
002:015 since they exhibit proof that a knowledge of the conduct
which the Law requires is engraven on their hearts,
while their consciences also bear witness to the Law,
and their thoughts, as if in mutual discussion, accuse them
or perhaps maintain their innocence--
002:016 on the day when God will judge the secrets of men's lives by
Jesus Christ, as declared in the Good News as I have taught it.
002:017 And since you claim the name of Jew, and find rest and satisfaction
in the Law, and make your boast in God,
002:018 and know the supreme will, and can test things that differ--
being a man who receives instruction from the Law--
002:019 and have persuaded yourself that, as for you, you are a guide
to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,
002:020 a schoolmaster for the dull and ignorant, a teacher of the young,
because in the Law you possess an outline of real knowledge
and an outline of the truth:
002:021 you then who teach your fellow man, do you refuse to teach yourself?
You who cry out against stealing, are you yourself a thief?
002:022 You who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery?
You who loathe idols, do you plunder their temples?
002:023 You who make your boast in the Law, do you offend against its
commands and so dishonour God?
002:024 For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentile nations
because of you, as Holy Writ declares.
002:025 Circumcision does indeed profit, if you obey the Law;
but if you are a Law-breaker, the fact that you have been
circumcised counts for nothing.
002:026 In the same way if an uncircumcised man pays attention to the just
requirements of the Law, shall not his lack of circumcision
be overlooked, and,
002:027 although he is a Gentile by birth, if he scrupulously obeys the Law,
shall he not sit in judgement upon you who, possessing, as you do,
a written Law and circumcision, are yet a Law-breaker?
002:028 For the true Jew is not the man who is simply a Jew outwardly,
and true circumcision is not that which is outward and bodily.
002:029 But the true Jew is one inwardly, and true circumcision
is heart-circumcision--not literal, but spiritual;
and such people receive praise not from men, but from God.
003:001 What special privilege, then, has a Jew? Or what benefit
is to be derived from circumcision?
003:002 The privilege is great from every point of view. First of all,
because the Jews were entrusted with God's truth.
003:003 For what if some Jews have proved unfaithful? Shall their
faithlessness render God's faithfulness worthless?
003:004 No, indeed; let us hold God to be true, though every man
should prove to be false. As it stands written, "That Thou
mayest be shown to be just in the sentence Thou pronouncest,
and gain Thy cause when Thou contendest."
003:005 But if our unrighteousness sets God's righteousness in a
clearer light, what shall we say? (Is God unrighteous--
I speak in our everyday language--when He inflicts punishment?