translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: ROM

label: NET translator note

text: Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13 .


text: Grk “on behalf of them”; the referent (Paul’s fellow Israelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: Grk “they have a zeal for God.”


text: Grk “in accord with knowledge.” sn Their zeal is not in line with the truth means that the Jews’ passion for God was strong, but it ignored the true righteousness of God (v. 3 ; cf. also 3:21 ).


text: Or “the Lord.” The Greek construction, along with the quotation from Joel 2:32 in v. 13 (in which the same “Lord” seems to be in view) suggests that κύριον ( kurion ) is to be taken as “the Lord,” that is, Yahweh. Cf. D. B. Wallace, “The Semantics and Exegetical Significance of the Object-Complement Construction in the New Testament,” GTJ 6 (1985): 91-112.


text: Grk “believes to righteousness.”


text: Grk “confesses to salvation.”


text: Grk “preaching”; the words “to them” are supplied for clarification.


text: The word in this context seems to mean “coming at the right or opportune time” (see BDAG 1103 s.v. ὡραῖος 1); it may also mean “beautiful, attractive, welcome.”


text: Grk “the feet.” The metaphorical nuance of “beautiful feet” is that such represent timely news.


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


text: 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. 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.


text: That is, Israel (see the following verse).


text: 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.


text: 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.


text: 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).