Passage

Romans 1.17

"For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, 'But the righteous man shall live by faith.'" (Romans 1:17, NASB95)

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"15. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you also that are in Rome. 16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."

"17. For therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto faith: as it is written, But the righteous shall live by faith."

"18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hinder the truth in unrighteousness; 19. because that which is known of God is manifest in them; for God manifested it unto them." (Romans 1:15-19, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"15. So, as much as is in me, I am eager to preach the Good News to you also who are in Rome. 16. For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes; for the Jew first, and also for the Greek."

"17. For in it is revealed God's righteousness from faith to faith. As it is written, "But the righteous shall live by faith.""

"18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19. because that which is known of God is revealed in them, for God revealed it to them." (Romans 1:15-19, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"15. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. 16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."

"17. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith."

"18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 19. Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. ^{in them: or, to them}" (Romans 1:15-19, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"15. so, as much as in me is, I am ready also to you who [are] in Rome to proclaim good news, 16. for I am not ashamed of the good news of the Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation to every one who is believing, both to Jew first, and to Greek."

"17. For the righteousness of God in it is revealed from faith to faith, according as it hath been written, 'And the righteous one by faith shall live,'"

"18. for revealed is the wrath of God from heaven upon all impiety and unrighteousness of men, holding down the truth in unrighteousness. 19. Because that which is known of God is manifest among them, for God did manifest [it] to them," (Romans 1:15-19, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: Paul the Apostle
Audience: the Roman house churches (mixed Jewish-Gentile)
Location: Corinth (Paul's location at writing)
Time period: c. AD 56-57

Theological reading

Romans 1:17 is the thesis statement of the letter to the Romans and one of the most theologically pivotal verses in the New Testament. Paul announces the gospel (v. 16) as the revelation of a righteousness of God from faith unto faith, anchoring the claim by quoting Habakkuk 2.4: "the righteous shall live by faith." The verse is the first of the Pauline-Hebraic triad (Galatians 3.11 and Hebrews 10.38 are the parallels) that deploys Habakkuk's emunah as the OT anchor of justification by faith.

The grammatical phrase ek pisteōs eis pistin ("from faith to faith") has been read three ways across Christian history: as faith intensified (initial faith to mature faith), as faith propagated (one person's faith giving rise to another's), and as covenantal faithfulness mediating both sides (God's faithfulness eliciting human faith). All three readings converge on the same dogmatic point: the righteousness God reveals in the gospel is not earned by works of the Mosaic law but received by trust in what God has done in Jesus. The verse's two halves stand in chiasm with v. 18: in the gospel God's righteousness is revealed; in the world apart from the gospel God's wrath is revealed against suppression of the truth. The same revelatory verb governs both, salvation and judgment are equally and simultaneously disclosed.

Romans 1:17 was the seed of Luther's 1517 breakthrough. His Lectures on Romans (1515-16) record the moment he reread "the righteous shall live by faith" as the doctrine of Sola Fide, rejecting the medieval reading of iustitia Dei as the active righteousness by which God justly punishes sinners, and embracing instead the passive righteousness God credits to the one who believes. The Reformation rests on this exegetical pivot. The verse's theological work is therefore double: it grounds the gospel-as-power claim (v. 16) in the gospel-as-revelation-of-God's-righteousness mechanism (v. 17), and it links the New Testament doctrine of Justification by Faith to its Old Testament root in Habakkuk's covenantal-fidelity theology.

Key words

G4102 - pistis, pistis, the LXX rendering of emunah; the noun governing Paul's whole gospel-mechanism in this verse
H0530 - emunah, the OT root via the Hab 2:4 citation; covenant faithfulness, steadfast trust

Theological themes

Sola fide. The verse Martin Luther read into the foundation of the Reformation; the seed of Justification by Faith.
Gospel as revelation. The gospel does not merely report God's righteousness; it discloses it.
OT-NT continuity. Paul grounds the New Covenant gospel in Habakkuk's Old Covenant theology of faithful trust.
Faith propagated. ek pisteōs eis pistin as the dynamic of faith generating faith across persons and across covenants.

Cross-references

Habakkuk 2.4, the verse Paul quotes; the OT root
Galatians 3.11, Pauline parallel quoting Hab 2:4
Hebrews 10.38, third member of the Pauline-Hebraic triad
Romans 1.18-21, the wrath-of-God complement to the righteousness disclosure
Galatians 2.16, Paul's justification thesis stated polemically
Romans 3.10-12, universal need that justification by faith answers
Genesis 15.6, Abraham's faith reckoned as righteousness; the OT proof-text Paul develops in Romans 4

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.