ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Romans 1.3

Book: Romans · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV
  1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, 2. which he promised afore through his prophets in the holy scriptures,

3. concerning his Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh,

  1. who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead; even Jesus Christ our Lord, 5. through whom we received grace and apostleship, unto obedience of faith among all the nations, for his name's sake; (Romans 1:1-5, ASV)
WEB
  1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the Good News of God, 2. which he promised before through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,

3. concerning his Son, who was born of the offspring of David according to the flesh,

  1. who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5. through whom we received grace and apostleship, for obedience of faith among all the nations, for his name’s sake; (Romans 1:1-5, WEB)
KJV
  1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, 2. (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)

3. Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;

  1. And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: declared: Gr. determined 5. By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name: for obedience: or, to the obedience of faith (Romans 1:1-5, KJV)
YLT
  1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, a called apostle, having been separated to the good news of God 2. which He announced before through His prophets in holy writings

3. concerning His Son, (who is come of the seed of David according to the flesh,

  1. who is marked out Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of sanctification, by the rising again from the dead,) Jesus Christ our Lord; 5. through whom we did receive grace and apostleship, for obedience of faith among all the nations, in behalf of his name; (Romans 1:1-5, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: Paul the Apostle
  • Audience: the Roman house churches (mixed Jewish-Gentile), whom Paul had not yet met
  • Location: Corinth, near the close of the third missionary journey
  • Time period: c. AD 56-57

Theological reading

Widely regarded as the opening of a pre-Pauline confession that Paul quotes rather than composes, running through verse 4. Several features point that way: the two-member structure balancing flesh and spirit, the participial construction, the phrase "Spirit of holiness" which Paul never uses elsewhere, and the fact that Paul is citing shared ground with a congregation that does not know him. If so, the verse preserves Christian belief older than the letter itself. See Pre-Pauline Creeds.

The content is a double affirmation. Ek spermatos David kata sarka, of the seed of David according to the flesh, asserts real Davidic descent and therefore a genuine messianic claim on Jewish terms; the Messiah had to come from David's line, and the confession says he did. Kata sarka here is not pejorative, it marks the sphere of the statement, the human and bodily register, and it is paired in verse 4 with kata pneuma hagiōsynēs.

The pairing does the christological work. One subject, God's Son, is described in two registers, and the resurrection does not make him Son but declares or appoints him Son in power. The verse is therefore load-bearing in two directions at once: against any reading that makes Jesus a purely heavenly figure with no human descent, and against any reading that makes the resurrection the moment a man became divine. See Jesus.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Lexicon:

Passages:

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.