ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Romans 1.7

Book: Romans · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

There are ads on our codex that pay for hosting and keep the codex free. If you can, please consider whitelisting ris3n.com or allowing scripts to support the work.

Sponsored

Brands, events, influencers advertise here

ASV

5. through whom we received grace and apostleship, unto obedience of faith among all the nations, for his name's sake; 6. among whom are ye also called to be Jesus Christ's:

7. To all that are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

  1. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world. 9. For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of his Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers (Romans 1:5-9, ASV)
WEB

5. through whom we received grace and apostleship, for obedience of faith among all the nations, for his name’s sake; 6. among whom you are also called to belong to Jesus Christ;

7. to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

  1. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world. 9. For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the Good News of his Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you always in my prayers, (Romans 1:5-9, WEB)
KJV

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 6. Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ:

7. To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

  1. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. 9. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers; with: or, in (Romans 1:5-9, KJV)
YLT

5. through whom we did receive grace and apostleship, for obedience of faith among all the nations, in behalf of his name; 6. among whom are also ye, the called of Jesus Christ;

7. to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called saints; Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father, and [from] the Lord Jesus Christ!

  1. first, indeed, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is proclaimed in the whole world; 9. for God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the good news of His Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you, (Romans 1:5-9, YLT)

See this page's graph and discover linked topics

Setting

  • Speaker: Paul the Apostle
  • Audience: the mixed Jewish and Gentile house churches at Rome, a congregation Paul had neither founded nor yet visited
  • Location: composed at Corinth, addressed to Rome
  • Time period: c. AD 57

Theological reading

The greeting names the recipients three ways: beloved of God, called, and saints. None of the three is an achievement word. Being loved is something done to them, calling is something done to them, and hagioi means set apart rather than morally accomplished, which is why Paul can use it of the Corinthians while rebuking them.

The address is worth noticing for what it omits. Paul writes to all that are in Rome rather than to "the church at Rome," and the letter never names a single congregation or its leaders. Chapter 16 then greets several distinct household groups. The most natural reading is that Christianity at Rome was a network of house assemblies rather than one gathered body, which fits a city where believers had arrived by migration rather than by an apostolic founding visit. See Church at Rome.

Grace to you and peace fuses the ordinary Greek greeting chairein with the Hebrew shalom, reshaping both. The substitution of charis for chairein is a small change with a large payload, since grace is the letter's governing theme and Paul has placed it in the first line the Romans would read. The order matters too and is consistent across his letters: grace precedes peace, because peace with God is the consequence of grace rather than a parallel benefit. That order is argued out at length in chapter 5.

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

Concepts:

Lexicon:

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.