Passage

Romans 2.12

Book: Romans · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

10. but glory and honor and peace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek: 11. for there is no respect of persons with God.

12. For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without the law: and as many as have sinned under the law shall be judged by the law;

for not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified: 14. (for when Gentiles that have not the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are the law unto themselves; (Romans 2:10-14, ASV)

WEB

10. But glory, honor, and peace go to every man who does good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 11. For there is no partiality with God.

12. For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without the law. As many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

For it isn’t the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified 14. (for when Gentiles who don’t have the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves, (Romans 2:10-14, WEB)

KJV

10. But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: ^{Gentile: Gr. Greek} 11. For there is no respect of persons with God.

12. For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;

(For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. 14. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: (Romans 2:10-14, KJV)

YLT

10. and glory, and honour, and peace, to every one who is working the good, both to Jew first, and to Greek. 11. For there is no acceptance of faces with God,

12. for as many as without law did sin, without law also shall perish, and as many as did sin in law, through law shall be judged,

for not the hearers of the law [are] righteous before God, but the doers of the law shall be declared righteous: 14. For, when nations that have not a law, by nature may do the things of the law, these not having a law, to themselves are a law; (Romans 2:10-14, YLT)

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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 verse states the principle of proportionate judgment: those who sinned without the law perish without the law, and those who sinned under the law are judged by the law. Two tracks, one standard of fairness.

Paul is dismantling a presumption he expects in his Jewish readers, that possession of the Torah confers standing. Verse 13 makes it explicit: the hearers of the law are not just before God, the doers are. The argument then runs through verses 14 and 15, where Gentiles who do not have the law nevertheless do by nature the things of the law, showing its work written on their hearts, with conscience bearing witness. This is the New Testament's clearest natural-law passage and the anchor for the codex's Argument from Conscience.

Two limits keep the passage from proving more than it does. Paul is not teaching that Gentiles are saved by conscience; the whole argument is driving toward 3:9, that Jews and Greeks alike are under sin, and 3:20, that no flesh is justified by works of law. The two tracks converge on the same verdict. And the phrase without law does not mean without accountability, which is the point of the verse: perishing without the law is still perishing.

The passage is the standard biblical starting point for questions about the unevangelised, precisely because it establishes that God judges people by the light they actually had rather than by light they never received.

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.

G0622 - apollymi, apollymi, Strong's G0622
G3551 - nomos, nomos, Strong's G3551

Quoted in

Concepts:

Lexicon:

G0622 - apollymi

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.