ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Romans 9.3

Book: Romans · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV
  1. I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing witness with me in the Holy Spirit, 2. that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart.

3. For I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren's sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh:

  1. who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; 5. whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. (Romans 9:1-5, ASV)
WEB
  1. I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit, 2. that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart.

3. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers’ sake, my relatives according to the flesh,

  1. who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises; 5. of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen. (Romans 9:1-5, WEB)
KJV
  1. I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, 2. That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.

3. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: accursed: or, separated

  1. Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; covenants: or, testaments 5. Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. (Romans 9:1-5, KJV)
YLT
  1. Truth I say in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing testimony with me in the Holy Spirit, 2. that I have great grief and unceasing pain in my heart

3. for I was wishing, I myself, to be anathema from the Christ, for my brethren, my kindred, according to the flesh,

  1. who are Israelites, whose [is] the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the lawgiving, and the service, and the promises, 5. whose [are] the fathers, and of whom [is] the Christ, according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed to the ages. Amen. (Romans 9:1-5, 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

The opening of Paul's three-chapter treatment of Israel, and one of the most personally exposed sentences he wrote. Having just declared that nothing can separate believers from the love of God, he immediately says he could wish himself anathema apo tou Christou, accursed and cut off from Christ, for the sake of his kinsmen according to the flesh.

The grammar restrains the statement without emptying it. Ēuchomēn is imperfect, and is generally read as an unattainable or unrealised wish, "I could wish," marking something Paul knows is not actually possible for him to choose. The restraint is real, but so is the sentiment: he opens the chapter swearing that he is telling the truth and that his conscience bears witness, precisely because the claim is extreme enough to invite doubt.

Its function in the argument is strategic as well as sincere. Chapters 9 to 11 will make hard claims about hardening, election, and the temporary setting aside of much of Israel, and Paul establishes before any of it that he is not a detached observer of his own people's loss. Anathema is devotion to destruction, the Septuagint's word for what is placed under the ban.

The parallel most readers notice is Moses at Exodus 32:32, offering to be blotted out of God's book after the golden calf. Paul places himself in that line deliberately, as an intercessor willing to be lost in place of the people. See Romans 9.1-29.

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:

People:

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.