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Romans Chapter 7

Romans Chapter 7

(Underlining marks a quotation/allusion. [Brackets] mark a textual variant.fnWhen two (or more) different copies of an original manuscript disagree on any given word or phrase — addition, omission, word order, etc. — the disagreement is called a "textual variant". ~99% of existing textual variants are either minor (like spelling), obviously not original (often appearing only in a few late manuscripts), or don't affect meaning (like "Jesus Christ" vs. "Christ Jesus"). The ~1% that remain do not affect any central doctrine of Christianity. The BOS Bible only marks significant textual variants that affect the meaning; smaller variants that do not affect meaning won't be marked for readability.  "Love" with a caret ("^love") is agapé.fn"agapé" The Greek words ἀγάπη (agapé, noun), and ἀγαπάω (agapaó; verb) are typically translated "love".  However, unlike our English word "love" – which primarily speaks of affection and feelings — agapé centers on choice and behavior.  It’s the "love" based on will, choice, behavior, and action; not feelings.  (Feelings-based love is the Greek word φιλέω (phileó), which properly means "brotherly love/affection".)  Thus, you could hate someone passionately and still treat him with "agapé".  Agapé "love" is best understood as the pursuit of what is most beneficial to someone or something, regardless of the cost to yourself or the type of response received from the person or thing.  It can also indicate a preference for someone or something over other things. An asterisk (*) indicates a verb in the Greek perfect tense.fnThe Greek perfect tense signifies a completed action in the past with a result and/or an ongoing state that extends into the present. For example, Hebrews 12:2 says in part: "He *sat down at the right hand of the throne of God"; the verb for "sat" is in the perfect tense, indicating that He sat down once (completed action in the past), and also that He remains seated until the present moment (ongoing state).)

Glossary

Note: this glossary is currently a work in progress; entries that do not expand will be added as time permits

Ages/of ages
“ages” and “of ages” are the Greek words “αἰών” (aión, noun form) and “αἰώνιος” (aiónios, adjective form) respectively.  The adjective form is typically translated “eternal”, as in “eternal life”. The noun form refers to a whole time period, (Keizer, “Life Time Entirety”) such as a person’s lifetime (an older Greek sense), an age/epoch (e.g., 2 Cor 4:4), or even time in its entirety, making its meaning similar to “forever” (e.g., John 14:16). The adjective form is similarly context-dependent, and the New Testament context often dictates a meaning similar to “forever” (but not always: e.g. 2 Tim 1:9).  Alternately or additionally, it can indicate the quality of a time period — indicating greatness/severity — like the English idiom “of ages” (e.g. “battle of the ages”). Thus, “of ages” was chosen for the adjective form so that both the time and quality senses remain visible.

Clean/unclean

Covenant

Faith

Flesh

Forgive/forgiveness

Grace
The Greek word is “χάρις” (charis), most often translated “grace”, “gift”, or “thanks”. It was a technical term in the 1st century, referring to the Patronage system in place. The Patron (from “pater” = “father”) would give gifts or do favors (both called a charis). A charis was always given/done freely to anyone who would be grateful for it, and this person then became a “client” of the patron. The clients were expected to reciprocate by telling everyone what the patron had done, and offering their services to the patron whenever the patron needed them. This reciprocal act was also called “charis”, and the ones who reciprocated were “being faithful” by giving thanks in this way. Both were done out of gratitude, not legal obligation. A client who wasn’t faithful and grateful probably wouldn’t receive any more charis from his patron, or any other patrons. The patron was responsible for taking care of all his clients, and making sure their needs were met. New Testament usage typically casts God the Father as a Heavenly Patron, to whom Christians should be grateful and faithful because of the gifts He has given us. (e.g. salvation, provision, protection, etc.)

Holy

Justification

Law (Torah)

Make purification

Pure/Impure

Purification offering
In the Old Testament, this is typically the Hebrew “חַטָּ֖את” (khat-tat); in the New Testament, it’s typically “περὶ ἁμαρτίας” (peri hamartias), which is what the Septuagint (an ancient translation of the Old Testament into Greek) used to translate the Hebrew. It’s traditionally translated “sin offering”, but that translation has less support in high-level scholarship. The Hebrew word can mean “sin”, but it can also mean “purification” (e.g. Numbers 8:7). This offering was used to purify uncleanness, whether or not a sin was committed. Thus, it was required even when no sin was committed, such as after childbirth (Leviticus 12:1-8), for certain diseases (Leviticus 14), etc. High-level, peer-reviewed scholarship dedicated to the field (e.g. Milgrom, Levine, Gane, Sklar, Wright, Gorman, etc.) is largely united on the “purification offering” understanding. The BOS Bible has aligned itself with that high-level, peer-reviewed scholarship in its translation.

Ransom

Redemption

Repent/repentance

Righteous/righteousness

Salvation/save

Soul
“soul” is the Greek word “ψυχή/psuché” and Hebrew word “נֶפֶשׁ/nephesh”. The BOS Bible translates these words as “soul” for consistency, and so the full meaning of “soul” isn’t obscured by different translations in different places. They closely overlap in meaning and are typically translated “soul” or “life”. They refer to the animating force of a living thing, and thus can also refer to its life, or to the whole of any person or creature, including animals (e.g. fish in Revelation 8:9 and Genesis 1). They are frequently used as an emphatic reference to a person’s whole self, including longings, deep emotions, and inner life. (e.g. Ps 42:11) Note: while “soul” has significant overlap in meaning with “spirit”, the words have distinct meanings and usages throughout scripture. For example, lions tear apart a soul in Psalm 7:2, and a “dead soul” is mentioned in Leviticus 21:11; “spirit” has no analogous usages, and it returns to God at death (Ecc 12:7; Acts 7:59). The adjective forms of soul and spirit are contrasted in 1 Corinthians 2:14-15; see also: Hebrews 4:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:23.

Sin

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The law, sin, and death

(Parallel teachings: 2 Corinthians 3:1–18; Galatians 2:19–21; Galatians 3:19–25)

  • 1 Or don’t you know, brothers – for I speak to men knowing the law – that the law has authority over a man for as long asfn“as long as” is literally “as long as the time” he lives?
  • 2 For the married woman is *bound by law to her husband while he’s living.  But if the husband dies, she is *severed from the law concerning the husband.
  • 3 So then, if she becomes joined to another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress.  But she is free from the law if the husband dies, so she’s not an adulteress, though having become joined to another man.
  • 4 So then my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of the Anointed for you to become joined to another, to the One who was raised from the dead so that we might bear fruit to God.
  • 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions aroused through the law were at work in our body parts to bear fruit to death.
  • 6 But now, we were severed from the law, having died to the things which we were bound to, in order for us to serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
  • 7 Therefore, what will we say?  Is the law sin?  May it never be!  But I didn’t recognize sin except through the law, for I hadn’t even been aware of covetousness except that the law was saying: “You shall not covet.”fnquotation/allusion to Exodus 20:17 and Deuteronomy 5:21 (also quoted/alluded to by Rom 13:9)
  • 8 But having taken an opportunity through the commandment, sin brought about all sorts of covetousness in me, for apart from the law, sin is dead.
  • 9 Yet I was once alive apart from the law, but with the commandment having come, the sin revived and I died.
  • 10 And the commandment that was to result in lifefnquotation/allusion to Leviticus 18:5 (also quoted/alluded to by Galatians 3:12; Romans 10:5). Given the clear allusion to Genesis 3:13 in the following verse and broader Pauline context that sin causes death (see CF note on verse 13) this might also be a reference to Genesis 2:16-17. for me, this was found to result in death.
  • 11 For having taken an opportunity through the commandment, sin thoroughly deceived me;fnquotation/allusion to Genesis 3:13 (also quoted/alluded to by 2 Cor 11:3; 1 Tim 2:14) and through it, put me to death.
  • 12 So then the law is indeed holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.
Desiring to do good but not doing it

(Parallel teachings: Galatians 5:16–26)

  • 13 Therefore, did something good become death to me?  May it never be!  But it was sin – so that it might be revealed as sin – bringing about death in me through what’s good, so that sin might become extraordinarily sinful through the commandment. CFParallel teachings (that sin causes death): James 1:15; Romans 5:12, 6:16, 6:23, 7:5. See also 1 Corinthians 15:25-26 (death is God’s enemy, and He will defeat it).
  • 14 For we *know that the law is spiritual but I’m made of flesh, having been *sold under sin’s authority.fnquotation/allusion to Isaiah 50:1
  • 15 For I don’t understand what I bring about.  For what I desire, this I don’t do.  But what I hate, this I do.
  • 16 But if what I don’t desire, this I do, I agree with the law that the law is good.
  • 17 And now I no longer bring it about, but the sin dwelling in me does.
  • 18 For I *know that good doesn’t dwell in me (that is, in my flesh).  For the desire to do good is present in me, but the bringing about of good isn’t.
  • 19 For I don’t do the good that I desire; but the evil that I don’t desire, this I practice.
  • 20 And if what I don’t desire, this I do, it’s no longer I who bring it about, but the sin dwelling in me.
  • 21 Therefore, I find the principle that despite me desiring to do good, evil is present in me,
  • 22 for I delight in the law of God in accordance with the inner man.
  • 23 But I see another law in my body parts, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner to the law of sin existing in my body parts.
  • 24 What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from the body of this death?
  • 25 But thanks be to God through Jesus the Anointed our Lord!  So then, I myself indeed serve God’s law with my mind, but sin’s law with my flesh.

 

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