King James Version · Under Rome
Romans 3
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What advantage then hath the ? or what profit is there of ? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of . For what if some did not ? shall their unbelief make the of without effect? forbid: yea, let be true, but every man a liar; as , That thou mightest be in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. But if our unrighteousness commend the of , what shall we say? Is unrighteous who taketh ? (I speak as a man) forbid: for then how shall judge the world? For if the truth of hath more abounded through my lie unto his ; why yet am I also judged as a ? And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is . What then? are we better than they? No, in no : for we have before proved both and , that they are all under ; As , There is none , no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after . They are all gone out of , they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open ; with their they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their : Whose is full of and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed : 16 and misery are in their ways: And of peace have they not known: There is no fear of before their eyes. Now we know that what things soever saith, it saith to them who are : that every may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before . Therefore by the deeds of there shall no be in his sight: for by is the knowledge of . But now the of without is manifested, being witnessed by and ; Even the of which is by of unto all and upon all them that : for there is no difference: For all have , and come short of the of ; Being freely by his through the that is in Christ : Whom hath set forth to be a propitiation through in his , to declare his for the remission of that are past, through the forbearance of ; To declare, I say, at this time his : that he might be , and the justifier of him which believeth in . Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by of . Therefore we conclude that a man is by without the deeds of . Is he the of the only? is he not also of the ? Yes, of the also: Seeing it is one , which shall the by , and uncircumcision through . Do we then make void through ? forbid: yea, we establish .
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
Christians read this chapter differently
- How does the death of Jesus save? · Romans 3:21-26
Every view at its strongest, with who holds it and what it has to answer for.
The world at this moment · Under Rome, 63 BC to AD 100 ›
Judea as a client kingdom and then a province. Roads, garrisons, taxes, crucifixion, and a common Greek language that let a message travel the empire faster than any before it.
- Rome
- The republic tears itself apart in civil war and comes out as an empire under Augustus. What follows is two centuries of relative peace across the whole Mediterranean, enforced by legions and paid for by taxes, with safe roads and safe sea lanes. Every one of Paul's journeys depends on that.
- Judea
- Governed first through Herod the Great, a client king of enormous ability and enormous brutality who rebuilds the temple into one of the wonders of the ancient world, then directly by Roman prefects. Crucifixion is the standard penalty for sedition and is used often and publicly.
- The wider world
- Greek is spoken from Spain to Syria, which means a letter written in Corinth can be read in Rome without translation. Jewish communities already exist in most major cities, which is where the first Christian preaching lands. Mystery religions, imperial cult, and philosophy all compete in the same marketplace.
- Further afield
- The Han dynasty rules China and trades silk westward along routes that touch the Roman world at second hand. In Britain the Roman conquest begins within a decade of the crucifixion.