OK, so I promise that I'll try to do more than just two verses at a time, otherwise it'll take forever to get through this book, but Romans 1:16-17 sort of stand on their own as the real starting point of Paul's letter.
Because it's only two verses, I'll provide them here: (ESV)
16For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith." [if you want to read this in another version click: here.]
I think most of us are pretty familiar with these verses, so I'll leave it to you to comment on them however you feel led, but it was a phrase from vs. 17 that stood out to me: "...from faith for faith..."The way the ESV phrased this had me confused for a bit.
Here's some translation samples:
"...from faith for faith..." ESV
"...from faith to faith..." NASB, KJV, NKJV
"...through faith for faith..." NRSV
"...by faith from first to last..." NIV
"...from start to finish by faith..." NLT
Without a doubt it is the first two options that are the most literal (the only difference being how to translate the preposition, "eis" which can mean, depending on the context, "into, unto, to, towards, for, among").
However, based on the phrasing in Greek it is quite possible that this phrase may be idiomatic, as the NIV & NLT seem to lean towards (the ESV has a footnote on this phrase which states: "Or beginning and ending in faith" which agrees somewhat with the interpretive translation of the NIV & NLT).
Is there a theological difference between these first two options?
Does the Gospel reveal the righteousness of God from faith "for" or "to" faith?
Is there a difference?
Based on how you interpret that, which of the other translations do you think explain it best?
What do you take this verse to mean?
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