Romans 1:15
To you also who are in Rome
- The gospel’s word εὐαγγελίζομαι euangelizomai · to speak good news
Original
Translations
That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.
So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.
so, as much as in me is, I am ready also to you who [are] in Rome to proclaim good news,
그러므로 나는 할 수 있는 대로 로마에 있는 너희에게도 복음 전하기를 원하노라
그러므로 내 안에 있는 분량대로 나는 또한 로마에 있는 너희에게 복음을 선포할 준비가 되어 있노라.
Commentaries
Matthew Henry on Rom 1:8-15 as a whole
We must show love for our friends, not only by praying for them, but by praising God for them. As in our purposes, so in our desires, we must remember to say, If the Lord will, Jas 4:15. Our journeys are made prosperous or otherwise, according to the will of God. …
Read the whole commentary →Wesley
Nothing on this verse itself.
Read the whole commentary →
Note
After his thanks and his prayers (Romans 1:8–12), Paul admits that he has often planned to come to Rome and has been prevented until now (Romans 1:13). He is under obligation, he says, "both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish" (Romans 1:14). This verse draws the conclusion: "That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome" (Romans 1:15).
Here the gospel is a verb. The Greek is εὐαγγελίσασθαι, the aorist middle infinitive of , "to bring good news", and this is the verb's first appearance in Romans. Notice whom it is aimed at. The "you" of the sentence are the people of verse 7, "all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints" (Romans 1:7): believers already. The gospel is not news only for first hearers. Paul means to bring it to a church, and the letter in our hands is that gospel, sent ahead of him in writing.
"Eager" translates , the word Jesus used in Gethsemane of the spirit that is "willing" (Matthew 26:41). The Greek is compact, roughly "so the eagerness, as far as it rests with me". The King James Version keeps that shape: "So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also." Ready is a word of resolve; the BSB's "so eager" is a word of desire. The Greek word holds both. The LSV, true to its habit, says "to proclaim good news", and so reminds the reader that the verb is about news.
The commentators dwell on the debt of the verse before. Wesley reads the pairs of Greeks and barbarians, wise and unwise, as taking in everyone: "He includes the Romans under the Greeks; so that this division comprises all nations" Wesley. The debt itself he explains: "I am bound by my divine mission to preach the gospel to them" Wesley. Matthew Henry widens it to every believer: "for his sake we are debtors to all men, to do all the good we can" Matthew Henry. A debt, in this picture, is not something Paul borrowed from the nations; it is what Christ entrusted to him for them.
Paul most likely wrote from Corinth, during the three months in Greece that Acts records (Acts 20:2–3). An old note at the end of the letter, found in many later manuscripts and printed in the King James Bible, says the same, and names Phoebe of Cenchrea as its bearer.
A church that reads this letter today stands where the believers in Rome stood, receiving the gospel Paul was eager to bring them.