David E. Garland - Romans

InterVarsity Press, USA

P.O. Box 1400
Downers Grove, IL 60515, USA

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Inter-Varsity Press, England

36 Causton Street
London SW1P 4ST, England

ivpbooks.com

2021 by David E. Garland

David E. Garland has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.

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InterVarsity Press, USA, is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. Website: intervarsity.org.

Inter-Varsity Press, England, originated within the Inter-Varsity Fellowship, now the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship, a student movement connecting Christian Unions in universities and colleges throughout Great Britain, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. That historic association is maintained, and all senior IVP staff and committee memberssubscribe to the UCCF Basis of Faith. Website: www.uccf.org.uk.

Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Anglicized edition, copyright 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, and used by permission. All rights reserved.

First published 2021

USA ISBN 978-1-5140-0354-1 (digital)

USA ISBN 978-1-5140-0353-4 (print)

UK ISBN 978-1-78974-312-8 (digital)

UK ISBN 978-1-78974-313-5 (print)

The Tyndale Commentaries have been a flagship series for evangelical readers of the Bible for over sixty years. Both the original New Testament volumes (19561974) as well as the new commentaries (19832003) rightly established themselves as a point of first reference for those who wanted more than is usually offered in a one-volume Bible commentary, without requiring the technical skills in Greek and in Jewish and Graeco-Roman studies of the more detailed series, with the advantage of being shorter than the volumes of intermediate commentary series. The appearance of new popular commentary series demonstrates that there is a continuing demand for commentaries that appeal to Bible study leaders in churches and at universities. The publisher, editors and authors of the Tyndale Commentaries believe that the series continues to meet an important need in the Christian community, not least in what we call today the Global South, with its immense growth of churches and the corresponding need for a thorough understanding of the Bible by Christian believers.

In the light of new knowledge, new critical questions, new revisions of Bible translations, and the need to provide specific guidance on the literary context and the genre of the individual passages as well as on theological emphases, it was time to publish new commentaries in the series. Three authors have revised their commentaries that appeared in the second series. The original aim remains. The new commentaries are neither too short nor unduly long. They are exegetical and thus root the interpretation of the text in its historical context. They do not aim to solve all critical questions, but they are written with an awareness of major scholarly debates which may be treated in the Introduction, in Additional notes or in the commentary itself. While not specifically homiletic in aim, they want to help readers to understand the passage under consideration in such a way that they begin to see points of relevance and application, even though the commentary does not explicitly offer these. The authors base their exegesis on the Greek text, but they write for readers who do not know Greek; Hebrew and Greek terms that are discussed are transliterated. The English translation used for the first series was the Authorized (King James) Version, while the volumes of the second series mostly used the Revised Standard Version; the volumes of the third series use either the New International Version (2011) or the New Revised Standard Version as primary versions, unless otherwise indicated by the author.

An immense debt of gratitude for the first and second series of the Tyndale Commentaries was owed to R. V. G. Tasker and L. Morris, who each wrote four of the commentaries themselves. The recruitment of new authors for the third series proved to be effortless, as colleagues responded enthusiastically to the opportunity to be involved in this project, a testimony to the larger number of New Testament scholars capable and willing to write commentaries, to the wider ethnic identity of contributors, and to the role that the Tyndale Commentaries have played in the church worldwide. It continues to be the hope of all those concerned with this series that God will graciously use the new commentaries to help readers understand as fully and clearly as possible the meaning of the New Testament.

Eckhard J. Schnabel, Series Editor

Nicholas Perrin, Consulting Editor

I am especially grateful to the editor of this series, Eckhard Schnabel, for the invitation to write a commentary on Romans. I benefited immensely from his own masterful two-volume commentary on Romans. I am also indebted to the legion of interpreters of Romans who have devoted their energies and wide-ranging expertise towards bringing clarity to this letter. Unfortunately, not all their names are reflected in the footnotes. I am grateful to Philip Duce at Inter-Varsity Press for his insightful comments; he has been most gracious. My graduate assistants at George W. Truett Theological Seminary, Baylor University, have been invaluable throughout the course of this project. Tia Kim managed to hunt down hundreds of articles on Romans and checked early chapters. I am also thankful for my other graduate students, James Heikkila and Daniel Xingshi Gao; and Lisa Meister Rondina especially provided indispensable help and constructive criticism. All of these students have inspired me with their friendship, stout faith, academic acumen and dedication to ministry. I am also grateful to Dr Howard Batson, pastor of First Baptist Church, Amarillo, Texas, for his comments after reading a rough draft. Romans belongs to the gathered church and not the academy, and I was heartened by his encouragement and conviction that this commentary could be useful for those seeking to proclaim and teach Romans in their various ministerial roles and settings. I am highly indebted to Suzanne Mitchell for her careful and skilful copy-editing and to Belinda Latchford for her proofreading. Naturally, the errors that remain are mine. Finally, I am most grateful for the support of my wife, Nancy Minter, who has brightened my life in countless ways as one who is incredibly loving, gracious and generous.

Thomas Schreiner reflects that Paul ultimately wrote Romans as a servant of God to honor his Lord (Schreiner, p. 26). The fondest hope of any commentator on Romans is that his or her work might also in some small way bring honour and praise to Gods name.

David E. Garland