For the gospel reveals is in the Greek a passive construction, literally “for in it is revealed.” For the gospel reveals may be rendered as “for the Good News shows” or “the Good News explains.”
How God puts men right with himself represents the Greek phrase “the righteousness of God.” In this context, however, “the righteousness of God” does not refer to God’s own righteous character, but to his saving activity whereby he puts men in the right (as a judge declares a man innocent), or whereby he puts men in a right relationship to himself. Both An American Translation* (“God’s way of uprightness”) and the New English Bible (“God’s way of right and wrong”) indicate that this is a description of God’s activity rather than of his character, but both of these translations do so with a rendering that sounds too impersonal. The Jerusalem Bible renders this phrase by “the justice of God,” but explains in a note: “the saving justice (cf. Isaiah 56.1) of God, 3.26, who fulfills his promise to save by giving salvation as a free gift.” See further the comments on the verb (generally rendered “justify”) in 3.24 below.
Traditionally, this reference to “the righteousness of God” has been explained as “forensic righteousness,” that is to say, “God declaring men right.” Accordingly, some translations employ “the gospel reveals how God declares men straight” or “how men have a straight heart.” However, the theological focus at this point seems not to be so much on God’s declaration of man’s imputed innocence as on the fact that he puts men in a new relationship to himself. It is man’s confidence in God which puts him in a new covenant relationship with God and thus establishes his “righteousness.” The phrase in the Good News Translation, puts men right with, seems to be particularly appropriate since it emphasizes this aspect of relation. It is not always easy to find a similar type of expression in other languages, and especially one which carries over a form such as right which has such a close relationship to “righteous” and “righteousness.” In some instances translators use phrases such as “how God arranges people with himself as they should be,” “how God brings men back to himself in the right way as they should be” or “how God makes men straight with himself.”
Through faith, from beginning to end represents a rather ambiguous phrase in Greek, literally “from faith to faith.” This expression is taken by some to mean “originating in God’s faithfulness and resulting in man’s faith,” but it is more likely that it means “faith from start to finish.” The New English Bible renders this as “starts from faith and ends in faith.” In order to render satisfactorily the expression through faith, from beginning to end it may be necessary to recast rather radically the sets of semantic components—for example, “all this happened because people believed,” “this is just a matter of people’s believing,” or “all that God does depends upon people’s trusting throughout.”
As the scripture says (literally “as it is written”) is a reference to one passage of scripture, and not to the Old Testament as a whole.
He who is put right with God through faith shall live represents a quotation from Habakkuk 2.4 (see also in Galatians 3.11; Hebrews 10.38) and does not agree precisely either with the Hebrew text (“the righteous shall live by my faithfulness”), or with the Septuagint (“the righteous shall live by his faithfulness”), either in form or in meaning. Although it is possible that the traditional translation expresses the meaning (see the alternative rendering in the Good News Translation, “he who is put right with God shall live through faith”), it is more likely that Paul means: “he who is put right with God through faith shall live.” He who is put right with God translates the Greek, “the righteous (one).” Again, the meaning depends on the whole context of the letter, and while some see this as a moral attribute in man (“the upright [man]” of An American Translation* and Jerusalem Bible; “the righteous [man]” of most translations), it seems rather that Paul is speaking of the man “who is put into a right relationship with God by faith” (see New English Bible “he shall gain life who is justified through faith”). Since in many languages it is difficult to employ the passive expression he who is put right with God, one may be obliged to use an active form: “the man whom God has put right with himself.”
Through faith indicates instrumentality, often expressed as causative if faith is rendered as a separate verb of believing—for example, “the one whom God has put right with himself because he trusts God.”
In some languages an expression such as shall live may mean merely continued physical existence. For this reason it is necessary in some instances to specify the kind of living referred to here as being exceptional—for example, “shall really live” or “shall truly live.” The emphasis in this passage is clearly upon the quality of life, not upon mere continued existence.
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1973. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .