The verb translated do away with means “to make ineffective” and so “to render powerless” (New English Bible and Phillips use “undermine”; Jerusalem Bible “make pointless”; An American Translation* “overthrow”). Do away with may be expressed idiomatically in some languages as “throw away the Law,” “say that the Law is nothing,” or “push the Law aside.”

The final phrase by this faith may require some expansion—for example, “because people are put right with God on the basis that they trust him.” A change from a question to a statement may be made by means of some such translation as “this does not in any sense mean that we are doing away with the Law by means of faith.”

Uphold (New English Bible “we are placing law itself on a firmer footing”) may also have the meaning of “to confirm” (see An American Translation*) or “to make valid” (Jerusalem Bible “we are giving the Law its true value”).

In verse 31 Paul uses the Law as a reference to the total religious system of Judaism, which finds its visible embodiment in the Old Testament. So Paul now turns to the Old Testament itself to prove that faith does not do away with the Law but rather upholds it. There is no other incident in the Old Testament likely to have more appeal to the Jews than the account of God’s making the covenant with Abraham, and so in the following chapter Paul uses this passage in particular to establish his point.

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 .