I have an obligation is literally “I am a debtor.” It is difficult in some languages to speak of an obligation. In fact, the concept of “debt” is a far simpler expression to employ in this type of context. On the other hand, without special contextual conditioning the use of a term for “debt” might be taken literally—for example, “I am in debt to all people,” a concept which should be avoided. In order to shift this metaphor to a simile, one may employ some such expression as “I seem to have a debt to all peoples” or “it is like I am in debt to all peoples.” In some languages the figure of speech is somewhat shifted—for example, “I am a servant to help all peoples.”

In the following categories, civilized … savage and educated … ignorant, Paul is clearly referring to all peoples, and the Good News Translation makes this information explicit. In the first two expressions, civilized … savage (literally “Greeks … barbarians”), the distinction is not racial or national, but cultural. Paul is writing to Romans, who were “Greek” in terms of culture, and the Greeks called all other peoples “barbarians.” The two terms, then, classify people who are considered either within or outside of the realm of civilized society. The next two terms, educated … ignorant, do not refer to innate intellectual capacities, but rather to degrees of learning.

It is not easy to find series of words which will properly contrast extremes of culture and education. In some instances one can only employ positive and negative features: “civilized and uncivilized,” “educated and uneducated.” In a number of languages there are no such general terms for cultural and educational advantages. However, there are almost always ways of talking about civilized versus uncivilized peoples, for there are no societies who do not look down on other societies as being less civilized than themselves. In some instances civilized people are spoken of as “those who live in villages,” in contrast with “those who live in the forest.” Educated people may be “those who can read,” in contrast with “those who cannot read.” In other situations, the civilized are “those who have chiefs,” in contrast with people who are not led by chiefs, and the educated people are “those who know books,” in contrast with those who do not. The translator must determine what in the local receptor language are those distinctive factors which designate contrasts of culture and education. It is interesting that in some instances the concept of civilization is very closely tied to religious beliefs—for example, the civilized may be “those who know the rules of God,” while the uncivilized are “those who do not know God’s rules.”

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 .