Romans 13 — Greek text and reception
Each card preserves the Greek reading and its textual and reception notes. This source provides a Greek study edition; Hebrew counterparts and Hebrew–Greek classifications are not supplied.
Chapter 13
Authorities, the debt of love, and the approaching day
Verse 13:1
Greek–English Saints Priority
Let every soul submit to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been appointed by God.
Textual & Reception Notes
‘Every soul’ denotes every person. The higher authorities and God’s appointment are stated as Paul’s argument; no additional exception or modern political program is inserted into the translation.
Verse 13:2
Greek–English Saints Priority
Therefore the one who sets himself against authority has resisted God’s ordering, and those who resist will receive judgment upon themselves.
Textual & Reception Notes
The related words for opposing, ordering, and resisting retain the contrast between resistance and appointment.
Verse 13:3
Greek–English Saints Priority
For rulers are not a terror to good work, but to evil. Do you wish not to fear the authority? Do the good, and you will have praise from it;
Textual & Reception Notes
The source has singular ‘good work’ and ‘evil,’ not plural people as the grammatical objects of terror. The governing role is described in relation to conduct.
Verse 13:4
Greek–English Saints Priority
for it is God’s servant to you for good. But if you do evil, fear; for it does not bear the sword without purpose. For it is God’s servant, an avenger for wrath upon the one practicing evil.
Textual & Reception Notes
Διάκονος is servant in this governmental setting, not an automatically asserted ecclesiastical office. Both service for good and the punitive sword image remain explicit.
Verse 13:5
Greek–English Saints Priority
Therefore it is necessary to submit, not only because of wrath, but also because of conscience.
Textual & Reception Notes
Verse 13:6
Greek–English Saints Priority
For this reason you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers, persisting in this very task.
Textual & Reception Notes
Λειτουργοί is ministers or public servants. The source does not name a particular ruler or regime.
Verse 13:7
Greek–English Saints Priority
Pay everyone what is owed: tax to whom tax, duty to whom duty, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.
Textual & Reception Notes
Φόρος and τέλος distinguish tax or tribute from duty or toll. Fear and honor are separately named and are not collapsed into a single monetary obligation.
Verse 13:8
Greek–English Saints Priority
Owe no one anything except to love one another; for the one who loves the other has fulfilled law.
Textual & Reception Notes
The recurring debt vocabulary links what is owed with the continuing obligation of love. The translation retains the strong wording without converting the verse into a detailed financial rule.
Verse 13:9
Greek–English Saints Priority
For “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not desire,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Textual & Reception Notes
The source does not include a separate false-witness command in this list. The desire verb continues the coveting language of 7:7.
Verse 13:10
Greek–English Saints Priority
Love does not work evil toward the neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of law.
Textual & Reception Notes
Verse 13:11
Greek–English Saints Priority
And do this knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to rise from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.
Textual & Reception Notes
English supplies ‘do this’ to complete the opening elliptical phrase. The source has plural ‘you’ in the waking clause and ‘to us’ in the nearness clause.
Verse 13:12
Greek–English Saints Priority
The night has advanced, and the day has drawn near. Therefore let us put away the works of darkness and put on the weapons of light.
Textual & Reception Notes
Ὅπλα is weapons or equipment; ‘weapons’ maintains the image used in 6:13. The warfare language here is joined to honorable conduct, not an added call to violence.
Verse 13:13
Greek–English Saints Priority
Let us walk honorably as in daytime, not in revelries and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and licentiousness, not in strife and jealousy;
Textual & Reception Notes
Κοίταις, literally beds, is rendered as sexual promiscuity in this vice list. All three pairs are retained.
Verse 13:14
Greek–English Saints Priority
but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not make provision for the flesh toward its desires.
Textual & Reception Notes
The flesh’s provision is directed toward desires in the source; the clause does not explicitly prohibit ordinary bodily care.