Romans 7:1
New International Version
Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives?

New Living Translation
Now, dear brothers and sisters—you who are familiar with the law—don’t you know that the law applies only while a person is living?

English Standard Version
Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives?

Berean Standard Bible
Do you not know, brothers (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives?

Berean Literal Bible
Or are you ignorant brothers (for I speak to those knowing the law), that the law rules over the man for as long as the time he is alive?

King James Bible
Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

New King James Version
Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?

New American Standard Bible
Or do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the Law), that the Law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?

NASB 1995
Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?

NASB 1977
Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?

Legacy Standard Bible
Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is master over a person as long as he lives?

Amplified Bible
Or do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the Law), that the Law has jurisdiction [to rule] over a person as long as he lives?

Christian Standard Bible
Since I am speaking to those who know the law, brothers and sisters, don’t you know that the law rules over someone as long as he lives?

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Since I am speaking to those who understand law, brothers, are you unaware that the law has authority over someone as long as he lives?

American Standard Version
Or are ye ignorant, brethren (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law hath dominion over a man for so long time as he liveth?

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Or do you not know, my brethren, for I speak to those who know The Written Law, that The Written Law has authority over a man as long as he lives,

Contemporary English Version
My friends, you surely understand enough about law to know that laws only have power over people who are alive.

Douay-Rheims Bible
KNOW you not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) that the law hath dominion over a man, as long as it liveth?

English Revised Version
Or are ye ignorant, brethren (for I speak to men that know the law), how that the law hath dominion over a man for so long time as he liveth?

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Don't you realize, brothers and sisters, that laws have power over people only as long as they are alive? (I'm speaking to people who are familiar with Moses' Teachings.)

Good News Translation
Certainly you will understand what I am about to say, my friends, because all of you know about law. The law rules over people only as long as they live.

International Standard Version
Don't you realize, brothers—for I am speaking to people who know the Law—that the Law can press its claims over a person only as long as he is alive?

Literal Standard Version
Are you ignorant, brothers—for to those knowing law I speak—that the law has lordship over the man as long as he lives?

Majority Standard Bible
Do you not know, brothers (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives?

New American Bible
Are you unaware, brothers (for I am speaking to people who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over one as long as one lives?

NET Bible
Or do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law is lord over a person as long as he lives?

New Revised Standard Version
Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only during that person’s lifetime?

New Heart English Bible
Or do you not know, brothers (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has authority over a person for as long as he lives?

Webster's Bible Translation
Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law) that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

Weymouth New Testament
Brethren, do you not know--for I am writing to people acquainted with the Law--that it is during our lifetime that we are subject to the Law?

World English Bible
Or don’t you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives?

Young's Literal Translation
Are ye ignorant, brethren -- for to those knowing law I speak -- that the law hath lordship over the man as long as he liveth?

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Release from the Law
1 Do you not know, brothers (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? 2For instance, a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage.…

Cross References
Romans 1:13
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, how often I planned to come to you (but have been prevented from visiting until now), in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.

Romans 10:4
For Christ is the end of the law, to bring righteousness to everyone who believes.


Treasury of Scripture

Know you not, brothers, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?

Know.

Romans 6:3
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

brethren.

Romans 9:3
For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:

Romans 10:1
Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.

them that.

Romans 2:17,18
Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, …

Ezra 7:25
And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God, that is in thine hand, set magistrates and judges, which may judge all the people that are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of thy God; and teach ye them that know them not.

Proverbs 6:23
For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

the law.

Romans 7:6
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

Romans 6:14
For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

a man.

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Romans 7
1. No law has power over a man longer than he lives.
4. But we are dead to the law.
7. Yet is not the law sin;
12. but holy, just and good;
16. as I acknowledge, who am grieved because I cannot keep it.














VII.

(1-6) The Apostle takes up an idea to which he had alluded in Romans 7:14-15 of the preceding chapter, "Ye are not under the Law, but under grace;" and as he had worked out the conclusion of the death of the Christian to sin, so now he works out that of his death to the Law. This he does by an illustration borrowed from the marriage-bond. That bond is dissolved by the death of one of the parties to it. And in like manner the death of the Christian with Christ releases him from his obligation to the Law, and opens out to him a new and spiritual service in place of his old subjection to a written code.

(1) Know ye not.--Here again insert "or": Or know ye not, &c., carrying on the thought from the end of the last chapter. Is not, argues the Apostle, what I say true? Or do I hear the old objection raised again, that the system under which the Christian is living is not one of grace in which eternal life is given freely by God, but the Mosaic law? That would show an ignorance--which in you I cannot believe--of the fact that the dominion of the Law ceases with death, of which fact it is easy to take a simple illustration.

To them that know the law.--The Roman Church, as we have seen, was composed in about equal proportions of Jewish and of Gentile Christians. The Jews would naturally know the provisions of their own law, while the Gentile Christians would know them sufficiently to be aware of the fact, from their intercourse with Jewish members of their own community, and from hearing the Old Testament read in the synagogues, where their public worship was still conducted. The practice of reading from the Old Testament did not cease on the transition from Jewish to Christian modes of worship; it survives still in the "First Lesson."

Verses 1-6. - Here comes in the third illustration of the moral obligation of the baptized. It rests on the recognized principle that death cancels the claims of human law on a person (cf. Romans 6:7); and this with especial reference to the law of marriage, as being peculiarly applicable to the subject to be illustrated, since the Church is elsewhere regarded as married to Christ. As has been observed above, it is from the Law that Christians are now said to be emancipated in the death of Christ; not from sin, as in the previous sections. Hence this section might at first sight seem to introduce a new line of thought. But it is really a continuation of the same, though differently viewed; for, in the sense intended by St. Paul, being under the Law is equivalent to being under sin. How this is has already more or less appeared; and it will be shown further in the latter part of this chapter. For elucidating the connection of thought between this and the preceding sections, it may be here briefly stated thus: A fundamental axiom with the apostle is that "where no law is, there is no transgression" (Romans 4:15; cf. 5:13; 7:9); i.e. without law of some kind (including in the idea both external law and the law of conscience) to reveal to man the difference between right and wrong, he is not held responsible; to be a sinner before God he must know what sin is. Human sin consists in a man doing wrong, knowing it to be wrong; or, at any rate, with an original power and opportunity of knowing it to be so. (This, be it observed, is the idea running through the whole of ch. 1, in which all mankind are convicted of sin; the whole drift of the argument being that they had sinned against knowledge.) Law, then, in making sin known to man, subjects him to its guilt, and consequently to its condemnation. But this is all it does; it is all that, in itself, it can do. It can remove neither the guilt nor the dominion of sin. Its principle is simply to exact entire obedience to its requirements; and there it leaves the sinner. The above view applies to all law, and of course peculiarly to the Mosaic Law (which the writer has all along mainly in view) in proportion to the authority of its source and the strictness of its requirements. Thus it is that St. Paul regards being under the Law as the same thing as being under sin, and dying to the Law as the same thing as dying to sin. Grace, on the other hand, under which we pass in rising again with Christ, does both the things which law cannot do: it both cancels the guilt of sin (repentance and faith presumed), and also imparts power to overcome it. Verse 1. - Are ye ignorant, brethren (for I speak to persons knowing law), how that the Law hath dominion over a man for so long time as he liveth? i.e. so long as the man liveth; not so long as the Law liveth in the sense of viget, or "remains in force," though Origen, Ambrose, Grotius, Erasmus, and others, for reasons that will appear, understood the latter sense. It is not the natural one.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
Do you not know,
ἀγνοεῖτε (agnoeite)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 50: To do not know, be ignorant of, sometimes with the idea of willful ignorance.

brothers
ἀδελφοί (adelphoi)
Noun - Vocative Masculine Plural
Strong's 80: A brother, member of the same religious community, especially a fellow-Christian. A brother near or remote.

(for
γὰρ (gar)
Conjunction
Strong's 1063: For. A primary particle; properly, assigning a reason.

I am speaking
λαλῶ (lalō)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 1st Person Singular
Strong's 2980: A prolonged form of an otherwise obsolete verb; to talk, i.e. Utter words.

to those who know
γινώσκουσιν (ginōskousin)
Verb - Present Participle Active - Dative Masculine Plural
Strong's 1097: A prolonged form of a primary verb; to 'know' in a great variety of applications and with many implications.

[the] law),
νόμον (nomon)
Noun - Accusative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3551: From a primary nemo; law, genitive case, specially, (including the volume); also of the Gospel), or figuratively.

that
ὅτι (hoti)
Conjunction
Strong's 3754: Neuter of hostis as conjunction; demonstrative, that; causative, because.

the
(ho)
Article - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

law
νόμος (nomos)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3551: From a primary nemo; law, genitive case, specially, (including the volume); also of the Gospel), or figuratively.

has authority over
κυριεύει (kyrieuei)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 2961: To have authority, rule over. From kurios; to rule.

a man
ἀνθρώπου (anthrōpou)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 444: A man, one of the human race. From aner and ops; man-faced, i.e. A human being.

only
ἐφ’ (eph’)
Preposition
Strong's 1909: On, to, against, on the basis of, at.

as long as
ὅσον (hoson)
Personal / Relative Pronoun - Accusative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3745: How much, how great, how many, as great as, as much. By reduplication from hos; as As.

he lives?
ζῇ (zē)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 2198: To live, be alive. A primary verb; to live.


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NT Letters: Romans 7:1 Or don't you know brothers for (Rom. Ro)
Romans 6:23
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