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Romans

Romanschapter 10

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Speaks with:Romans 9×4Galatians 3×4Deuteronomy 30×2Romans 1×2Romans 11×2Isaiah 65×2

Summary

Chapter summary

Paul's desire is their salvation. Israel has a zeal, but not according to knowledge; seeking to establish their own, they submitted not to God's. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. Confess with the mouth, believe in the heart. Thou shalt be saved. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Isaiah's lament: Lord, who hath believed our report? Wesley stresses the open door. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Context

Epistle · Paul — Romans overview

  • A. 1–4 Zeal Without Knowledge: Christ Is the End of the Law
  • B. 5–13 The Word Is Near You: Confess and Believe
  • C. 14–21 How Shall They Hear Without a Preacher?

The outline

  1. A.Zeal Without Knowledge: Christ Is the End of the Lawvv. 1 to 4

    Read vv. 1 to 4 →

  2. B.The Word Is Near You: Confess and Believevv. 5 to 13

    Read vv. 5 to 13 →

  3. C.How Shall They Hear Without a Preacher?vv. 14 to 21

    Read vv. 14 to 21 →

Threads

Each of these runs on past this chapter. The passage you have just read is marked.

The Spirit poured out on all flesh

Pattern

Joel promised that the Lord would pour out his spirit upon all flesh, and that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered. At Pentecost Peter stands up and says plainly, this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. Paul carries the same whosoever to the nations in Romans.

Pentecost is not an accident explained afterward; Peter names its text. The promise runs on the widest word Scripture has, whosoever, and it names sons and daughters, servants and handmaids, prophesying alike. The church's endowment of the Spirit begins here as a promise kept.

  1. Joel 2:28-29

    I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh

    Sons and daughters, old men and young men, servants and handmaids: the promise reaches every rank.

  2. Joel 2:32

    Whosoever shall call shall be delivered

  3. Acts 2:16-17

    Peter at Pentecost: this is that

    Peter stands and names the prophet: this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.

  4. Acts 2:21

    Whosoever, preached in Jerusalem

  5. Romans 10:13 you are here

    Whosoever, written to the nations

The world behind this chapter

Romans 10
When
Nero's early reign · c. AD 57
Where
Confession, preaching, and the question of how anyone hears at all.
Who first heard it
Mixed house churches in Rome, in a city where public words about lordship carried political weight.

The history

Confessing "Jesus is Lord" was not a private opinion in Rome. The same title was used for the emperor, and by the end of the century refusing to say "Caesar is lord" would be a test that decided whether a Christian lived. Even in Nero's early years, saying it out loud in front of witnesses had a cost.

Public confession also fit how the ancient world worked. Loyalty was declared, not merely held; oaths, acclamations, and spoken allegiance were the visible glue of society. Paul pairs believing in the heart with confessing with the mouth because both were expected of a real allegiance.

He quotes Moses in Deuteronomy about the word being near — in your mouth and in your heart — to argue that the message he preaches is not remote or unreachable. And he quotes Isaiah's line about beautiful feet, which in its original setting described messengers running over the hills with news that the exile was over.

What it meant to them

The first hearers were given the plainest sentence in the letter: everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, with no distinction between Jew and Greek.

They were also given a job. The chain of questions — how will they call on one they have not believed, and how believe in one they have not heard, and how hear without a preacher — puts the whole weight of the argument onto people willing to go and speak.

Sources cited

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on Romans 10. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →

Connections from this chapter

v. 9 · A mirrored structure

Chiasm across two verses: confess/believe (v.9) reversed to believe/confess (v.10), ordering the two halves of saving response.

Romans 10:10→

For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved.

Lund, Chiasmus in the New Testament (1942); standard exegesis

v. 11 · Written to them

Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed

topics/shame→

MannaFest topical index

v. 13 · The Greek Old Testament reads it this way

Joel promises that “whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered”: the name is YHWH (H3068). The Greek Old Testament renders it kyrios, Lord, and Paul takes that verse up and applies it to Jesus: “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom 10:13).

Joel 2:32→

And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the LORD has promised, among the remnant called by the LORD.

LXX Joel 3:5 (Swete, PD); Rom 10:13; Hurtado 2014; Rosel JSOT 2007

v. 15 · Quoted here

'How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel': the formula-quoted OT source behind Eph 6:15, feet shod with the gospel of peace.

Isaiah 52:7→

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

public-domain commentaries in agreement; cross-checked against the UBS apparatus

v. 16 · Quoted here

'Lord, who hath believed our report?' Paul ('Esaias saith'), on Israel's unbelief of the gospel

Isaiah 53:1→

Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

public-domain commentaries in agreement; cross-checked against the UBS apparatus

v. 17 · A guardrail on the reading

Faulkner's theological objection: faith comes by hearing the word (Rom 10:17) and the rulers of this age did not know the hidden wisdom (1 Cor 2:8) - redemption was not legibly pre-written in the constellations.

1 Corinthians 2:8→

None of the rulers of this age understood it. For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Faulkner, J. Creation 12(2):169-172 (1998); Rom 10:17; 1 Cor 2:8 (ASV)

v. 18 · Quoted here

Paul quotes Ps 19:4 ('their line is gone out through all the earth') in Rom 10:18, applying the heavens' silent witness to the preached gospel - the hinge of the natural-vs-special-revelation question the page turns on.

Psalms 19:4→

their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens He has pitched a tent for the sun.

Rom 10:18 quoting Ps 19:4 (LXX); Beale & Carson, CNTUOT (2007)

Where scholars push back(1)

Joel 2:32. Whether the oldest Greek copies already read kyrios or kept the Hebrew name in the text is argued. Pietersma and Rösel say kyrios, Tov and Shaw say the divine name.

This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.

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