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Wednesday, August 6th, 2025
the Week of Proper 13 / Ordinary 18
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Geneva Bible

Romans 4:15

For the Lawe causeth wrath: for where no Lawe is, there is no transgression.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Abraham;   Bigotry;   Catholicity;   Faith;   Justification;   Salvation;   Works;   Scofield Reference Index - Grace;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Law of God, the;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Type;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Law;   Promise;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Law;   Old Testament in the New Testament, the;   Sin;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Covenant;   Law;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Church;   Justification;   Old Testament Quotations in the New Testament;   Promise;   Romans, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Grace;   Hebrews, Epistle to;   Justification, Justify;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Anger;   Guilt (2);   Law;   Promise;   Punishment;   Romans Epistle to the;   Unity;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Law;   Sin;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Impute;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Accountability;   Hebrews, Epistle to the;   Law in the New Testament;   Pauline Theology;   Promise;   Retribution;   Transgression;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Antinomianism;   Saul of Tarsus;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
because the law produces wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.
King James Version (1611)
Because the law worketh wrath: for where no Lawe is, there is no transgression.
King James Version
Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
English Standard Version
For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.
New American Standard Bible
for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation.
New Century Version
because the law can only bring God's anger. But if there is no law, there is nothing to disobey.
Amplified Bible
For the Law results in [God's] wrath [against sin], but where there is no law, there is no violation [of it either].
New American Standard Bible (1995)
for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation.
Legacy Standard Bible
for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no trespass.
Berean Standard Bible
because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.
Contemporary English Version
God becomes angry when his Law is broken. But where there isn't a law, it cannot be broken.
Complete Jewish Bible
For what law brings is punishment. But where there is no law, there is also no violation.
Darby Translation
For law works wrath; but where no law is neither [is there] transgression.
Easy-to-Read Version
because the law can only bring God's anger on those who disobey it. But if there is no law, then there is nothing to disobey.
George Lamsa Translation
For the law causes provocation; for where there is no law, there is no transgression.
Good News Translation
The Law brings down God's anger; but where there is no law, there is no disobeying of the law.
Lexham English Bible
For the law produces wrath, but where there is no law, neither is there transgression.
Literal Translation
For the Law works out wrath; for where no law is, neither is transgression.
American Standard Version
for the law worketh wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there transgression.
Bible in Basic English
For the outcome of the law is wrath; but where there is no law it will not be broken.
Hebrew Names Version
For the law works wrath, for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience.
International Standard Version
for the law brings about wrath. Now where there is no law, neither can there be any violation of it.Romans 3:20; 1 Corinthians 15:56; 2 Corinthians 3:7,9; Galatians 3:10,19; 1 John 3:4;">[xr]
Etheridge Translation
For the law is the worker of wrath. For where there is no law, there also is no transgression of the law.
Murdock Translation
For the law is a worker of wrath; because where no law is, there is no transgression of law.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Because the lawe causeth wrath. For where no lawe is, there is no transgression.
English Revised Version
for the law worketh wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there transgression.
World English Bible
For the law works wrath, for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience.
Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
Weymouth's New Testament
For the Law inflicts punishment; but where no Law exists, there can be no violation of Law.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For the lawe worchith wraththe; for where is no lawe, there is no trespas, nethir is trespassyng.
Update Bible Version
for the law works wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there transgression.
Webster's Bible Translation
Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, [there is] no transgression.
New English Translation
For the law brings wrath, because where there is no law there is no transgression either.
New King James Version
because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.
New Living Translation
For the law always brings punishment on those who try to obey it. (The only way to avoid breaking the law is to have no law to break!)
New Life Bible
God's anger comes on a man when he does not obey the Law. But if there were no Law, then no one could break it.
New Revised Standard
For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For, the law, worketh out anger, but, where there is no law, neither is there transgression.
Douay-Rheims Bible
For the law worketh wrath. For where there is no law, neither is there transgression.
Revised Standard Version
For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.
Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Because the lawe causeth wrathe. For where no lawe is there is no trasgression.
Young's Literal Translation
for the law doth work wrath; for where law is not, neither [is] transgression.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
for so moch as the lawe causeth but wrath. For where the lawe is not, there is also no transgression.
Mace New Testament (1729)
because the effect of the law is punishment: for if there had been no law, there could have been no transgression.
Simplified Cowboy Version
The Code is only to show you that you can't be perfect and must depend on faith and trust in God to save you.

Contextual Overview

9 Came this blessednesse then vpon the circumcision onely, or vpon the vncircumcision also? For we say, that faith was imputed vnto Abraham for righteousnesse. 10 Howe was it then imputed? when he was circumcised, or vncircumcised? not when he was cricumcised, but when he was vncircumcised. 11 After, he receiued the signe of circumcision, as the seale of the righteousnesse of ye faith which he had, when he was vncircumcised, that he should be the father of all them that beleeue, not being circumcised, that righteousnesse might be imputed to them also, 12 And the father of circumcision, not vnto them onely which are of the circumcision, but vnto them also that walke in the steppes of the faith of our father Abraham, which he had when he was vncircumcised. 13 For the promise that he should be the heire of the worlde, was not giuen to Abraham, or to his seede, through the Lawe, but through the righteousnesse of faith. 14 For if they which are of the Lawe, be heires, faith is made voide, & the promise is made of none effect. 15 For the Lawe causeth wrath: for where no Lawe is, there is no transgression. 16 Therefore it is by faith, that it might come by grace, and the promise might be sure to all the seede, not to that onely which is of the Lawe: but also to that which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of vs all,

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Because: Romans 1:17, Romans 2:5, Romans 2:6, Romans 3:19, Romans 3:20, Romans 5:13, Romans 5:20, Romans 5:21, Romans 7:7-11, Numbers 32:14, Deuteronomy 29:20-28, 2 Kings 22:13, Jeremiah 4:8, Lamentations 2:22, Ezekiel 7:19, Zephaniah 1:18, John 3:36, John 15:22, Acts 17:30, Acts 17:31, 1 Corinthians 15:56, 2 Corinthians 3:7-9, Galatians 3:10, Galatians 3:19, Ephesians 5:6, Colossians 3:6, 1 John 3:4, Revelation 6:16, Revelation 6:17, Revelation 19:15

where: Romans 2:12, Romans 2:13, Romans 5:13

Reciprocal: Exodus 19:24 - lest 2 Chronicles 34:21 - great Acts 13:39 - from which Romans 1:18 - the wrath Romans 7:5 - which Romans 7:8 - sin Romans 9:31 - hath 2 Corinthians 3:6 - for Galatians 2:19 - through

Cross-References

Genesis 4:24
If Kain shalbe auenged seuen folde, truely Lamech, seuentie times seuen folde.
Leviticus 26:18
And if ye wil not for these things obey me, then wil I punish you seuen times more, according to your sinnes,
Leviticus 26:21
And if ye walke stubburnly against me, and will not obey mee, I will then bring seuen times mo plagues vpon you, according to your sinnes.
Leviticus 26:24
Then wil I also walke stubburnly against you, and I will smite you yet seuen times for your sinnes:
Leviticus 26:28
Then will I walke stubburnly in mine anger against you, and I will also chastice you seuen times more according to your sinnes.
1 Kings 16:7
And also by the hande of Iehu the sonne of Hanani the Prophet, came the worde of the Lord to Baasha, and to his house, that he shoulde be like the house of Ieroboam, euen for all the wickednes that he did in the sight of the Lord, in prouoking him with the worke of his hands, and because he killed him.
Psalms 59:11
Slay them not, least my people forget it: but scatter them abroad by thy power, and put them downe, O Lord our shield,
Psalms 79:12
And render to our neighbours seuen folde into their bosome their reproche, wherewith they haue reproched thee, O Lord.
Proverbs 6:31
But if he be founde, he shall restore seuen folde, or he shall giue all the substance of his house.
Ezekiel 9:4
And the Lord said vnto him, Goe through the middes of the citie, euen through the middes of Ierusalem and set a marke vpon the foreheads of them that mourne, and cry for all the abominations that be done in the middes thereof.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Because the law worketh wrath,.... Not the wrath of man, though that is sometimes stirred up through the prohibitions of the law, to which the carnal mind of man is enmity, but the wrath of God the law is so far from justifying sinners, that it curses and condemns them; and when it comes into the heart and is let into the conscience of a sinner, it fills with terrible apprehensions of the wrath of God, and a fearful looking for of his judgment and fiery indignation:

for where no law is, there is no transgression; לא מצוה ולא עבירה

שאינו r; a sort of a proverbial expression: had the law of Moses not been given, there was the law of nature which sin is a transgression of; but the law of Moses was added for the better discovery and detection of sin, which would not have been so manifest without it, and which may be the apostle's sense; that where there is no law, there is no knowledge of any transgression; and so the Ethiopic version reads the words, "if the law had not come, there would have been none who would have known sin"; but the law is come, and there is a law by which is the knowledge of sin, and therefore no man can be justified by it; since that convinces him of sin, and fills him with a sense of divine wrath on account of it.

r Caphtor, fol. 10. 1.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Because the law - All law. It is the tendency of law.

Worketh wrath - Produces or causes wrath. While man is fallen, and a sinner, its tendency, so far from justifying him, and producing peace, is just the reverse. It condemns, denounces wrath, and produces suffering. The word “wrath” here is to be taken in the sense of punishment. Romans 2:8. And the meaning is, that the Law of God, demanding perfect purity, and denouncing every sin condemns the sinner, and consigns him to punishment. As the apostle had proved Romans 1:0; Romans 2:0; Romans 3:0 that all were sinners, so it followed that if any attempted to be justified by the Law, they would be involved only in condemnation and wrath.

For where no law is ... - This is a general principle; a maxim of common justice and of common sense. Law is a rule of conduct. If no such rule is given and known, there can be no crime. Law expresses what may be done, and what may not be done. If there is no command to pursue a certain course, no injunction to forbid certain conduct, actions will be innocent. The connection in which this declaration is made here, seems to imply that as the Jews had a multitude of clear laws, and as the Gentiles had the laws of nature, there could be no hope of escape from the charge of their violation. Since human nature was depraved, and people were prone to sin, the more just and reasonable the laws, the less hope was there of being justified by the Law, and the more certainty was there that the Law would produce wrath and condemnation.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Romans 4:15. Because the law worketh wrath — For law νομος, any law, or rule of duty. No law makes provision for the exercise of mercy, for it worketh wrath, οργην, punishment, for the disobedient. Law necessarily subjects the transgressor to punishment; for where no law is - where no rule of duty is enacted and acknowledged, there is no transgression; and where there is no transgression there can be no punishment, for there is no law to enforce it. But the Jews have a law, which they have broken; and now they are exposed to the penal sanctions of that law; and, if the promises of pardon without the works of the law, do not extend to them, they must be finally miserable, because they have all broken the law, and the law exacts punishment. This was a home stroke, and the argument is unanswerable.


 
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