I’ve been working on Paul’s letter to the Romans from the Greek New Testament.  Here is chapter one.  I’ll add more chapters as I get there.  My goal is to finish the letter before July 4.  We’ll see.  Translating a few lines every morning is slow going.  Before you start, three translation notes and a warning.  Note one:  Paul uses the word “For” a lot to start verses, but I omitted many of them because they are clunky.  Note two:  I tried and tried and tried to polish up the first five verses, but take heart, they are just as cumbersome in Greek as they are in English.  Its just the way he wrote it.  Note three:  I am opting for the Hebrew word Messiah instead of the Greek word Christ, because that is the eventual end translation, as Christ is a Greek word that means Messiah.  It is not always capitalized because it is not always a title.

WARNING:  This chapter ends with some strong material.  Rather than sanitize it, I tried to make it clear.  Some readers might find it offensive, but if you want to get offended, get offended at Paul.  He is the one who wrote it.

Romans–Chapter One
1. Paul, a slave of Messiah Jesus, a called apostle, who has been set apart for the good news of God
2. who promised before through his prophets in holy scripture
3. about his son, who was by flesh born into the family of David,
4. but he is by the Spirit of holiness designated as the son of God in power by resurrection from the dead, Jesus the messiah, our Lord.
5. By whom we received grace and apostleship in the obedience of faith among all the nations, for the sake of his name.
6. Among whom you are also called by Messiah Jesus.
7. To all those in Rome, loved of God, called to be holy, grace and peace to you from God our father and the Lord Jesus Messiah.
8. First, I give thanks to my God through Messiah Jesus for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in the whole world.
9. For God, whom I serve in the spirit of the good news, is my witness that I mention you without ceasing
10. in my prayers, always begging that somehow, sometime, I might finally succeed in the will of God to come to you.
11. For I long to see you, so that I might give a spiritual gift to you, to strengthen you.
12. What I mean is, to be encouraged by one another together, among the faithful, both you and me.
13. I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that I often intended to come to you so that I might produce some fruit among you just as I have among other people, but I was prevented up until now.
14. I am a debtor to Greeks, barbarians, wise, and those who are unlearned.
15. As for me, I am eager to preach the good news to those of you in Rome.
16. I am not ashamed of the good news, for it is the power of God bringing salvation to all those believing, to the Jew first, then to the gentiles.
17. For the righteousness of God is uncovered in him by faith and in faith , just as it is written, “The righteous will live by faith.”
18. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven upon all ungodly and unrighteous acts of men, those who obstruct the truth.
19. For it is known that God is evident, for he is God, and that has been made evident to them.
20. As created beings, they understood and perceived the invisible, eternal things of the creation of the world such as the power and deity. So therefore, they are without excuse.
21. Yet they knew God but they did not glorify or thank him as God, but they were vain in their logic, darkened, without understanding in their hearts.
22. Alleging themselves to be wise, they actually became fools.
23. They changed the glory of the immortal God into a likeness, an image of mortal men, birds, animals, and reptiles.
24. Therefore, God left them to the desires of their filthy hearts as they degraded their own bodies among themselves.
25. As such, they exchanged the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.
26. Because of this, God left them to their disgraceful passions. Women exchanged natural coitus for something against nature.
27. Likewise, the men abandoned natural coitus with women in their burning desire for one another, men in men, committing indecency. They received the necessary reward of their error.
28. Since in the same way they did not acknowledge God, God left them in their failed minds, to do that which is not proper,
29. being filled with every kind of unrighteousness evil—selfish greed, bad character, full of envy, murder, strife, guile, malice, gossip,
30. slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, boastful, innovative criminals, disobedient to parents,
31. without discernment, without honor, without feelings, without mercy.
32. They are the kind of people who know the decree of God, that those practicing these things are worthy of death, but they do them anyway, and give their approval to others who practice it as well.