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Romans

About this book
Chapter 12

1 Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice—alive, holy, and pleasing to God—which is your reasonable service.⁠ 2 Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God—what is good and well-pleasing and perfect. 3 For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but to think with sober discernment, as God has distributed to each of you a measure of faith. 4 For just as in one body we have many members, and not all the members serve the same function, 5 so we who are many are one body in Christ, and individually we are members who belong to one another. 6 And we have different gifts according to the grace given to us. If the gift is prophecy, that individual must use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is service, he must serve; if it is teaching, he must teach; 8 if it is exhortation, he must exhort; if it is contributing, he must do so with sincerity; if it is leadership, he must do so with diligence; if it is showing mercy, he must do so with cheerfulness. 9 Love must be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good.⁠ 10 Be devoted to one another with mutual love, showing eagerness in honoring one another. 11 Do not lag in zeal, be enthusiastic in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints, pursue hospitality.⁠ 14 Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly. Do not be conceited. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil; consider what is good before all people.⁠ 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all people. 19 Do not avenge yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God’s wrath, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,”⁠ says the Lord.⁠ 20 Rather, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will be heaping burning coals on his head.⁠ 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Leviticus 19:18 and Romans 12:17

Hebrew Bible · New Testament

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Summary

Romans 12 urges believers not to repay evil with evil, echoing Leviticus 19, which forbids vengeance and calls for love of one’s neighbor, reflecting a tradition in the Hebrew Bible that rejects retaliation and emphasizes deferring justice to God.

Passages

Leviticus 19:18

Hebrew Bible
16 You must not go about as a slanderer among your people. You must not stand idly by when your neighbor’s life is at stake. I am the Lord. 17 You must not hate your brother in your heart. You must surely reprove your fellow citizen so that you do not incur sin on account of him. 18 You must not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you must love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. 19 You must keep my statutes. You must not allow two different kinds of your animals to breed together, you must not sow your field with two different kinds of seed, and you must not wear a garment made of two different kinds of material.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Leviticus

Romans 12:17

New Testament
15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly. Do not be conceited. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil; consider what is good before all people. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all people. 19 Do not avenge yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God’s wrath, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.
55–58 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Romans

References

"... For expressions elsewhere with the phrasing “repayment,” see 1 Enoch 95:5; 2 Enoch 50:2–4; Joseph and Aseneth 23:9; 28:5, 10, 14; 29:3; Romans 12:17–21; 1 Thessalonians 5:15; with the phrasing “not imitating evil,” see Pseudo-Phocylides 77–78; with the phrasing “not taking vengeance” (Leviticus 19:18), see, e.g., Sirach 27:30–28:7; Testament of Gad 6:7; with the phrasing “not recalling evil,” see Philo, on Joseph 246, 261; Testament of Simeon 4:4–7; Testament of Zebulon 8:4–6; for the phrasing “not reckoning evil,” see Testament of Zebulon 8:5; Testament of Benjamin 3:6; for the response of “good,” see Testament of Gad 4:2–3; 5:2–3; Testament of Benjamin 8:1–2; Ahiqar, Syriac A, 20; for the warrant of deferring to God’s justice, see Sirach 19:17; Testament of Gad 6:7; 7:4–5; Joseph and Aseneth 28:10–11, 14; 2 Enoch 50:2–4 ... Some, not all, of these are applied universally to all people ..."
Gordon M. Zerbe, “Economic Justice and Nonretaliation in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Implications for New Testament Interpretation,” in The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The Second Princeton Symposium on Judaism and Christian Origins, ed. James H. Charlesworth (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2006), 319–355.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Leviticus 19:18 and Romans 12:17

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