Or don’t you know, brothers1 (for I speak to men who know the Taurat2), that the Taurat has dominion over a man for as long as he lives? 2For example, a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives, but if the husband dies, she is released from the law3 regarding her husband. 3So then if, while her husband is alive, she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the marriage law, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man.
4In the same way, my brothers, you also were made dead to the Taurat4 through the body of AL-MASIH5, that you may belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God. 5For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused through the Taurat, worked in our members to bear fruit for death. 6But now we have been released from the Taurat, having died to that which held us; so that we may serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.
7What shall we say then? Is the Taurat sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn’t have been made aware of sin, if not for the Taurat. For I wouldn’t have known coveting, unless the Taurat had said,
“You shall not covet.” 6
8But sin, finding occasion through that commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. Apart from the Taurat, sin is dead. 9I was alive apart from the Taurat once, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life, and I died. 10The commandment intended to bring life, instead brought me death; 11for sin, finding occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment killed me. 12Therefore the Taurat indeed is holy, and the commandment is holy, and righteous, and good.
13Did then that which is good become death to me? May it never be! Rather, sin worked death in me through that which is good, that sin might be exposed as sin. Through the commandment, sin was shown to be very sinful. 14For we know that the Taurat is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin. 15For I do not know what I am doing. For I do not practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do. 16But if I am doing what I don’t desire, I agree that the Taurat is good. 17So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me. 18For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don’t find it doing that which is good. 19For the good which I desire, I do not do; but the evil which I do not desire, that I practice. 20But if I do what I do not desire, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me. 21I find then a law at work in me—while I desire to do good, evil is present. 22For I delight in God’s law in my inner man, 23but I see a different law in my members, at war with the law of my mind, and taking me prisoner to the law of sin which is in my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25I thank God through ‘ISA7 AL-MASIH, our Lord! So then with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin.
- 7:1 The word for “brothers” here and where context allows may also be correctly translated “brothers and sisters” or “siblings.” ↩︎
- 7:1 Taurat, or law. ↩︎
- 7:2 law, or Taurat. The same Greek word nomos is translated Taurat or law throughout this chapter, depending on the nuance of meaning intended. The mention of the Taurat here is also about the laws contained in it. ↩︎
- 7:4 Taurat, this Arabic word derived from Torah (Hebrew) literally means “instruction” or “teaching.” In the Injil, the Greek text says nomos (meaning, “law”). Depending on context, Taurat can refer to,
1. The whole Hebrew Bible contained here under the title Taurat, equivalent to what Jews today call Tanakh, and what Christians call the Old Testament.
2. The revelation given to Prophet Musa, that is, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, sometimes called the Pentateuch. Pentateuch is a Greek word meaning “five books” and includes Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. These five books are attributed to Prophet Musa himself. This is the traditional and most common meaning given to Taurat or Torah.
3. The Law of Musa found within the Pentateuch, with its hundreds of rules and regulations covering many aspects of daily life for the people of Israel. The most famous of these laws are the Ten Commandments, found in Exodus 20.
4. Taurat can also refer to divine instruction and teaching in general without reference to a particular book of the Hebrew Bible. ↩︎ - 7:4 AL-MASIH – an Arabic title equivalent to the Messiah (Hebrew) or Christ (Greek), all of which mean the Anointed One, that is, God’s Chosen One. In ancient times, divinely-appointed kings, priests and prophets were anointed with oil to signify their appointment to office. All of them point ahead to God’s ultimate Anointed One, the Messiah, AL-MASIH. Al-Kitab unanimously points to ‘ISA Ibn Maryam as the only person worthy to bear the title AL-MASIH. He is the one whom God sent into this world to save people from sin, and to usher in God’s Kingdom at his Second Coming. ↩︎
- 7:7 Quoting from the Ten Commandments in the Taurat, Exodus 20:17 which says: “You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbour’s.”
Also quoting the Taurat, Deuteronomy 5:21 which says: “You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife; neither shall you desire your neighbour’s house, his field, or his man-servant, or his maid-servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbour’s.” ↩︎ - 7:25 ‘ISA – The names ‘ISA (Arabic), ISHO (Syriac) and JESUS (Greek, IESOUS) are all derived from the Hebrew name YEHOSHUA, which means “YAHWEH saves.” (YAHWEH is God’s personal name revealed to Prophet Musa in the Taurat, Exodus 3:15 – God said moreover to Musa, “You shall tell Bani-Israel this, ‘YAHWEH, the God of your fathers, the God of Ibrahim, the God of Ishaq, and the God of Yaqub, has sent me to you.’ This is my Name forever, and this is how I am to be remembered to all generations.”) ↩︎