You must remember this is in Greek a double negative (“I don’t want you to be ignorant”), which many translations render as a positive statement (see New English Bible “but I should like you to know” and An American Translation* “I want you to understand”). A typical equivalent of you must remember this may be “I want you to know this” or “be assured that.” It is important to avoid a term which might suggest that the people had forgotten something.

The phrase my brothers may be rendered in two quite different ways: (1) by some generic kinship term such as “my relatives” or “my family” (if such a term may be employed for an extended in-group much larger than a family or clan), or (2) by some designation which specifies mutual faith—for example, “you who also trust Jesus Christ” or “you who are fellow believers” or “those who believe together with me.” The use of “brothers” in this type of context is a clear reference to the Christian community, and one should employ as a translation the corresponding expression which has been generally adopted by the church in the receptor language in question.

Something has always kept me from doing so is in Greek a passive construction, meaning something like “I was always kept from doing so.” The Greek is not clear as to whom or what has kept Paul from visiting the Romans, though it is possible that this is a Semitic idiom with God as the unexpressed subject. The most natural equivalent of this passive expression without specific indication of means of agent may simply be “I have not been able to….”

I want to win converts among you is literally “in order that I might have some fruit among you.” The word “fruit” is often used figuratively of spiritual results (see John 15.1-8; also see Romans 6.21-22; Galatians 5.22; Philippians 1.11; 4.17), and the Good News Translation takes it in the specific sense of “winning people to the Christian way.” Other translations take it in a more general sense (see Jerusalem Bible “that I might work as fruitfully among you”; Moffatt “to have some results among you”; and New English Bible “in the hope of achieving something among you”).

In most languages it is impossible to render the final clause of verse 13 in a literal manner since “fruit” is rarely used in the sense of “result.” It is therefore better to employ some such expression as the Good News Translation, but one should be cautioned against translating win converts literally. A more natural equivalent in many languages is “cause people to believe” or “cause people to follow Jesus Christ.”

Among other Gentiles is more literally “among the other nations” (see La Sainte Bible: Nouvelle version Segond révisée) and is translated by the Jerusalem Bible as “among the other pagans” and by the New English Bible as “in other parts of the world.” The reference would seem to be to other Gentile (non-Jewish) peoples than those in Rome (see Revised Standard Version “among the rest of the Gentiles”).

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1973. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .