The first part of this verse literally reads “for from him and through him and to him are all things.” The first of these phrases, “from him,” indicates that God is the source of everything, and so is translated by the Good News Translation as all things were created by him. The other two phrases, “through him” and “to him,” indicate that God is the one who keeps the created order in existence and that it is moving in the direction that he intends. The Good News Translation renders these last two phrases as and all things exist through him and for him. In the last part of this verse the Good News Translation makes the pronoun “to him” explicit: to God.

The passive construction for all things were created by him may be rendered as “God has created everything.” One might be inclined to translate through him as “because of him,” but this might suggest “by means of him,” which would be essentially the same as the first clause of verse 36, or “for his sake,” which would be equivalent to the last phrase of the sentence. A more satisfactory equivalent may be “he sustains all things” or “he keeps all things going.” The final phrase, for him, may be expressed as “all things exist for his sake.”

The final exclamation To God be the glory forever! may be equivalent to “we must praise God forever” or “God deserves honor forever.”

As in a number of other contexts, the term Amen may appropriately be rendered as “this is surely true” or “this is certainly the way it should be.”

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 .