In this and the following verses (12-14) Paul reinforces the argument stated in the previous verses (1-11). Must no longer rule (so also New English Bible) translates a present imperative in Greek which has precisely the force that the Good News Translation and the New English Bible bring out. In many languages a third person imperative is difficult to express, and it is often necessary to render “you must not let sin rule any longer in your mortal bodies.” In Greek bodies is singular (see New English Bible “body”), but in English the plural makes better sense.

There are several complications in the first clause of verse 12. It may be difficult, for example, to employ the active expression sin must no longer rule, but one may be able to say: “your mortal bodies must not be controlled by sin” or “… must not be under the power of sin” or “… controlled by your desire to sin.” However, in some languages it is difficult to speak of mortal bodies, since the only equivalent would be “bodies which die,” while in some other languages one cannot say “bodies which die”, since it is not the body but the person which dies. Nevertheless, one can translate mortal as “which have an end” or “which do not continue forever.” The concept of bodies may be more effectively expressed in some languages as “inside of you,” so that this first clause may be translated as “sin should no longer have control inside of you.”

Of your natural self is literally “of it,” and the antecedent is “your mortal body.” However, it is better to translate in such a way as not to limit the idea of sinful desires to “bodily passions” (so Jerusalem Bible; New English Bible “the body’s desires”; Phillips “your lusts”). Such a rendering seems to limit Paul’s idea too narrowly; he has in mind not merely one’s bodily passions, but the whole range of sinful desires and intentions which place one over against God. Since Paul, as a Jew, can speak of the body as the totality of one’s person, he can speak of “the desires of your mortal body” and cover a much larger spectrum than the English translation “bodily desires” would imply.

The conjunctive phrase so that introduces purpose, but with a causative relation—for example, “so as to cause you to obey the desires of your natural self,” “obey what you yourselves desire,” or “… what you as a human being desire.”

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 .