Anakalypsis / Unveiling the Word

Romans 7:18

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

KJV

οἶδα γὰρ ὅτι οὐκ οἰκεῖ ἐν ἐμοί, τοῦτ’ ἔστιν ἐν τῇ σαρκί μου, ἀγαθόν· τὸ γὰρ θέλειν παράκειταί μοι, τὸ δὲ κατεργάζεσθαι τὸ καλὸν οὔ·

Greek NT

Scio enim quia non habitat in me, hoc est in carne mea, bonum. Nam velle, adjacet mihi : perficere autem bonum, non invenio.

Vulgate

For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not.

ASV

For I know that there dwelleth not in me, that is to say, in my flesh, that which is good. For to will is present with me: but to accomplish that which is good, I find not.

Douay-Rheims

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In the original Greek

17 distinct Greek words appear in this verse.

γάρ
gar
conjunction · 1036×
δέ
de
conjunction · 2781×
εἰμί
eimi
verb · 2461×
εἴδω
eido
verb · 317×
θέλω
thelo
verb · 208×
καλός
kalos
adjective · 100×
κατεργάζομαι
katergazomai
verb · 22×
οἰκέω
oikeo
verb · 8×
οὐ
ou
particle · 1626×
οὗτος
outos
demonstrative · 1380×
παράκειμαι
parakeimai
verb · 2×
σάρξ
sarx
noun · 147×
ἀγαθός
agathos
adjective · 102×
ἐγώ
ego
pronoun · 1720×
ἐν
en
preposition · 2743×
ὁ
o
article · 19778×
ὅτι
oti
conjunction · 1299×

Textual variants

1 variant unit attested by manuscript witnesses and modern critical editions.

trivial
SBLGNT: οὔ | WH/Treg/NIV: οὔ
  • οὔ — SBLGNT
  • οὔ — Westcott-Hort, Tregelles, Reader's GNT (NA27)
source: sblgnt-apparatus

Themes

Historic Christian voices

10 passages from patristic writers, Reformers, and church catechisms citing this verse.

God showed himself, by the fall of man, as patient, benign, merciful, mighty to save. Man is therefore most ungrateful, if, unmindful of his own lot, and of the benefits held out to him, he do not acknowledge divine grace. 1. Long-suffering therefore was God, when man became a defaulter, as foreseeing that victory which should be granted to him through the Word. For, when stren…
The prophets were sent from one and the same Father from whom the Son was sent. 1. Which [God] the Lord does not reject, nor does He say that the prophets [spoke] from another god than His Father; nor from any other essence, but from one and the same Father; nor that any other being made the things in the world, except His own Father, when He speaks as follows in His teaching: …
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me? Calvin expounds the inner conflict of the believer. The law is holy, just, and good, but it reveals sin and arouses it. Paul speaks from his own experience as a regenerate man: the good that I would I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. This struggle is not the mark of an unregenerate person but of one in whom the S…
The Will is always determined by the strongest motive, that is, by that which appears most agreeable to the mind. The will always follows the last dictate of the understanding. But then, the understanding being an faculty of the soul that perceives and judges, the soul's perception and judgment are influenced by the soul's inclination and disposition.
Those people whom God according to his purpose calls into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord and regenerates by the Holy Spirit, he also sets free from the reign and slavery of sin, though in this life not entirely from the flesh and from the body of sin.
In this matter we teach that there is a threefold condition or state of man. Man in his first estate before the fall was endowed with free will, so that he could either remain in goodness or decline to evil. However, he declined to evil, and has involved himself and the entire human race in sin, as has been said already. Man in his second estate, after the fall, is not deprived…
We believe the first man created by God to have fallen in Paradise, when he disregarded the commandment of God and yielded to the deceitful counsel of the serpent. And hence hereditary sin flowed to his posterity; so that none is born after the flesh who beareth not this burden, and who experienceth not the fruits thereof in this present world. But by "burden" and "fruits of si…

Cross-references

  • 1Pet 4:2 — That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.
  • 1Tim 1:8 — But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;
  • Eph 2:1 — And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
  • Eph 2:3 — Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
  • Gal 5:17 — For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
  • Gal 5:19 — Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
  • Gal 5:19 — Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
  • Gal 5:24 — And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
  • Gen 6:5 — And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
  • Gen 8:21 — And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will
  • Isa 64:6 — But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
  • Isa 64:6 — But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
  • Job 14:4 — Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.
  • Job 15:14 — What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
  • Job 15:14 — What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
  • Job 25:4 — How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?
  • John 3:6 — That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
  • John 3:6 — That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
  • Luke 8:15 — But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.
  • Luke 11:13 — If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
  • Luke 11:13 — If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
  • Mark 7:21 — For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
  • Mark 14:38 — Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.
  • Matt 15:19 — For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
  • Matt 15:19 — For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
  • Matt 26:41 — Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
  • Matt 26:75 — And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly.
  • Phil 2:13 — For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
  • Phil 3:12 — Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
  • Ps 51:5 — Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
  • Ps 119:5 — O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!
  • Ps 119:32 — I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.
  • Ps 119:40 — Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy righteousness.
  • Ps 119:115 — Depart from me, ye evildoers: for I will keep the commandments of my God.
  • Ps 119:173 — Let thine hand help me; for I have chosen thy precepts.
  • Ps 119:176 — I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.
  • Rom 7:5 — For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
  • Rom 7:14 — For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
  • Rom 7:15 — For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
  • Rom 7:17 — Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.