Daniel's Literal Translation and Commentary
All will by judged by Law
"12 For as many as lawless sin as lawless also will perish: even as many as according to Law sin, through law will be judged." (DLT: torahtimes.org, Rom. 2:12).
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1. Whether at the last judgment, or whether in Messiah, all are judged or will be judged by the Torah. Better to be judged in Messiah. 2. The lawless do sin, and the lawless do perish, but it will be the law that sentences them to perish. 3. The lawless sin according to the Law, therefore, the Law will judge them. 4. One may exclude themselves from the first statement if they are in Messiah and are not in willful rebellion, but the second statement still applies, except we are judged by the Law in Messiah.
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Well, the translators did a real doozy of screwing up this text. Let's just take a look at the ESV for a minute, "For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law." What does this translation say? It says that if someone does not have the law, then the the law will have nothing to do with them perishing. It says also if someone is "under the law" or implies that if they put themselves "under the law" then and only then will the Law judge them. Nothing could be further from what Paul said, and no Greek could be more perverted. Yet, this is exactly what the lawless Church teaches.
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Firstly let's look at the words "as lawless" (ανομως). This word is composed of three parts: α- = less, -νομ-(ος) = law, -ως=as. The word is an adverb. BDAG gives just one formal gloss, "lawlessly " (pg. 86, 3rd edition), and indeed we could have used it, "As many as lawlessly sin lawlessly, also will perish". However, the adverbial information is contained in the suffix -ως, which can be looked up as the separate word "as, like". An adverb tells us the manner of something or the manner in which the action of a verb happens. He did it lawless+ly, i.e. in a lawless manner, or "as lawless", "being lawless". The end phrase is a bit awkward in the "-ly" form: "....lawlessly[,] also will perish" implying in English that somehow the perishing is unjustified. It is not clear how the sentence should be punctuated based on semantics alone. However, since we know that the perishing is justified, a comma will be appropriate after the second "lawlessly". The Greek is not so restricted as English, and the adverbial suffix -ως may be rendered "as lawless", which is preferable since the English meaning will not need to be punctuated.
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Second "according to Law sin", εν νομω ημαρτον = "legally sin" or "lawfully sin" (cf. BDAG εννομος, pg. 337). The idea is "in connection with law" or "in respect to law". The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, says, "In the first instance it simply means 'according to law' ...." (Vol. IV, page 1087). By no means does it mean "under law" (ESV), (cf. similar mistranslation in Rom. 3:19).
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The connotation neutral periphrasis "without law" is not the usual understanding of ανομος. And the adverbial form ανομως is even more connotative of "lawlessly", "lawless-as"; It is regularly in the sense of "lawless" in the LXX and elsewhere in the NT, except in 1Cor. 9:21, "To those without customs as without custom, not being without the Law of God, but according to the Law of Messiah...." In spite of the fact that Greek allows "without custom" instead of "lawless", Paul feels it is necessary to add "not being without the Law of God" to prevent a misunderstanding.
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Finally, the ESV, and like translations cannot stand because in Romans 3:19 Paul says, "Now we know that what ever things the law says, it says to those with the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may under justice before God."
Daniel's Literal Translation and Commentary: (http://www.torahtimes.org/translation/rom0212.html)
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