to beg (as binding oneself) · verb — present middle or passive deponent participle, nominative singular masculine
means
εἴ πωςeí pōs
G1513
if somehow
now
ἤδηēdē
G2235
even now · adverb
length
ποτὲpote
G4218
indefinite adverb · particle
journey
εὐοδωθήσομαιeuodōthēsomai
G2137
to help on the road · verb — future passive indicative, 1st person singular
by
ἐνen
G1722
"in · preposition
will
θελήματιthelēmati
G2307
a determination (properly · noun — dative singular neuter
God
θεοῦtheou
G2316
figuratively · noun — genitive singular masculine, a title
come
ἐλθεῖνelthein
G2064
to come or go (in a great variety of applications · verb — second aorist active infinitive
unto
πρὸςpros
G4314
a preposition of direction · preposition
you
ὑμᾶςhymâs
G5209
you (as the objective of a verb or preposition)
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Romans 15:30-32 Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your praye…
Acts 18:21 But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem: but I will return again unto you, if God will.…
Philemon 1:22 But withal prepare me also a lodging: for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you.
James 4:15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
1 Thessalonians 2:18 Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us.
1 Thessalonians 3:10-11 Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith?
Acts 19:21 After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, Aft…
Romans 15:22-24 For which cause also I have been much hindered from coming to you.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Romans 1:8-15
We may here observe,
I. His thanksgivings for them (Rom 1:8): First, I thank my God. It is good to begin every thing with blessing God, to make that the alpha and omega of every song, in every thing to give thanks. - My God. He speaks this with delight and triumph. In all our thanksgivings, it is good for us to eye God as our God; this makes every mercy sweet, when we can say of God, "He is mine in covenant." - Through Jesus Christ. All our duties and performances are pleasing to God only through Jesus Christ, praises as well as prayers. - For you all. We must express our love to our friends, not only by praying for them, but by praising God for them. God must have the glory of all the comfo…
Making request, if by any means now at length I may have a prosperous journey by the will of God, to come to you--Though long anxious to visit the capital, he met with a number of providential hindrances (Rom 1:13; Rom 15:22; and see on Act 19:21; Act 23:11; Act 28:15); insomuch that nearly a quarter of a century elapsed, after his conversion, ere his desire was accomplished, and that only as "a prisoner of Jesus Christ." Thus taught that his whole future was in the hands of God, he makes it his continual prayer that at length the obstacles to a happy and prosperous meeting might be removed.
Adam Clarke on Romans 1:10
Making request, etc. - By this we see how earnestly the apostle longed to see Rome. It had long been a subject of continual prayer to God, that he might have a prosperous journey to, or rather meeting with, them, for so we should understand the word ευοδωθησμαι· that he had a prosperous meeting with them we cannot doubt; that he had a disastrous journey to them the 27th of the Acts fully proves.
John Gill on Romans 1:10
Making request, if by any means now at length,.... A principal thing, which be incessantly and importunately requested at the throne of grace, was, that he might have an opportunity of coming to them; that God in his providence would open a way for him; and that he might have a safe and comfortable journey in a very little time; all which he submits to the will of God, as a good man ought to do; and which he thus expresses,
I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God, to come unto you; see James 4:13.
The Church Fathers
Paul does not find the way propitious unless the will of God, who knows all things, has directed him to a place where he might reap some fruit. For example, we read in Acts that, although he wanted to go to one place, he was directed to another.
Paul does not simply say that he wants to come to Rome but adds that he wants to come in God's will. For when the salvation of so many people was at stake, St. Paul left nothing unclear but acknowledged God's will in his prayer, for it is only by God's permission that we are worthy to deal with material things and to make choices. Do we not commit everything we have to the divine will on which we depend?
In that he says that without ceasing he prays for those to whom he writes, mindful of his own command he fulfills in deed what he enjoins in word. But since he says that he beseeches that if by any means at length at some time he may have a prosperous journey, so that by the will of God he may come to the Romans, it must be considered that the apostle of God, setting out for a holy work, that is, the work of the Gospel, waits until by his entreaties he may obtain not only that his journey be made prosperous, but that it be made prosperous by the will of God. Whence much more must prosperity of journey be sought from God by us, who have not so great a consciousness either of the work or of merit, when we plan to do anything. Yet I think that the Apostle wished this too to be understood: that prosperity of a journey is not always accomplished by the will of God. Finally, Balaam too had a prosperous journey in going to Balak, that he might curse the people of Israel; but that prosperity was not from the divine will. And many in the affairs of the age enjoy prosperous successes, and exult in their prosperities; but such prosperity is not from the will of God, unless the work of our journey be such as the Apostle here designates.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Fall of man — An expression probably borrowed from the Apocryphal Book of Wisdom, to express the fact of the revolt of our first parents from God, and the consequent sin and misery in which they and all their…
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Calvin on Romans 1:8-12
Romans 1:8-12
8. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
8. Primum quidem gratias ago Deo meo per Iesum Christum super vobis omnibus, quia fides vestra Pr?dicatur in universo mundo.
9. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;
9. Testis enim mihi Deus, quem colo in spiritu meo in Evangelio Filii ipsius, ut continenter memoriam vestri faciam;
10. Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.
10. Semper in orationibus meis, [27] rogans, si quomodo…
When Paul uses the phrase with all my heart (or in my spirit), he might be describing the influence of God’s Holy Spirit on his own inner person. The word spirit also refers to the deepest part of a person, which the phrase all my heart expresses well.
