Five-minute study · Day 264 · Romans 1
Romans 1:16
A word worth stopping on: power δύναμις dynamis
Paul wrote this sentence to Rome. The city that invented power. Legions, aqueducts, roads that stretched from Scotland to Syria, a senate that could rearrange the map of the known world before lunch. And into that city, Paul sent a letter announcing that the real dynamis, the real power, was a message about a crucified Jewish carpenter. 'For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.' The word is dynamis. Force. Capacity. Ability that accomplishes what it sets out to do. In a city built on potestas and imperium, Paul declared that the genuine force in the universe was a story.
Word study: power
- Greek
- δύναμις
- Pronounced
- dynamis
- Strong's
- G1411
- Definition
- Power, ability, capability, force. The inherent capacity to accomplish something. From dynamai, to be able. English derives 'dynamic,' 'dynamite,' and 'dynamo' from this root.
Dynamis appears 120 times in the New Testament. BDAG provides four primary senses: (1) potential for functioning in some way, power, might, strength; (2) a deed that exhibits ability to function powerfully, a deed of power, a miracle; (3) a personified force, a power; (4) the capacity to produce a strong effect on someone. The word denotes active capacity, the ability to make something happen. It is the word behind English 'dynamic,' 'dynamite,' and 'dynamo.'
Jewett's Hermeneia commentary on Romans identifies 1:16-17 as the thesis statement of the entire letter. Everything that follows in Romans 1-16 unpacks what Paul compressed into these two verses. The declaration 'I am not ashamed' (ouk epaischynomai) is significant. Shame was a governing social force in the honor-shame culture of the Roman Mediterranean. To be ashamed of something was to acknowledge its low status, its inability to confer honor. Paul's 'not ashamed' is a social claim: the gospel carries honor, status, and power despite every appearance to the contrary.
The context of the letter's destination makes the word dynamis explosive. Rome was the capital of the most powerful empire in the world. Roman power (Latin potestas, imperium, virtus) was visible in every direction: the legions that enforced Roman will across three continents, the roads that connected provinces to the capital, the aqueducts that carried water into the city, the Colosseum that staged displays of Roman dominance. Power in Rome was architectural, military, and institutional. It was measured in territory, in bodies under command, in the capacity to destroy opposition.
Paul declared that the dynamis of God operates through a message (euangelion, gospel, good news). The gospel is the dynamis. The message itself carries the power. It does the mechanism through which God's power reaches people. Jewett notes that Paul's claim inverts the Roman understanding of how power works. Roman power flows from the center (the emperor, the senate) outward through institutions (the military, the provinces). God's power flows through a spoken message, received by faith, effective in anyone who believes, Jew or Greek. The power is in the content, not the institutional apparatus.
The phrase 'unto salvation' (eis soterian) specifies what the dynamis accomplishes. Dynamis can refer to military power, political power, miracle-working power. Paul limits the claim: this dynamis saves. The power of the gospel is a rescuing power. It pulls people out of the condition described in Romans 1:18-3:20 (universal human sinfulness and liability before God) and places them in the condition described in Romans 3:21-8:39 (justification, reconciliation, and life in the Spirit).
Historical context · Romans written approximately AD 56-57 from Corinth; Rome's population approximately 1 million in the first century AD; the Julio-Claudian dynasty (Augustus through Nero) reigning from 27 BC to AD 68
A Letter About Power Sent to the Capital of Power
Paul wrote Romans from Corinth during his third missionary journey, approximately AD 56-57. He had not yet visited Rome. The letter was written to a church he did not plant, in a city he had not seen, at the center of an empire whose power was displayed in every structure, every road, and every coin. The Roman denarius carried the emperor's image and titles, a daily reminder of where power resided in the world Paul inhabited.
Jewett situates the letter within the political theology of the Augustan and Julio-Claudian period. Augustus (reigning 27 BC to AD 14) established the framework of Roman imperial ideology: the emperor as bringer of peace (pax Romana), the empire as the instrument of civilization, Roman power as the guarantor of order. The word euangelion (gospel, good news) was itself part of imperial vocabulary. The Priene Calendar Inscription (9 BC), discovered in western Turkey, announces the birthday of Augustus: 'the birthday of the god was the beginning of the good tidings [euangelia] for the world.' Paul took a word the empire used for Caesar and applied it to Jesus. The gospel of Christ, sent to Rome, was a direct terminological challenge to the gospel of Caesar.
The Roman church Paul addressed was diverse. Romans 16 lists both Jewish and Gentile names among Paul's contacts in the city. The church had survived Claudius's expulsion of Jews from Rome in AD 49 (Acts 18:2; Suetonius, Claudius 25.4), which disrupted Jewish-Christian leadership and likely shifted the community's center of gravity toward Gentile members. By the time Paul wrote (after Jews were permitted to return under Nero), the community included both groups, and the tensions between them provide the social context for much of the letter's argument (particularly Romans 9-11 and 14-15).
The claim that the gospel is God's dynamis 'to the Jew first, and also to the Greek' (1:16) established a priority order that would have been controversial in Rome, where Jewish identity carried no social prestige. Jewett notes that Paul's 'to the Jew first' is a historical claim about the gospel's origins, rooted in salvation history, preserving Israel's covenantal priority while extending the gospel's reach universally. The dynamis operates across the ethnic boundary that divided Paul's Roman audience. The power is the same power. It reaches everyone through the same mechanism: faith.
For reflection
Dynamis. The word behind dynamite, dynamo, dynamic. Paul used it in a letter addressed to the most powerful city on earth. Rome measured power in legions, aqueducts, roads, territory. Paul measured it in a message. The gospel is the dynamis. The power is carried in the content of a story about a crucified man who rose. Paul did not say the gospel describes God's power or points toward God's power. He said it is God's power. The message itself does the work. Think about the messages you have structured your life around. The narratives that carry actual force in your decisions, your priorities, your fears. Which of those messages has the capacity to save you? Which of them is actually dynamis, and which is noise that sounds like power but produces nothing?
Dynamis: power, ability, inherent capacity. English gets 'dynamite' and 'dynamo' from this word. Paul declared the gospel to be God's dynamis in a letter sent to Rome, the capital of military and institutional power. The word euangelion (gospel) was itself part of imperial vocabulary used for Caesar.
Sources: BDAG; Jewett, 'Romans'