A Note on Romans 8:26–27

Paul's remark about the intercessory prayer of the Spirit in Rom 8:26–27 is unparalleled in the NT and has traditionally caused difficulties for the translator or interpreter. There is, for example, the tendency in modern versions to soften the statement that “we do not know what to pray for as we ought” to “we do not know how to pray as we ought” (RSV). The problem here may be a failure to acknowledge Paul's eschatological perspective in the immediate context in Romans 8 in which the focus is on the invisibility of what the Christian is called upon to hope for (8:24–25). Neglect of the context has also led to a failure in many modern versions to preserve the continuity of the metaphor στενάζειν/στεναγμός in vv 22, 23, 26: the RSV, for example, renders the noun in v 26 “sighs” but translates the verb “groans” in the other verses. Such a shift of language makes the initial ὡσαύτως of v 26 a problem, for it is precisely the repetition of στενάζειν/στεναγμός which undergirds the comparison. It is not the intention of this note to discuss these issues in detail, but to concentrate on the meaning of v 27.