Let every soul be in subjection to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those who exist are ordained by God.
World English Bible
Romans 13:1
This verse is examined in more than one Scripture Analysis section. Each lens is shown on its own terms, in the section's own words; GEBible reaches no verdict of its own.
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WEB World English Bible Public Domain ✓ - Modern English
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- TCENT Text-Critical English New Testament A modern reasoned-eclectic New Testament (2022) · CC BY 4.0
- F35 Family 35 New Testament Wilbur Pickering's Byzantine-priority New Testament, with text-critical commentary notes · CC BY-SA 4.0
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- KJV King James Version Public Domain
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- WBT Webster's Bible Noah Webster's 1833 modernization of the King James Version · Public Domain
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- LEESER Isaac Leeser Tanakh (1853) The first Jewish English translation of the Hebrew Bible (1853, Old Testament only) · Public Domain
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Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (2)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
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Should we obey human or divine law?
Acts 5:29 has Peter and the apostles declaring before the Sanhedrin that they must obey God rather than men. 1 Peter 2:13 commands believers to submit to every human ordinance, and Romans 13:1-4 escalates: every governing authority is ordained by God, resisting them resists God, and they bear the sword as God's ministers to execute wrath.
Critical scholarship: Leans toward a genuine contradiction.
Law & ethics
More on this question
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
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Should you obey your rulers?
Romans 13:1-6 commands universal submission to governing authorities on the grounds that they are ordained by God, are God's ministers, and punish only evildoers — resistance to them is resistance to God's ordinance and incurs damnation. Multiple narrative threads contradict this directly: the Hebrew midwives are blessed for disobeying Pharaoh (Exodus 1:17, 20), Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego defy Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 3:16-18), Daniel defies Darius (Daniel 6:7-10), and the New Testament itself describes righteous figures — Jesus, Daniel, the prophets — being executed or persecuted by the very rulers Romans 13 claims punish only the evil.
Critical scholarship: Widely regarded as a genuine contradiction.
Law & ethics
More on this question
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
Each section sets the viewpoints side by side; you weigh the evidence. Here, "critical scholarship" means academic study, not a value judgment. How this is built →
Other verses examined for the same kind of question or claim
Within each section, grouped by shared field or question type — not a cross-section comparison.
Cite this page
This citation refers to this GEBible page — the verse and the analysis gathered here. To cite the underlying scholarship, cite those sources directly.
"Romans 13:1 — Scripture Analysis" GEBible, https://gebible.app/analysis/verse/romans/13/1?version=WEB (retrieved 26 August 2026).