For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.
Parallel Translations
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For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.
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For we knowe that every creature groneth with vs also and travayleth in payne even vnto this tyme.
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For we knowe that euery creature groneth with vs also, and trauaileth in paine together vnto this present.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Science (1)
Historical claims about the natural world, weighed against the scientific record.
Cross-references (8)
Passages linked to Romans 8:22 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Jeremiah 12:4 How long will the land mourn, and the herbs of the whole country wither? Because of the wickedness of those who dwell therein, the animals and birds are consumed; because they said, “He won’t see our latter end.”
- Jeremiah 12:11 They have made it a desolation. It mourns to me, being desolate. The whole land is made desolate, because no one cares.
- John 16:21 A woman, when she gives birth, has sorrow because her time has come. But when she has delivered the child, she doesn’t remember the anguish any more, for the joy that a human being is born into the world.
- Colossians 1:23 if it is so that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Good News which you heard, which is being proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which I, Paul, was made a servant.
- Romans 8:20 For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope
- Mark 16:15 He said to them, “Go into all the world, and preach the Good News to the whole creation.
- Psalms 48:6 Trembling took hold of them there, pain, as of a woman in travail.
- Revelation 12:2 She was with child. She cried out in pain, laboring to give birth.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (18 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 22. For we know, etc. He repeats the same…
22. For we know, etc. He repeats the same sentiment, that he might pass over to us, though what is now said has the effect and the form of a conclusion; for as creatures are subject to corruption, not through their natural desire, but through the appointment of God, and then, as they have a hope of being hereafter freed from corruption, it hence follows, that they groan like a woman in travail until they shall be delivered. But it is a most suitable similitude; it shows that the groaning of which he speaks will not be in vain and without effect; for it will at length bring forth a joyful and blessed fruit. The meaning is, that creatures are not content in their present state, and yet that they are not so distressed that they pine away without a prospect of a remedy, but that they are as it were in travail; for a restoration to a better state awaits them. By saying that they groan together, he does not mean that they are united together by mutual anxiety, but he joins them as companions to us. The particle hitherto, or, to this day, serves to alleviate the weariness of daily languor; for if creatures have continued for so many ages in their groaning, how inexcusable will our softness or sloth be if we faint during the short course of a shadowy life.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain By this word is meant, not only exceeding sorrow,…
By this word is meant, not only exceeding sorrow, but also the fruit that followeth of it.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth…
22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Ver. 22. The whole creation groaneth] Even the very heavens are not without their feebleness and the manifest effects of fainting old age. It is observed that since the days of Ptolemy, the sun runs nearer the earth by 9976 German miles, and therefore the heavens have not kept their first perfection.
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And travaileth] How Mr Bradshaw pitied the poor beast he rode on, and said, that men take too much liberty in killing and misusing some contemptible creatures, see in his Life by Mr. Clark, p. 130.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain If here again the heavens and the earth, with…
If here again the heavens and the earth, with what is therein, be understood, then the apostle further enlargeth upon their present state and condition; before they waited and expected deliverance, now they groan and travail in pain. They also are metaphorical expressions; one is taken for a man who hath upon him a heavy burden, another from a woman that is near her delivery. And this they do
until now; i.e. from the fall of Adam to this present day. They that understand the words of the Gentile world, thus interpret them: We, the apostles and ministers of Jesus Christ, do find by experience, that the Gentiles are very forward to receive the gospel when they hear it, whilst the Jews generally reject it. The Gentile world is, as it were, in pangs of travail ever since Christ’s time till now, ready to bring forth sons and daughters to God.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain For we know that the whole creation groaneth,.... As…
For we know that the whole creation groaneth,.... As a woman with child, ready to bring forth: for it is added,
and travaileth in pain together until now; regeneration is owing to the grace of God, which is compared to "seed", of which men are born again; the means of conveying it is the Gospel, and ministers are the instruments of begetting souls to Christ, and who travail in birth till Christ be formed in them: now the Gospel being carried by the apostles into the Gentile world, and being succeeded there, it was like a woman big with child, ready to bring forth many sons to God; for as it was prophesied, so it came to pass, that "more are the children of the desolate, than the children of the married wife", Isa 54:1; and these births were attended with pain. The apostles preached the word with much contention, and the Gentiles received it in much affliction, though with the joy of the Holy Ghost; as a woman rejoices when a man child is brought forth, though the birth has been attended with pain and labour. This was an united groan, and travail of all the converted Gentiles in the several parts of the world, together with the ministers of the Gospel, earnestly desiring more instances of conversion among them; and this vehement desire had appeared "until now", from the first time of the preaching of the Gospel among the Gentiles, to the writing of this epistle; and supposes, that though there were many spiritual births, there were more to come; as there has been, and will be more abundantly, in the latter day: and moreover, this painful labour, and these united groans for spiritual births, the apostles were well acquainted with, and therefore could say, "we know", &c. by their preaching among them, in whom they could easily observe, and do in their writings take notice, how eagerly desirous they were of having the Gospel preached unto them.
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(The whole creation was brought under a curse because of Adam's sin. This curse will be removed in the eternal state when Christ will restore the creation to the way it was in the beginning. Editor.)
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain For the whole creation groaneth together - With joint…
For the whole creation groaneth together - With joint groans, as it were with one voice. And travaileth - Literally, is in the pains of childbirth, to be delivered of the burden of the curse. Until now - To this very hour; and so on till the time of deliverance.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 22. The whole creation groaneth and travaileth] If…
Verse 22. The whole creation groaneth and travaileth] If it be inquired how the Gentile world groaned and travailed in pain; let them who explain this of the fabric of the material world, tell us how that groans and travails? They must needs own it to be a borrowed and allusive phrase: but in the sense above given, the very literal construction may be admitted.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Rom 8:22. For we know that the whole creation…
Rom 8:22. For we know that the whole creation — Ever since the first apostacy of our nature from God; groaneth — Suffers a variety of miseries; and travaileth — Συνωδινει, literally, is in the pains of childbirth, to be delivered from the burden of the curse; until now — To this very hour, and so on to the time of deliverance. “According to some commentators, the words πασα η κτισις denote the whole creatures of God, animate and inanimate, which, as they were cursed for the sin of the first man, may, by a beautiful rhetorical figure, be represented as groaning together under that curse, and earnestly wishing to be delivered from it. Such figures indeed are not unusual in Scripture. See Psa 96:12; Psa 98:8. Nevertheless, Rom 8:21, where it is said that the creature itself shall be delivered, &c., into the glorious liberty of the children of God; and the antithesis, Rom 8:23, not only they, but ourselves also, show that the apostle is speaking, not of the brute and inanimate creation but of mankind, and of their earnest desire of immortality. For these reasons, and especially because (Mar 16:15) preach the gospel, παση τη κτισει, means, to every human creature, I think the same expression in this verse, and η κτισις in the preceding verses, signify mankind in general, Jews as well as Gentiles. The same expression, also, Col 1:23, signifies every human creature.” — Macknight.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain For we know - The sentiment of this verse…
For we know - The sentiment of this verse is designed as an illustration of what had just been said.
That the whole creation - Margin, “every creature.” This expression has been commonly understood as meaning the same as “the creature” in Rom 8:20-21. But I understand it as having a different signification; and as being used in the natural and usual signification of the word “creature,” or “creation.” It refers, as I suppose, to the whole animate creation; to all living beings; to the state of all created things here, as in a condition of pain and disorder, and groaning and death. Everything which we see; every creature which lives, is thus subjected to a state of servitude, pain, vanity, and death. The reasons for supposing that this is the true interpretation, are,
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That the apostle expressly speaks of “the whole creation, of every creature, qualifying the phrase by the expression “we know,” as if he was drawing an illustration from a well-understood, universal fact.
(2)This interpretation makes consistent sense, and makes the verse have a direct bearing on the argument. “It is just an argument from analogy.”
He had Rom 8:20-21 said that the condition of a Christian was one of bondage and servitude. It was an imperfect, humiliating state; one attended with pain, sorrow, and death. This might be regarded as a melancholy description, and the question might arise, why was not the Christian at once delivered from this? The answer is in this verse. “It is just the condition of everything.” It is the manifest principle on which God governs the world. The whole creation is in just this condition; and we are not to be surprised, therefore, if it is the condition of the believer. It is a part of the universal system of things; it accords with everything we see; and we are not to be surprised that the church exists on the same principle of administration; in a state of bondage, imperfection, sorrow, and sighing for deliverance.
Groaneth - Greek, Groans together. All is united in a condition of sorrow. The expression denotes mutual and universal grief. It is one wide and loud lamentation, in which a dying world unites; and in which it has united “until now.”
And travaileth in pain together - This expression properly denotes the extreme pain of parturition. It also denotes any intense agony, or extreme suffering; and it means here that the condition of all things has been that of intense, united, and continued suffering; in other words, that we are in a world of misery and death. This has been united; all have partaken of it: it has been intense; all endure much: it has been unremitted; every age has experienced the repetition of the same thing.
Until now - Until the time when the apostle wrote. It is equally true of the time since he wrote. It has been the characteristic of every age. It is remarkable that the apostle does not here say of “the whole creation,” that it had any hope of deliverance; an additional consideration that shows that the interpretation above suggested is correct, Rom 8:20-21, Rom 8:23. Of the sighing and suffering universe, he says nothing with respect to its future state. He does not say that the suffering brutal creation shall be compensated, or shall be restored or raised up. He simply adverts to the fact that it suffers, as an illustration that the condition of the Christian is not singular and special. The Scriptures say nothing of the future condition of the brutal creation.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain For we know that the whole creation groaneth and…
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now--If for man's sake alone the earth was cursed, it cannot surprise us that it should share in his recovery. And if so, to represent it as sympathizing with man's miseries, and as looking forward to his complete redemption as the period of its own emancipation from its present sin-blighted condition, is a beautiful thought, and in harmony with the general teaching of Scripture on the subject. (See on Pe2 3:13).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 22. For—This is true of us Christians, in a…
22. For—This is true of us Christians, in a measure, not only as human creatures, but as part of the whole creation, so that 22 and 23 are a more explicit statement of the unity herein of the Christian with the creation.
Whole creation—Individual suffering is in unison with universal suffering. All animated nature is groaning. All physical nature is scarred with past convulsions, and puts forth its thorny luxuriance as if groaning under the primeval curse.
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Travaileth—Its pains are, however, not merely of death, but also of birth. It is as if nature were a mother struggling to bring forth a fresh and new creation. This is, however, the only intimation that the passage contains of any renovation beyond that of the sons of God. It intimates nothing of an immortality or resurrection of beasts. Of such a renovation of the world, not only the Jews, but other oriental nations, cherished an expectation. Nor does geology, as some suppose, exclude the supposition. That science discloses wondrous revolutions and stages through which the earth has passed in past ages. The most wonderful, surpassing in some respects most of the miracles of Scripture, was the introduction of animal life. And geology reveals some great changes as sudden. Of life it may be said that it was a suspension of all previous laws, by the interposition of a new power in the world. When life forms or enters an organism, the ordinary course of chemical affinities is arrested; when that interposition is withdrawn, “the lower law by which the particles of matter seek their natural affinity resumes its reign.” This seems a shadow of the interposition in nature of the still higher Power by which still higher arrangements will be established, which, though miracles to our present order, will be natural to the new state, and natural as accordant with the laws of God’s universe.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 22. we know] By observation of the pain and…
22. we know] By observation of the pain and disturbance everywhere in the material world.
travaileth in pain] A powerful and expressive word, indicating both great present distress and the definite result which is to close it.
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together] This word is to be taken with both “groaneth” and “travaileth.” It refers to the complex whole of “creation;” all its kinds and regions share the distress and anticipation.
until now] i.e. ever since the primeval “subjugation.” The “now” perhaps specially refers to the Gospel Age, as that which heralds the final and eternal Age of Glory.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (22) Groaneth and travaileth.—In view of the physical evil…
(22) Groaneth and travaileth.—In view of the physical evil and misery prevalent in the world, the Apostle attributes a human consciousness of pain to the rest of creation. It groans and travails together, i.e., every member of it in common with its kind. The idea of travailing, as in childbirth, has reference to the future prospect of joyful delivery. (Comp. Joh_16:21.)
Until now.—This consciousness of pain and imperfection has been continuous and unbroken (nor will it cease until an end is put to it by the Coming of Christ.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 22, 23. For we know that the whole…
Vers. 22, 23. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only so, lout ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan Within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. The present unwilling subjection of the whole visible creation to evil is here still more forcibly expressed, and spoken of as being what is known a subject of experience to all who observe and think; and it is added that this state of things continues still it is "until now." The yearned-for deliverance has not yet come; and therefore we should not be surprised if we too, the regenerate, while in the body, are not yet exempt from our share in the universal groaning. For we have but the first fruits of the Spirit as yet, not its full triumph; cf. "the earnest of the Spirit", (2Co_1:22) and "the earnest of our inheritance". (Eph_1:14) Its being said that we still wait for our adoption as sons is not inconsistent with other statements, (as in Eph_4:5-7, and above, ver. 14, etc.) to the effect that we are already adopted, and are already sons; for uiowesia here denotes the final realization of our present sonship, when the sons of God shall be revealed (ver. 19). Similarly, our redemption (apolutrwsiv) is here regarded as future. In one sense we are redeemed already; in another we await our redemption, i.e. the full accomplishment thereof. It is the consummation called by our Lord h paliggenesia , (Mat_19:28) and by St. Peter, apokatastasiv pantwn . (Act_3:21) cf. 2Pe_3:13, and Revelation generally. "Of our body" seems to be added with reference to what has been seen above as to our present "mortal bodies" being both the organs of the lust of the flesh and the hindrances to the proper development of our inward spiritual life.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 22. For we know that the whole creation groaneth,…
22. For we know that the whole creation groaneth, etc. The world is in travail, groaning for deliverance. That it is in travail is certain; there is unrest and crying for deliverance everywhere. It may not understand its trouble, nor even what it wants, but the meaning is that it is fallen, its wishes frustrated, and it is sighing for deliverance. These groans and sorrows are a prophecy of a time of deliverance when “there shall be a new heaven, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.”
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain 22. “For we know that all creation groaneth together…
22. “For we know that all creation groaneth together and travaileth in pain till now.” This metaphor vividly describes all creation, even the earth itself, as groaning in great anguish and suffering like a woman in the throes of childbirth, till the new creation is born (Revelation 21), “new firmament and new earth,” thus lucidly portraying the fulfillment of prophecy appertaining to the glorious restitution in Christ, ultimating not only in the glorification of the soul, mind and body after the similitude of Christ, but the glorification of earth and firmament after the fiery sanctification, when Omnipotence will again come in and create it anew, celestializing and adding it back to the heavenly universe, where it belonged in halcyon days of Eden.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain For we know that the whole creation groaneth and…
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now . [And creation thus waits; for at and by reason of the fall of man, it became subject to frailty; i. e., it also fell from its original design and purpose, and became abortive, diminutive, imperfect, and subject to premature decay. And this it did not do of its own accord, but because the will of God ordered that it should be thus altered ( Gen_3:17-18 ); not leaving it, however, without hope that it also should so far share in the redemption of the sons of God as not only to be delivered from the bondage of being corruptible, to which God subjected it, but also to be transferred to the liberty which results from or accompanies the revelation or glorification of the sons of God. And this hopeful waiting is evident, for we Christians know that God designs to make all things new ( 2Pe_3:13 ; Rev_21:1 ; Rev_21:5 ), and also that the whole creation so shares man's deterioration and degradation that with him it groans, and has, as it were, the pains of childbirth, even to this hour. The figure of childbirth is appropriate, since nature wishes to reproduce herself in a new, fresh and better form, corresponding to that which she had before the fall of man.]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 8:22 The pains of childbirth is a metaphor for…
8:22 The pains of childbirth is a metaphor for the longing of creation (see also Matt 24:8; Mark 13:8; John 16:20-22).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.