---
title: Romans 10:16
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/romans-10-16/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/romans-10-16.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Romans 10:16
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Romans 10:16

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> But not all of them welcomed the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?”

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "they did not all obey the good news. For Isaiah says: 'Jehovah, who has put faith in the thing heard from us?'"

## JW Usage

Watchtower commentary takes Romans 10:16 as proof that obedience to "the good news" is required for salvation — faith and obedience are equated. The verse also serves the Watchtower's case for the divine name in the New Testament: Paul calls upon "Jehovah" when quoting Isaiah, supporting the NWT's restoration of YHWH wherever ancient Greek manuscripts use Kyrios in OT-quotation contexts.

## Protestant Usage

Romans 10:16 is decisive on the equivalence of obedience and faith. Paul says "they did not all obey the good news" and immediately quotes Isaiah saying "who has BELIEVED what he has heard from us?" Obeying and believing are the same act — this resolves Hebrews 5:9 ("salvation to all who obey him") and Romans 1:5 ("obedience by faith"): the obedience meant is the obedience of faith, the initial trusting surrender to the gospel. But the verse is also the most exposed point of the NWT's Jehovah-insertion practice. The Greek text reads Kyrie ("Lord") in Paul's quotation of Isaiah 53:1 LXX. The NWT inserts "Jehovah" — and in doing so blocks the Christological reading that Romans 10:9-13 has built toward, where Paul applies the OT "calling on Jehovah" formula directly to "calling on the Lord [Jesus]."

## NWT Issue

The NWT inserts "Jehovah" where the Greek New Testament manuscripts read Kyrie ("Lord"). Isaiah 53:1 LXX uses Kyrie; Paul's quotation reproduces it. No NT manuscript contains the Tetragrammaton here. The insertion blocks the Christological identification Paul has been building from 10:9 ("if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord… you will be saved") through 10:13 ("everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved" — also an NWT insertion, where the Greek reads Kyriou). When the chapter is read with the NWT's restored "Jehovah," the natural Christ=YHWH inference Paul forces on his Greek-reading audience is severed.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Eternal Salvation to All Who Obey Him](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/hebrews5-9-obey-salvation.md) — Hebrews 5:9 and the obedience of faith [Salvation]