i was reading romans in the NRSV(UE) and noticed that a few of the instances of dikaosyne classically translated as 'righteousness' (and adikia translated as 'unrighteousness' or 'wickedness') are now translated as 'justice'/'injustice - they seem to have gone for a 'social relationships/big picture dikaiosyne is justice, and dikaiosyne as a personal quality is righteousness'.
and l feel like it has made the text more cohesive
Some examples:
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and injustice (NIV: wickedness) of those who by their injustice suppress the truth." Romans 1.18.
"They were filled with every kind of injustice (NIV: wickedness), evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless." Romans 1.29.
"But if our injustice serves to confirm the justice of God (NIV: 'if our unrighteousness brings out God's righteousness more clearly'), what should we say? That God is unjust to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) By no means! For then how could God judge the world?" - Romans 3:5-6 - the NRSV
The impression I get from the NIV, shaped by much evangelical teaching, is that 'righteousness' is an individual quality first and foremost - yes, it affects other people who become victims of it, but the picture painted feels like the problem is that every single individual is unrighteous and does things that are Bad.
Romans 3.5-6, then, seems to suggest that our unrighteousness only serves to highlight just how much more perfect and beautiful and morally spotless God is compared to us, and hence God is justified to inflict wrath because he is so much better than us.
On the other hand, the NRSVUE (and tbf the 3: 5-6 changes are also present in the NRSV) I think instead by using injustice suggests that we have a collective problem. God's wrath is a response to injustice which must be amended, and the vice list of Romans 1.29 is not just a pious killjoy collection of things to avoid but all sins that flow directly from injustice.
Romans 3.5-6 instead seems to be saying 'the fact that God is willing to deal with this injustice via wrath and restore right relationships demonstrates God's justice' - essentially, in the same way that Green Goblin's injustice 'confirms' Spiderman's justice by being his foil and adversary. So Paul seems to be saying 'We see God's justice demonstrated in his response to injustice - it would be stupid then to say God is unjust to judge us. How could he ever fix the world without some kind of judgment' Rather than suggesting that because God is perfectly morally good, he can freely destroy all who are morally impure at will.
i think this also foreshadows Romans 6.1, where Paul asks rhetorically 'shall we keep on sinning, so that grace may abound?' No, because in Romans sin is injustice. Injustice is a broken relationship, whether between individuals or on a societal level, and the effect of grace is to heal that relationship, not paper over it. Continuing to perpetuate injustice in order to make grace abound is like deliberately breaking your arm over and over again for more medicine.
I think this also makes clearer a closer link to the theology of the Old Testament Prophets, for whom social justice was of prime importance and first and foremost concerned with the community of Israel, not individual virtue in itself (although of course, by standing against Israel the Prophets also demonstrated the value of individual virtue).
