Romans 10:2

For The connexion is, that they seem to be, but are not, in the way to salvation; and that this stirs up his affectionate and anxious longing that they may find it.

record witness; as one who so intimately knows them and their state of conscience and will.

zeal of God So lit. The genitive implies that the zeal is in close connexion with, and directed towards, Him. So "faith of God" (Gr. of Mark 11:22). Jewish jealousy for the Law, Temple, Scriptures, &c. eagerness to proselytize hatred of Christian renegades is all implied here; all being connected, rightly or mistakenly, with the true God, and intended, more or less, to "do Him service." Observe that St Paul gives them full credit for sincerity, and yet does not look on their sincerityas a ground of safety. His true generosity had in it no false "liberalism." The Jews (like himself of old, 1 Timothy 1:13,) acted "ignorantly in unbelief;" but their "ignorance," in face of offered knowledge, was their crime; and so their misguided zeal was indirectly sinful.

knowledge Lit. full knowledge. (German, Erkenntniss.) Same word as Romans 1:28; Romans 3:20. The word is appropriate, for it was just the fullknowledge of the true God as God in Christwhich they lacked. Their knowledge of God impelled them to persecuting zeal exactly because it was not fullknowledge. (See Acts 13:27.) So it is with all persecution in the name of the true God.