Romans 3:10

There is none, &c. In Romans 3:10-18 we have a chain of Scripture quotations. The originals are found, verbally or in substance, in Psalms 5:9; Psalms 10:7; Psalms 14:1-3; Psalms 36:1; Psalms 140:3; Proverbs 1:16; Isaiah 59:7. In the Alexandrine MS. of the LXX. of Psalms 14 (LXX. 13):3, appears a singular phenomenon: the Gr. is much ampler than the original Hebrew (for Which see E. V.), and is verbatim the same as the Gr. of Romans 3:12-18 of this chapter. There can be little doubt that this was the work of a copyist acquainted with this passage of St Paul. Romans 3:10 would better read: as it is written that there is none righteous, no, not one. The precise quotations would then begin at Romans 3:11. The words of Romans 3:10 are not found in the O. T., and read rather as a summary of what is to follow.

The awful charges of Romans 3:10-18 are specially pointed at the Jews: see Romans 3:19. The passages quoted are descriptive of Israelites, some of them of Israelites of the best days of Israel. What at leastthey establish is that the root of sin was vigorous in Jewish hearts, and that its fruits in Jewish lives were abominable in the sight of God. Meantime we must not narrow the reference too closely. The Apostle's doctrine of human sinfulness (see e.g. Titus 3:3) is that the worst developments of individual sin only indicate the possibilities of the sinful heart in general. Passages like those cited here thus prove, not only what certain men were, but what man is. See Jeremiah 17:9.