Romans 3:9

Τί οὖν; What then? i.e., how, then, are we to understand the situation? It is necessary to take these words by themselves, and make προεχόμεθα a separate question: the answer to τί could not be οὐ, but must be οὐδέν. The meaning of προεχόμεθα has been much discussed. The active προέχειν means to excel or surpass. Many have taken προεχόμεθα as middle in the same sense: So the Vulg. praecellimus eos? and the A.V. “Are we better than they?” But this use, except in interpreters of this verse, cannot be proved. The ordinary meaning of the middle would be “to put forward on one's own account, as an excuse, or defence”. This is the rendering in the margin of the R.V. “Do we excuse ourselves?” If τί οὖν προεχόμεθα could be taken together, it might certainly be rendered, What then is our plea? but it is impossible to take προεχόμεθα in this sense without an object, and impossible, as already explained, to make this combination. The only alternative is to regard προεχόμεθα as passive: What then? are we excelled? This is the meaning adopted in the R.V. “Are we in worse case than they?” It is supported by Lightfoot. Wetstein quotes one example from Plut. de Stoic. contrad., 1038 D.: τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς πᾶσι προσήκει, κατʼ οὐδὲν προεχομένοις ὑπὸ τοῦ Διός : “who are in nothing surpassed by Zeus”. The word would thus express the surprise of the Jew at seeing his prerogatives disappear; “if this line of argument be carried further,” he may be supposed to say, “the relative positions of Jew and Gentile will turn out to be the very reverse of what we have believed”. This is the idea which is negatived in οὐ πάντως. Strictly speaking, the οὐ should modify πάντως, and the meaning be “not in every respect”: in some respects (for instance, the one referred to in Romans 3:2), a certain superiority would still belong to the Jew. But to allude to this seems irrelevant, and there is no difficulty in taking the words to mean, “No: not in any way”. See Winer, p. 693 f. “We are not surpassed at all, we who are Jews, for we have already brought against Jews and Greeks alike the charge of being all under sin.” ὑπὸ ἁμαρτίαν, cf. Romans 7:14; Galatians 3:22. The idea is that of being under the power of sin, as well as simply sinful: men are both guilty and unable to escape from that condition.