FIFTH PASSAGE (2:1-29). THE WRATH OF GOD SUSPENDED OVER THE JEWISH PEOPLE. In the midst of this flood of pollutions and iniquities which Gentile society presents to view, the apostle sees one who like a judge from the height of his tribunal sends a stern look over the corrupt mass, condemning the e... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Wherefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things._ ” Whom is the apostle addressing? Gentile magistrates, say the old Greek commentators. But a magistrate is appointed to... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Now we know that the sentence of God is according to truth upon them which commit such things._ ” We might give the δέ an adversative sense: “ _But_ God does not let Himself be deceived by this judgment which thou passest on others.” It is more natural, however, to translate this δέ by _now_, and... [ Continue Reading ]
_ VV._ 3. “ _But thou countest upon this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?_ ” We might, with Hofmann, take the verbs λογίζῃ and καταφρονεῖς (_thou countest, thou despisest_) in an affirmative sense. But the ἤ, _or indeed_,... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Or despisest thou the rïches of His goodness and forbearance and long-suffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But, according to thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up unto thyself wrath for the day of wrath and of the revelation of the righteous judgm... [ Continue Reading ]
The δέ, _but_, contrasts the result of so many favors received with the divinely desired effect. The contrast indicated arises from the fact that the Jews in their conduct are guided by a wholly different _rule_ from that to which the mercy of God sought to draw them. This idea of _rule_ is indeed w... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Who will render to every one according to his deeds._ ” No account will be taken of any external circumstance, but solely of the aim which has governed the man's moral action. It has been asked how this maxim can be reconciled with the doctrine of justification by faith. Fritzsche finds in them t... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _To them who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory and honor and immortality_, [to such] _eternal life: but for them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness_, [for such] _wrath and indignation!_ ” The Jews divided men into circumcised, and consequ... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that effecteth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Greek; but glory and honor and peace to every man that doeth good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek!_ ” The asyndeton indicates, as it always does, the more emphatic reassertion of the pr... [ Continue Reading ]
_ VV._ 10. The third term: _peace_, describes the subjective feeling of the saved man at the time when glory and honor are conferred on him by the judge. It is the profound peace which is produced by deliverance from wrath, and the possession of unchangeable blessedness. The simple ἐργάζεσθαι, _to d... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _For there is no respect of persons with God. For all those who have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and all those who have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law._ ” The principle stated in Romans 2:11 is one of those most frequently asserted in the Old Testament; comp. D... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _For not the hearers of the law are just before God; but the doers of the law, they shall be justified._ ” Why _hearers_ rather than possessors or readers? To describe the position of the Jews who _heard_ the reading of the law in the synagogue every Sabbath, and who for the most part knew it only... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _For when Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things which the law prescribes, these, having not the law, are their own law unto themselves: for they show thereby the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness to it, and their thoughts accusing or... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _In the day when God shall judge the hidden things of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel._ ” In this final proposition there is expressed and summed up the idea of the whole preceding passage (from Romans 2:6), that of the _final judgment._ But what is the grammatical and logical connectio... [ Continue Reading ]
The name _Jew_, ᾿Ιουδαῖος, is probably not used without allusion to its etymological meaning: _Jehoudah, the praised one._ The preposition ἐπί, which enters into the composition of the verb, converts this name into a real _title._ But Israel possesses more than a glorious name; it has in its hands a... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Now if thou who art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, and knowest His will, and canst discern the things that differ, being instructed out of the law; and esteemest thyself to be the guide of the blind, the light of them which are in darkness, the instructor of th... [ Continue Reading ]
The _second part_ of the chapter, Romans 2:17-29, contains _the application_ of the principles laid down in the first. After expressing himself in a general and more or less abstract way, Paul addresses himself directly to the person whom he had in view from Romans 2:1, and finally designates him by... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _And if, then, thou who teachest another, teachest not thyself, if preaching a man should not steal, thou stealest, if, while saying a man should not commit adultery, thou committest adultery, if, abhorring idols, thou robbest temples, if thou that makest thy boast of the law, dishonorest God thro... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. If then the uncircumcised keep the ordinances of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? And shall not he who, though uncircumcised by... [ Continue Reading ]
VV. 26, 27 describe the opposite case: the transformation of the obedient Gentile into a Jew, according to the judgment of God. This transformation, being the logical consequence of the preceding, is connected by οὗν, _then_, with Romans 2:25. The apostle is not now speaking, as in Romans 2:14-15, o... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, by the Spirit, and not by the letter; its praise is not of men, but of God._ ” The double principle laid down here by... [ Continue Reading ]