Romans 2:17-20

“ 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 the foolish, the teacher of babes, because thou hast the formula of knowledge and of the truth in the law ”...

Instead of ἱδέ, behold, which the T. R. reads, with a single Mj., we must certainly read εἰ δέ, now if; this is the natural form of transition from principles to their application; the other reading seems to be a consequence of itacism (pronouncing ει as ι).

Where are we to find the principal clause to which this now if is subordinate? Some, Winer for example, think that the same construction continues as far as the beginning of Romans 2:21, where it is abandoned on account of the length of the sentence, and where an entirely new proposition begins. But we must at least meet again somewhere in the sequel with the idea which was in the apostle's mind when he began with the words now if. Meyer regards Romans 2:21 itself as the principal clause; he understands the οὖν, therefore, as a particle of recapitulation. But, in an argument like this (now if, Romans 2:17), this meaning of therefore is unnatural. It is better than, with Hofmann, to hold that the series of propositions dependent on now if is prolonged to the end of Romans 2:24, where the principal proposition resulting from all these considerations is understood as a self-evident consequence: what good in this case (that of such sins, Romans 2:21-24) will accrue to thee from all those advantages (Romans 2:17-20)? It is to this understood conclusion, which we would replace with lacuna-points (...), that the for of Romans 2:25 very naturally refers. By this figure of rhetoric (aposiopesis) the apostle dispenses with expressing a conclusion himself, which must spring spontaneously from the conscience of every reader.

The propositions dependent on “ now if,” taken together, embrace two series of four verses each; the one, that from Romans 2:17-20, is intended to enumerate all the advantages of which the Jew boasts; the other, from Romans 2:21-24, contrasts the iniquities of his conduct with those advantages.

The advantages are distributed into three categories. 1. The gifts of God, Romans 2:17; Romans 2:2. The superior capabilities which these gifts confer on the Jew, Romans 2:18; Romans 2:3. The part which he somewhat pretentiously thinks himself thereby called to play toward other nations, Romans 2:19-20. There is something slightly ironical in this accumulation of titles on which the Jew bases the satisfaction which he feels as he surveys himself.