Romans 2:21-24

“ 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 through breaking the law; for the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you, as it is written ”...

On the one side, then, the Jews are proud of the possession of their law; but, on the other, how do they put it in practice? it is to set forth this contradiction that the second series of propositions is devoted, Romans 2:21-24. The οὖν, then, ironically contrasts the real practical fruit produced in the Jews by their knowledge of the law, and that which such an advantage should have produced. The term teach includes all the honorable functions toward the rest of the world which the Jew has just been arrogating. ῾Ο διδάσκων : Thou, the so great teacher!

The apostle chooses two examples in the second table of the law, theft and adultery: and two in the first, sacrilege and dishonor done to God. Theft comprehends all the injustices and deceptions which the Jews allowed themselves in commercial affairs. Adultery is a crime which the Talmud brings home to the three most illustrious Rabbins, Akiba, Mehir, and Eleazar. Sensuality is one of the prominent features of the Semitic character. The pillage of sacred objects cannot refer to anything connected with the worship celebrated at Jerusalem; such, for example, as refusal to pay the temple tribute, or the offering of maimed victims. The subject of the proposition: thou who abhorrest idols, proves clearly that the apostle has in view the pillage of idol temples. The meaning is: “Thy horror of idolatry does not go the length of preventing thee from hailing as a good prize the precious objects which have been used in idolatrous worship, when thou canst make them thine own.” The Jews probably did not pillage the Gentile temples themselves; but they filled the place of receivers; comp. besides, Acts 19:37. The dishonor done to God arises from their greed of gain, their deceits and hypocrisy, which were thoroughly known to the Gentile populations among whom they lived. Paul weaves the prophetic rebuke into the tissue of his own language, but by the as it is written he reminds his readers that he is borrowing it from the inspired Scriptures. His allusion is to Isaiah 52:5 (which resembles our verse more in the letter than the sense), and to Ezekiel 36:18-24 (which resembles it more in the sense than in the letter).

We have regarded the whole passage, Romans 2:17-24, as dependent on the conjunction εἰ δέ, now if, Romans 2:17: “Now if thou callest thyself...(Romans 2:17-20); and if teaching so and so, thou...(Romans 2:21-24).” Thereafter, the principal clause is easily expressed as a proposition to be understood between Romans 2:24-25: “What advantage will this law be to thee, of which thou makest thy boast before others, and which thou dost violate thyself with such effrontery?” For, in fine, according to the principle laid down, Romans 2:13, it is not those who know the law, but those who do it, who shall be pronounced righteous by the judgment of God. The idea understood, which we have just expressed, is that to which the for of Romans 2:25 refers: “For it is wholly in vain for thee, if thou art disobedient, to reckon on circumcision to exculpate thee. A disobedient Jew is no better before God than a Gentile, and an obedient Gentile becomes in God's sight a true Jew.” Such is the meaning of the following passage, Romans 2:25-29.