Romans 10:18

Romans 10:18. But I say. The strongly adversative ‘but' introduces the answer to a possible objection, in excuse of the unbelief spoken of in Romans 10:16.

Did they not hear? ‘They,' i.e., those who did not hearken; the Jews are meant, but not yet directly spoken of. The question in the Greek points to a negative answer: It cannot be that they did not hear, they did hear, though they did not hearken, hence have not this excuse.

Nay, verily. Comp. chap. Romans 9:20, where the same word is rendered ‘nay but.' We substitute ‘nay,' for ‘yes,' to indicate the relation to the question: so far from its being the case that they did not hear, the very opposite is true.

Their sound, etc. The rest of the verse is taken from Psalms 19:4 (E. V.), in the exact words of the LXX. But it is not cited as in itself a proof from Scripture; for there is no formula of quotation, and the Psalmist is speaking of the universal revelation of God in nature, not in the gospel. The Apostle applies the language to the universal preaching of the gospel, which he affirms. there is, however, a propriety in this application. ‘The manifestation of God in nature, is for all His creatures to whom it is made, a pledge of their participation in the clearer and higher revelation' (Hengstenberg). That the gospel had actually been preached everywhere is not what the Apostle affirms. It had become universal in its scope, and occupied the central positions of the Roman world. Its wide extension among the Gentiles showed that the Jews could find no excuse for their unbelief in not having heard. Everywhere there had been opportunity for them to hear. The verse applies even more strikingly to those in gospel lands. ‘Sound' is the LXX. rendering of the Hebrew ‘line,' which in the Psalm means ‘a musical chord.'