Romans

2:17-29

Arguments in support of the proposition, 1:18-11:36

1. The impartial nature of God's righteous condemnation of universal sin, 1:18-3:20

v] In the face of human sinfulness, the law is powerless to shape the qualities in a person that would make them worthy of God's praise

The assumed advantage of the law, namely its power to restrain sin advance holiness, producing a supposed superior spirituality, is exposed as a fraud by the lifestyle of its proponents. The behavior of the self-righteous is little more than blasphemy since they do not do what they preach. Of course there is value in the Mosaic law (circumcision is the mark of law-obedience), but in the end, only a new heart within, a new creation, will make a person worthy of God's praise.

Again we are faced with the issue of the exact identity of the "Jew" - those who call themselves a Jew. Is this person an unconverted, or converted Jew? There seems little doubt that Paul's words are directed toward his nomist readers, but it is likely that the status of the Jew, either converted or otherwise, is not in view. This Jew is representative of those who are committed to the Sinai covenant and so think they are improving their covenant standing by restraining sin and advancing holiness through law obedience. Paul's argument is that they have nothing to brag about. Only the person with a renewed heart, a law written within, a person being renewed by the indwelling-compelling of the Spirit of Christ, can expect praise from God.

ei + ind. "if" - Note variant ide, "behold", probably an attempt to deal with the unwieldy conditional clause. Conditional sentence, 1st class, where the condition is assumed to be true. The "if" clause (protasis) is formed by multiple clauses, the apodosis in the form of a question/s, v21. The point being, "if, as you claim, you are righteous under the law, do you actually keep the law? Probably better translated as a positive statement; "Some of you call yourselves Jews. You trust in the Lord and take pride in God. .....", CEV.

eponomazh/ (eponomazw) pres. pas. "you call yourself" - Given the passive, possibly "you are called a Jew", or better "you bear the honored name of a Jew", Bruce.

IoudaioV "Jew" - A member of the covenant people of God with its associated privileges and responsibilities. The "you" being a Jewish believer, member of the church at Rome.

epanapauh/ (epanapauomai) pres. "rely on" - rest on, rely upon. "Rely" on the law for standing with God; "lean back in the arms of", Peterson.

kaucasai (kaucaomai) pres. "boast" - "Boast" as to their standing before God, so "brag", Morris.

en "about your relationship to [God]" - in [God]. They "brag", not about their particular relationship with God, but "because of", Turner, God himself. They think they know God and assume that he can always be counted on to act in their favor, Jewett.

dokimazeiV (dokimazw) pres. "approve" - test, prove, approve. Possibly "test out" what is right, "discover what is right", CEV, but more likely "determine and then approve" what is right; "you are able, through your knowledge of the Law, truly to appreciate moral values", Phillips.

ta diaferonta (diaferw) pres. part. "what is superior" - excelling, being worth more than. Participle forming a substantive. "What is excellent", RSV.

kathcoumenoV (kathcew) pres. part. "because you are instructed" - being instructed. "Instructed" orally, although this was the usual form of instruction, "being instructed in a formal way", Wuest. The participle possibly forms a causal clause, as NIV, possibly means (instrumental), "by being instructed", Williams.

pepoiqaV (peiqw) perf. "you are convinced" - having persuaded, been sure, certain [yourself]. "You have convinced yourself", Jewett.

einai (eimi) "that your are" - The infinitive serving to form a dependent statement of perception, as NIV. The Jewish believers, because of their possession of the law, consider that "they are accredited teachers of those whose eyes are blinded by ignorance", Junkins.

afronwn adj. "the foolish" - mindless, thoughtless, unthinking, foolish... Probably with regard spiritual things; you "instruct those who [you think] have no spiritual wisdom", Phillips.

nhpiwn adj. "infants" - Possibly used of children, but the word can also be used metaphorically, eg., "babies in Christ", 1Cor.3:1. It is likely that this is the sense here. These "babies" are, in the view of the "righteous" believers in Rome ("the weak", nomists), those who are missing that extra special ingredient in the Christian life, namely, righteousness under the law (the necessary extra tacked onto the cross that will get us from this world to the next. Even today there are those who promote the essential extra!!).

econta (ecw) pres. part. "because you have" - having. The NIV has again taken the participle as forming a causal clause. Of course, Paul is being ironical, so "because in the law you have [you believe you have] ....", Moffatt.

thn morfwsin (iV ewV) "the embodiment" - the outward form. Earlier, eg., Lightfoot, saw the word as a mere representation, sketch of an inward reality, but it is now seen as "a true depiction and representation of the idea", TDNT. Only Paul's law-bound friends have "the basis of true knowledge", Phillips.

oun "then" - therefore. Possibly resumptive rather than expressing result. Paul finally gets to the apodosis of his conditional sentence which commenced in v17, although the syntax has been lost along the way and so he now resorts to rhetorical questions. "Prepared as you are to instruct others, do you ever teach yourself anything?", Phillips.

oJ didaskwn (didaskw) pres. part. "you who teach [others]" - the one teaching. The participle forming a substantive.

oJ legwn "you who say" - the one saying. Participle as a substantive.

mh moiceuein (moiceuw) pres. inf. "that people should not commit adultery" - not to commit adultery. The infinitive forming a dependent statement of saying. Jesus, in the sermon on the mount, completes ("fulfills") the law by declaring it in perfection and by so doing, removes any possibility of claiming God's approval on the basis of doing it. Although the law serves as a guide to the Christian life, it primarily serves to expose sin, and it is for this purpose that Jesus regularly used it. None-the-less, it is easy for a law-bound believer to miss the obvious, to preach against adultery, condemn the adulterer, but ignore their own adulterous thoughts, as though they don't count.

iJerosuleiV (iJerosulew) pres. "rob temples" - commit sacrilege. Trying to find some actual offence against the temple misses the point. As with adultery, Paul is speaking of the ethical purity demanded in the sermon on the mount, a righteousness that exceeds that of the Scribes and the Pharisees, a perfection where there is not the hint of sacrilege in either thought, or action. "Thy piety is arrogance, for where is the piety which does not approach God too nearly", Barth.

en "[brag] about [the law]" - [boast] in [the law]. Possibly "because of the law", Turner; "are confident because of their standing under the law", ie., righteous under the law. The confidence of a Jew probably didn't lie in their submission to the law to gain salvation (legalism), since their standing before God was a matter of grace, a birthright under God. Their confidence rested in their privileged status under the blessing of the law, which blessing maintained and progressed their standing before God (nomism - the law as an instrument of divine approval). Many Jewish believers, "the weak", had brought this thinking with them into the Christian fellowship and it is this issue which Paul confronts. Paul's argument, drawn from the teaching of Jesus, is that a person's standing before God, their righteousness, their holiness, is by grace through faith. All the law does is remind us of this fact, for righteousness is not possible under the law, only condemnation. So, "the weak" (Jewish believers) in Rome may be confident because of their standing under the law, but then, the problem is that they break the law and in so doing enact the curse of the law against them. The reader will understand how common this heresy is today and also, that this issue is central to the present debate over Pauline theology between new perspective and reformed commentators.

tou nomou (oV) gen. "[breaking] the law" - [disobedience] of the law. Obviously an objective genitive, as NIV. "Do you dishonor God by its violation?", Phillips.

gar "-" - for. As is often the case, this conjunction is left untranslated in the NIV. Basically expressing cause/reason, in that sense it often functions as part of the argument, explaining something about the previous statement; "for, as the scripture says, ...", Williams. Certainly here the point is argumentative, even to the point of being consequential; "as a consequence of your behavior, as the scripture says, ..."

to onoma (a atoV) "[God's] name" - In the sense of "God's person."

blasfhmeitai (blasfhmew) pres. pas. "blasphemed" - Probably in the sense of defaming God by their failure to obey. Israel was to be a light to the Gentiles, but the hypocrisy of the self-righteous is easy to see.

Verses 25-29 identify the contentious issue of circumcision, an issue constantly disturbing Paul's mission churches. For the law-bound believers (judaizers, members of the circumcision party, nomists, "the weak", 15:1) the circumcision of Gentile believers served as the mark their submission to the law of Moses and thus their participation in its attendant blessings. Paul's point is that circumcision is a sign of blessing if a person keeps the law, but a sign of cursing it they don't. Anyway, as has always been the case, true circumcision is a matter of the heart (cf. Jer.4:4), such that a believer in Christ is already circumcised and so fully a member of God's new covenant community.

gar "-" - for. Here best left untranslated, as NIV, as it is probably just an argumentative link.

peritomh (h) "circumcision" - Obviously here physical circumcision as a sign of covenant status.

ean + subj. "if [you observe the law]" - Conditional clause, 3rd class, where the condition has only a possibility of being true.

ean + subj. "if [you break]" - if [you are a transgressor]. Conditional clause, 3rd class, although one would expect 1st class.

nomou (oV) gen. "the law" - law. Objective genitive, ie., the action is applied to the law; the law is the object of the action.

akrobustia (a) "not ... circumcised" - uncircumcision. A failure, by those under the law, to obey the law, placed the circumcised with the uncircumcised.

fulassh/ (fulassw) "keep [the law's requirements]" - guard, protect / of the law = observe, keep. Again we have the interesting description of the "not circumcised" (obviously a believing Gentile) who "habitually guards the righteous requirements of the law", Wuest. Paul is probably speaking of a believers walk in the Spirit apart from the law, which Christ-like walk is "relatively" righteous, in that those under the law are prompted toward rebellion while those under grace are prompted toward Christ-likeness - the forgiven forgive, while those told to forgive, forgive in name only. On the other hand, he may be speaking of a believers standing in Christ under Christ's obedience; theologically true, but unlikely to the Paul's point in this context. Then again, as a conditional clause, 3rd class, the notion may be only theoretically possible; unlikely. Of course, Paul may be thinking of "the obedience [that consists] of faith", although "the law's requirements" = the LXX technical term "the righteous requirements of the law", so the actual doing of the law does seem to be in Paul's mind.

ouc .... logisqhsetai (logizomai) fut. pas. "will they not be regarded" - will not [his uncircumcision] be reckoned, accounted [for circumcision]. The Christ-like life of a believer serves as the sign of their covenant inclusion and as such is as good as the sign of circumcision.

A tricky verse to translate. Note the numerous translations, particularly as either a statement, or a question. Note also the emphatic position of "condemn" at the head of the Gk. sentence.

fusewV (iV ewV) "physically" - naturally, of nature. "Have never been circumcised", CEV. See v14.

telousa (telew) pres. part. "[and yet] obeys [the law]" - completing, finishing, keeping, fulfilling. The participle is possibly temporal, "while keeping the law." As Barrett notes, Paul does not use this word in the sense of "obeying" the law and so suggests "give full effect to" although "fulfilling" the law is surely what Paul means.

krinei (krinw) fut. "will condemn" - will judge. As Cranfield notes, the "uncircumcised" [believer] "will not assume the role of judge, but rather that he will be a witness for the prosecution", having lived without the law as the circumcised should have lived under the law.

dia + gen. "even though" - through, by means of. The second half of the sentence is controlled by this preposition. It naturally takes an instrumental sense which would mean "those who keep the law will condemn you who, through / by means of the law and circumcision, break the law." Indeed, the law does make sin more sinful, in a sense, promotes rebellion and Paul certainly does argue the case that when we place ourselves under the law to promote holiness, we end up promoting sin. Grace, on the other hand, promotes righteous living. On the other hand, most commentators find this approach a little raw and so suggest that the preposition here introduces an attendant circumstance; the righteous believers have the law and circumcision, and they break the law; "the uncircumcised ...... will judge you who, for all your observance of the letter, and your circumcision, are a transgressor of the law", Barrett.

en tw/ fanerw/ "outwardly" - in the open. A messy verse, but the sense is clear. Covenant membership is a matter of the heart and not outward form.

en sarki "physical" - in the flesh.

alla "no" - but. Adversative here. "On the contrary", BAGD.

en pneumati (a atoV) "by the Spirit" - The preposition here is obviously instrumental if we take "spirit" to mean "the Holy Spirit", as NIV, but local if we take "spirit" to mean "inward spiritual self"; "it is spiritual and not literal", NRSV; "circumcision of the heart, in spirit not letter, is [the real] circumcision", Barrett.

ou grammati (a atoV) "not the written code" - not letter.

ou| gen. pro. "such a man's" - [the praise] of whom [not from men but from God]. Referring to the person who is circumcised spiritually, the Jew inwardly - a child of Abraham through faith and not necessarily natural descent.

oJ epainoV (oV) "praise" - Possibly a play on words given that Judah means praise, so Haldane. Barrett tries to bring this out with "he is a Jew, whose due comes from God not from men."

ex "from" - Expressing origin. The only praise worth anything derives from God.

Romans Introduction.

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