Romans 2:1-29

Therefore. Or, “because of this.” The reference may be either to the judgment stated in ch. 1:32, “they which commit such things are worthy of death,” or to the fundamental thought of the whole section of vs. 18-32. Paul is continuing his argument that there is universal need for the saving power contained in the revelation of the righteousness of God by faith (vs. 16, 17). He has already traced the downward course of man from the first willful rejection of the knowledge of God through all the stages of idolatry and vice. Finally in v. 32 he has described that last stage of human degradation in which men have not only lost all virtue themselves but have come to the place where they approve the vice of others. They retain only the consciousness of their guilt and misery, for they know the just sentence of God that is pronounced against those who do such things.

Paul now proceeds to explain that the Jews are no less guilty than the Gentiles and that they also need the provisions of the same plan of salvation. He shows that the Jews have enjoyed greater light than the heathen, and yet they have done the same things.

Much of what has been said about the Gentiles in ch. 1:18-32 also applies to the Jews, for they too have sinned against knowledge and conscience.

Thou art inexcusable. The Jews were quick to condemn the Gentiles, but since the Jews had been so favored for centuries with greater light than the Gentiles, they were absolutely without excuse for committing the same sins. See Vol. IV, pp. 30-34.

Whosoever thou art. Paul begins his discussion of the failure of the Jews to attain to the righteousness of God with a general statement that was applicable to all men. He began his discussion of the failure of the Gentiles with a similarly general statement (ch. 1:18). Perhaps this is evidence of the apostle’s skill in argument. It might have excited immediate opposition from the Jews if Paul had named them in the first sentence. Paul chooses rather to approach the subject gradually and in general terms. Then, after he has presented evidence, he makes the specific application to the Jews (ch. 2:17).

Judgest. Gr. krind. This word does not of itself mean “to condemn,” but rather, “to separate,” “to distinguish,” “to select,” “to show preference for,” “to determine,” “to approve,” “to pronounce judgment,” and, where the context so requires, “to condemn.” In this case the context of vs. 1-3 indicates the sense of condemning.

Another. Literally, “the other one.”

Thou condemnest. Gr. katakrind, a form of the verb “to judge” that plainly implies adverse judgment or condemnation. Paul’s argument is similar to that of the prophet Nathan when speaking to King David (2 Sam. 12:5-7). Paul told the Jews that by the very act of sitting in judgment upon their fellow men they are pronouncing sentence upon themselves. They declare criminal acts of which they themselves are guilty.

Doest. Gr. prasso, a word denoting habitual or customary practice.

An example of the Jews decrying the immorality of the heathen and extolling their own purity is found in the Letter of Aristeas: “For most other men defile themselves by promiscuous intercourse, thereby working great iniquity, and whole countries and cities pride themselves upon such vices. For they not only have intercourse with men but they defile their own mothers and even their daughters. But we have been kept separate from such sins” (cited from R. H. Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English, vol. 2, p. 109). That moral conditions among the Jews were not nearly so ideal as here indicated is evident from incidental references in rabbinical writings to the unnatural vices practiced among the Jews as well as from the preventive regulations in rabbinical laws regarding these vices. The actual situation is probably reflected with reasonable accuracy in the following from The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (see R. H. Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, vol. 2), a Jewish pseudepigraphical work of about the early 2d century B.C. “And in the seventh week shall become priests, [who are] idolaters, adulterers, lovers of money, proud, lawless, lascivious, abusers of children and beasts” (The Testament of Levi 17:11). “These things I say unto you, my children, for I have read in the writing of Enoch that ye yourselves also shall depart from the Lord, walking according to all the lawlessness of the Gentiles, and ye shall do according to all the wickedness of Sodom” (The Testament of Naphtali 4:1).

It is a matter of common observation that those who are quick to criticize and accuse others are themselves frequently guilty of the same offenses. Sometimes men are particularly zealous in opposing those offenses that they themselves secretly practice. The classic example of this is the base hypocrisy revealed by the pious accusers of the woman taken in adultery. “These would-be guardians of justice had themselves led their victim into sin” (DA 461). David readily condemned the supposed injustice reported by Nathan (2 Sam. 12:1-6).