Rom 2:1 O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. The expression is general, but St. Paul already has the Jew in view, and passes soon from this generality to him in particular. Verses 21—23, addressed to the Jew, are but an expansion of what we have here: Thou doest the same things which thou judgest.
Rom 2:2 According to truth, i.e. a judgment rigorously just and surely executed.
Rom 2:3 And thinkest thou that thou shalt escape? Again pointed at the Jews, who considered themselves safe without repentance, because they were children of Abraham (Matt. 3:7, 9).
Rom 2:4 Goodness, benignity, χρηστότης, the same word. The χρηστός is one who makes himself useful to others, one who lays himself out to do them good. Goodness is a more active quality than patience and long-suffering, and therefore it alone is mentioned as leading men to penance. God truly leads, i.e. tries to lead, even those who will not go.
Rom 2:5 Wrath against the day of wrath, ἐν ἡμέρᾳ, in die (Vulg.): it should be wrath in the day of wrath. The preposition does not refer back to treasurest.
The day of wrath, dies irae: the day of judgment is so called here, and Zeph 1:15; 11. 3; Rev 6:17.
In that day the just judgment of God shall be revealed and shown forth in its fulness, which has place imperfectly and obscurely in this life, and fully but not secretly, for the individual, when he passes out of this life into the next.
Rom 2:6 Who will render to every man according to his works. Taken from Ps. 62:13, and repeated, Matt. 16:27; Rev 22:12; Rev 2:23. The Apostle speaks alike of all works: but evil works merit damnation: therefore good works (understand, supernaturally good works, done in the state of grace and under the prompting of actual grace) merit heaven. Of course no one is in the state of grace who has not the habit of faith; nor does any one act under the prompting of grace without an implicit exercise of faith.
Rom 2:7 Patience in good work, inculcated so often, Luke 8:15; 21:19; Heb. 10:36; James 1:4; Matt. 10:22 (in the Greek, he that shall be patient to the end). And still to be inculcated, and failing it, patience in reiterated repentances.
Glory and honour and incorruption are not merely the reward that is in the life to come; they are more immediately in this life, the habit of soul and body that prepares for that reward. They are the strong contraries of the uncleanness, the shameful affections, the reprobate sense, and all the base qualities enumerated in ch. 1. On incorruption in particular cf. 1 Cor. 15:50; Gal. 6:8; 2 Pet. 2:19.
Rom 2:8
To them that are contentious, τοῖς ἐξ ἐριθείας, qui sunt ex contentione. The word ἐριθεία however has nothing to do with ἔρις,
contention, but is from ἐριθεύομαι,
I intrigue for power. It occurs in Aristotle’s
Politics, v. 3, where it means
canvassing. Also twice in St. Paul, 2 Cor. 12:20, and Gal. 5:20, where it is rendered, not happily,
dissensions (
dissenssions) and
rixae (
quarrels). It means here
self-seeking. With τοῖς ἐξ ἐριθείας,
the party of self-seeking,
cf. οἱ ἐκ περποτῆς (Acts 20:45),
Obey not the truth, in the same sense in which they are said to detain the truth of God in injustice, Rom 1:18.
Give credit to iniquity, rather obey (περιβομῶσιν) iniquity, as explained Rom 6:12, 13, 16, 19; and 2 Pet. 2:19.
Wrath and indignation, ὀργὴ καὶ θυμός, in the nominative case, as are the other substantives that follow in vv. 9, 10, whereas eternal life (ζωὴν αἰώνιον, v. 7) is in the accusative.
Rom 2:9 There should be no full stop at the end of the previous verse, only a comma.
Wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish, go together. For the two latter words see note on 2 Cor. 4:8.
Of the Jew first, for he sinned against greater light. Cf. Luke 12:47-48; Acts 13:30.
Rom 2:10
To the Jew first, see on Rom 1:16.
Rom 2:11 Job 34:18, 19; Wisd. 7:7-9; Acts 10:34, 35.
Rom 2:12 Without the law, in the law, understand, of Moses. Cf. what our Lord says of the word of the gospel, John 12:48.
Rom 2:13 The hearers of the law, portions of which were read aloud every sabbath in the synagogue.
The doers of the law shall be justified, understand from the previous clause, before God. And yet, by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified before him (Rom 3:20). None indeed, if the works of the law are separated from faith and the grace of Christ, which here they are not, but the meaning is, the doers of the law shall be justified before God, if they fulfil the other conditions of justification. Observe that one cannot be a doer of the law, that is, a steady observer of its moral precepts, without the grace of Christ. The law is insufficient to get itself done.
Rom 2:14
For, γάρ. It will be observed that this is the fourth verse in succession introduced by this conjunction. On the connection here see Canon Cholmondeley’s work,
The Four PAP (Williams and Norgate, 1880). The connection is immediate with the words preceding, and is put by St. Thomas thus: “He shows that the doers of the law, even if they are not hearers, are justified.”
The for therefore introduces an instance, “making good the last statement of the previous verse.”
The sense is: “When gentiles (they who have not the law of Moses without article), they who have not the law by nature read to them, do by the light of nature (though not by the mere strength of nature) the works enjoined by the moral precepts of that law, such persons are (as Aristotle says, see note on Gal. 5:23) a law to themselves, that is, without external coercion they are of their own choice a living embodiment of the law.”
By nature, that is, as St. Thomas explains, “by the natural law, showing what is to be done, as the text has it, Psalm 4:6; and yet there is not excluded the necessity of grace to move the will.” Nay, we must suppose the presence of grace in these Gentiles; for from v. 13, of which this verse is an exemplification, there is question of being justified before God. See St. Augustine, De spiritu et litera, cc. 36–38.
Thus, as St. Chrysostom says, “in answer to the enquiry why Christ came so late, and where Providence was in previous ages, the Apostle shows that even in early times, and before the giving of the law, mankind had the benefit of a perfect Providence.” That was not only by the light of reason, but also by some assistance of grace: for the grace of Christ was given in anticipation of His coming, nor was it confined to the people of whose stock He was born.
Canon Cholmondeley, with Bengel, would punctuate, gentiles who have not the law by nature, τὰ μὴ φύσιν ἔχοντα φύσει: cf. Gal. 2:15, by nature Jews, φύσει Ἰουδαῖοι, and Eph. 2:3, by nature children of wrath, τέναiere φύσεως ὀργῆς—quite a tenable collocation, still not necessary for the explanation given.
Rom 2:15
Who show the work of the law written in their hearts, not on tables of stone, Ex 31:18; cf. 2 Cor. 3:3; Heb. 8:10, two parallel passages also referring to supernatural justice. It is more to
have the work of the law written in your heart than the word of the law.
Their conscience bearing witness to them. Conscience is every man’s household exponent of the law, applying it to his particular acts.
Their thoughts within themselves, μεταξὺ ἀλλήλων, between one another, a sort of disputation between thought and thought.
Accusing them or else defending them. Some of the Rheims versions have accusing or defending one another, a mis-translation, which makes nonsense. When we debate whether we have done well or ill, our thoughts do not accuse or defend one another, they accuse or defend us.
Note concerning the "mis-translation": The original Rheims New Testament was published in 1582, with later significant revisions and updates by Bishop Challoner in the 18th century, resulting in multiple versions. These revisions led to differences not only in spelling but also in wording and syntax between printed editions. Such editorial changes were often intentional, meant to clarify or harmonize phrasing, but occasionally introduced problematic renderings.
St. Thomas writes (1a–2ae, q. 79, art. 13): —“Conscience is said to testify, to bind, and also to accuse; and all these acts follow on the application of a certain knowledge in us to our acts, and that in three ways. In one way, as we recognise that we have done something or not done it; and to this extent conscience is said to testify. In another way, as we judge that something is to be done or not to be done; and in this way conscience is said to bind. In a third way, as we judge that something which has been done was well or ill done; and thus conscience is said to excuse or accuse.”
Rom 2:16 This verse is a continuation of v. 13. The two intervening verses, 14, 15, make a parenthesis.
According to my gospel, simply,
the gospel which I preach.
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