Rom 2:17 But if thou art called a Jew, &c. This if affects all to the end of v. 20, where we should put a colon: then comes the second part of this long, compound sentence: well then, thou that teachest another, &c. (v. 21). There is an inferior reading, ἰδέ for εἰ δέ, lo, thou art called a Jew.
Rom 2:18 Approvest the more profitable things, δοκιμάζεις τὰ διαφέροντα, of which testest the things that differ is a more accurate translation. It does not refer to the legal differences of meats (Lev 11), since the apostle prays that the Philippians may have the same gift (Phil. 1:9, 10); but to the power of drawing a clear line in moral and spiritual matters, between “contraries, as justice and injustice, temperance and licentiousness, piety and impiety,” as Theodoret says, not calling evil good, and good evil; putting darkness for light, and light for darkness; turning bitter to sweet, and sweet to bitter (Isa 5:20).
Being instructed by the law, κατηχούμενος ἐκ τοῦ νόμου, literally, being orally taught religion out of [the books of] the law. The word, whence comes our catechize, means to teach orally, the master saying a thing, and the scholar repeating it. The word occurs in five other places in the New Testament,—Luke 1:4; Acts 18:25; Acts 21:21, 24; 1 Cor. 14:19; Gal. 6:6—always in reference to the teaching of religion, except in Acts 21, where it means simply to din into.
Rom 2:19-20. Guide of the blind, light of them in darkness, instructor (educator, chastiser) of fools, teacher of babes, all so many titles that the Jews, the Pharisees especially, arrogated to themselves in reference to the Gentiles.
The form of knowledge, μόρφωσιν, the word occurs elsewhere only in 2 Tim. 3:5, where it means the outward show: here we might say, the delineation, or the lineaments.
Rom 2:22
Thou that abhorrest idols, committest sacrilege, ἱεροσυλεῖς, better,
robbest temples (of idols), cf. Acts 19:37.
“The Jews were severely forbidden to touch the wealth lying in temples of idols, as being an abomination (Deut. 7:25, 26; 2 Macc. 4:42): but the tyranny of love of money induced them to trample on this law” (St. Chrysostom). An allegation which posterity will readily believe.
Rom 2:24 The quotation is from Isa 52:5, according to the Septuagint. The sentiment is in Ezechiel 36:20–23.
Rom 2:25 Circumcision was the mark of a man being of the seed of Abraham; what that implied, see Rom 9:4-5. To follow the Apostle in what he is about to say, we should read again the covenant of circumcision, as related in Genesis 17.
Circumcision profiteth. See Rom 3:1-2. As Baptism is the door of the Christian covenant, so by Circumcision a man was admitted to the covenant of the Old Law. All who know and can are bound to pass through the door of Baptism: there was no corresponding obligation for a Gentile to be circumcised, and so be aggregated to the people of Israel. Still, such aggregation brought with it many spiritual advantages, a more exact knowledge of God, and a more approved mode of religious ritual.
If thou keep the law, the whole law (see on Gal. 5:3) of Moses, both in its moral and in its ceremonial precepts; for the person addressed is the Jew under the Old Covenant, upon whom that law was binding in its entirety.
Rom 2:26 If the uncircumcised Gentile keep the ordinances of the law, i.e. the moral precepts of the Mosaic law, then commandments, for he was not bound to the rest.
We have seen on Rom 2:14 that this supposition can have no place except in the case of Gentiles borne up and supported by the anticipated grace of Christ.
Rom 2:27 Who by the letter and circumcision art a transgressor.
A Greek way of speaking, τὸν διὰ γράμματος καὶ περιτομῆς παραβάτην, of the Jew who, in literal observance of the covenant, inasmuch as he is actually circumcised, still transgresses the law. We might say of a validly ordained priest, living wickedly, that by the letter and ordination he was a transgressor.
Rom 2:28 Outwardly is explained by the words that follow, by that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. It means
Rom 2:29 The circumcision of the heart. The uncircumcised of heart are spoken of by the prophets, Jerem. 9:26; Ezech. 44:7, 9; and by St. Stephen, Acts 7:51. The sum of it is as St. Chrysostom says: “Everywhere there is need of a good life,” πανταχοῦ βίου χρεία.
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