Romans 2:17–29

Verse 17. But if thou art called a Jew. In the common Greek copies, we read, behold, thou art a Jew, and so forth Saint Paul here turns his discourse particularly to the Jews, who valued themselves so much upon their law, their temple, and their ceremonies; and therefore are said to rest on the law, as if it were enough to be by profession a Jew. Witham.—But many manuscripts, Clement Alexand. Origen, Ambrose, Sedul. Theophyl. and so forth read it as in the Vulgate, ει συ Ιουδαιος. Calmet.

Verse 21. Thou, therefore, that teachest another, teachest not thyself, and so forth Saint John Chrysostom (hom. vi) takes these sentences as so many interrogations; dost thou teach thyself? dost thou not steal? dost thou not commit adultery? and so forth Witham.

Verse 22. Idols, and so forth The Jews, at the time of our Saviour, were free from idolatry, to which their ancestors had been so prone for so long a time. But to this evil had succeeded another, scarcely less heinous, that is sacrilege, and a profanation of holy things. The greater part of the high priests bought their office. The priests permitted in the temple itself a kind of traffic, which caused our Saviour to declare to them, that they had made the house of his Father a den of thieves. And to favour their own avarice, they taught that it was lawful to defraud their creditors, and refuse to their parents the necessary succour, in the case of vows to give to the temple. Saint Paul does not here reproach them for the profanations of the temple which they committed in the last siege of Jerusalem, for it had not then taken place; but he knew full will the dispositions of their hearts, and the little regard they had for the most sacred things. Calmet.

Verse 24. The apostle here only repeats the reproaches which the prophets had repeated so often before, that the Jews, by the contrast between their lives and the sanctity of their religion, had been the cause of that religion and worship being the ridicule and laughing-stock of the Gentile world. Calmet.—A reproach this, which also bears very heavy upon many Christians of the present day; who by their profession believe the truth of the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic faith, and by their conduct belie the same, leading lives unworthy of pagans. A.

Verse 25. Circumcision profiteth indeed, inasmuch as it was ordained by Almighty God, as were also the precepts of the law, which were to be observed before the publishing of the new law of Christ. See Galatians 5:6. But it was never profitable to the transgressors of the law. Nay, the uncircumcised Gentiles, who have complied with those natural precepts, which are also commanded by the law of Moses, shall judge and condemn those, who received the written law, and at the same time were transgressors of it. Witham.

Verse 26. Shall not his uncircumcision (Lit. his præputium) be reputed for circumcision? Nonne præputium illius in circumcisionem reputabitur? η περιτομη σου ακροβυστια γεγονεν. A translation may adhere to the letter too much; this seems literal enough. Witham.

Verse 28. Nor is that circumcision, which is outwardly in the flesh. Saint Paul distinguisheth two sorts of circumcision; that which is made in the flesh, according to the letter of the law, which is an outward circumcision; and a more necessary circumcision of the heart, and of the spirit, by which a man’s interior is reformed, and by which his vices and disorders are cut off. The first circumcision would never avail a man any thing without the second. Witham.