Romans, Chapter 3
Commentary
Overview: This chapter is targeted more directly at Paul's Jewish readers, who might have felt themselves more righteous than the Gentile converts in the Roman church, and the barbarian potential converts in Spain. His point is both that the Jewish faith and teaching still has value, but that those under the law are nevertheless still equally condemned, along with the gentiles.
3.1-2-Paul Roots the unique advantages of his own race not in their receipt of the Law or of circumcision, but of the prophets oracles. The word "oracle" is the Greek word Logion (pronounced Loh-gee-on), and is related to the word "logos" (pronounced loh-gohs, cf. Logo, Logic, Logistics, Logarithm, etc.), which every Christian should know. Logos means "word, but with the loaded connotation of being the basis of logic or reason or thought or creativity (the same way that words are in our internal monologue and speech and writing). Logos is the word used in John 1 to describe the pre-existent spirit of Christ. The word of God is not just a mere speech, but something with the effective power to save, to heal, and to "not return void."
3.3-4-The oracles of God are a true and good representation of God's character, at a time when God's people, who were supposed to be living out the law as images of God, had failed and fallen away.
3.5-7-Although we have been unjust, God has "worked this for good," by demonstrating his righteousness and veracity through the inconsistency and evil of sinful people.
3.8-Some interpreted Paul's theology of grace as an opportunity to ignore the law and practice a very dissipated lifestyle. We see some of the results in 1st Corinthians, when the Corinthian church tolerates a man sleeping with his father's wife (whether this is his own mother is unclear). Paul is absolutely firm-Just because the law cannot save us, and just because the extent of God's graciousness and mercy is fully revealed in the ways that we fail to live up to the law, is not an excuse to abandon the instructions of God and follow our own passions.
3.9-This was the culmination of Romans 1. See Romans 2.1
Romans 3.10-18 overview: Here, Paul launches into rapid and diverse quotation of various scriptures, usually the Psalms, to convey once again the bad news of human condemnation under the law. His slight modifications of some of the scriptures he quotes serves to drive home the point: Jews too, like the gentiles, are under the wrath of God.
3.10-11-Using language that sounds a lot like Psalm 53.1-3, but an important shift has happened in the anthropology (see the notes on Chapter 2:1) of the text. The psalmist says "there is no one who does good," but Paul makes a small alteration to this assertion this to come to a striking conclusion: There is no one who is good. This is a sound conclusion based on the teachings of Jesus: "A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of."-Luke 6.45
Romans 3.12- is paraphrasing Psalm 14.1-3 in its Greek translation (the Septuagint) rather than the Hebrew version, hence Paul's use of kindness (chrestotes) rather than "good" (tov, in Hebrew). This indicates that Paul's readership included a heavy mix of Gentiles converts or Jews without extensive Torah education, as fluency in Koine (common) Greek was far more typical at the time, even among Jews, than facility with ancient Hebrew. Much has been made of Paul's use of "worthless," a verb sometimes used to refer to milk spoiling. Humans have "gone rotten," a process from which there is normally no coming back.
Romans 3.13-Psalm 5.9 and Psalm 140.3. If your translation says "asp" here, an asp is a type of viper, and actually comes straight out of the Greek language, where aspis is the word for a snake. This is a particularly loaded charge in the context of the Bible, where the Serpent is connected to the fall of humanity (Genesis 3), and serpents are sometimes depicted as a plague (Numbers 21.6).
Romans 3.14-Psalm 10.7
Romans 3.15-17-Isaiah 59.:7-8
Romans 3.18-Psalm 36.1
Romans 3.19-20-These verses serve to remind the Jewish-Christians in the audience that they will not be able to "boast" (Ephesians 2.9) over the Gentiles in the hour of God's judgement, but that judgement, apart from Christ, means that "no human will be justified in God's sight." This is a good lesson for Christians today, who think that leading a life which is generally considered morally acceptable, alone, will lead to some privileged status with God. All our status with God comes from Christ's work on our behalf.
Romans 3.21-Christ's work is "outside the law," in the sense that there was no provision in the law for one person to sacrifice himself for the wrongdoings of another (Romans 5:6-8), but is attested by the law and the prophets, in that the need for a Messiah, because of human frailty, has been well demonstrated in the Old Testament (Romans 3:10-18), and the coming of that Messiah is often alluded to in the Prophets, as Paul will go on to show.
Romans 3.22-Jesus Christ is the "Righteousness of God," the Greek word for "Righteousness" might also mean "justice." That is, Jesus' sacrifice shows what God's justice is really about: Mercy and forgiveness. This verdict of justice is available to those who... well, here we have a bit of a dilemma. This is a highly contentious verse because of the Greek phrase πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ("faith (of or in) Jesus Christ"), which one professor at Princeton Seminary often referred to as "the shootout at the Pistis-Christou corral." The substance of the debate is this: Is it faith in Christ that saves us, or is the the faith of Christ that saves us? That is, is it your personal belief in Christ that saves you, or is it somehow Christ's faith in God, or faithfulness to God, in going through with the plan of redemption, that saves you? Many books have been written on this subject and the debate is fairly technical, and which translation your bible uses says a lot about the theology and commitments of the translators. Here, it will be enough to say that if this phrase actually means "faith in Jesus Christ," as it is written in the NIV, Paul wrote it in a very, very unusual way. The proper nouns "Jesus Christ" are in the Greek Genitive case. Here's one grammarian's description of what that means:
In more technical terms one noun in the genitive case helps to qualify another noun by showing its "class" or "kind". The genitive case has more uses than most other cases, but in general a noun in the genitive case helps to limit the scope of another noun by indicating its "kind" or "class". It is generally translated into English with a prepositional phrase starting with the word "of."
So, the grammar seems to indicate that it is the faith of Christ that saves us. If it were to say that it was faith in Christ that saves us, we would expect a different case with some permutation of the word for "in" or "into." This reading comports with Paul's theology that it is Jesus' work on behalf of totally depraved and helpless humanity that brings about our salvation.
Romans 3.23-24-A neat summary of the argument thus far: All humans are sinners in need of a savior, and Jesus is that savior.
Romans 3.25- Includes the very important, but seldom discussed word "atonement" or "propitiation" (to appease the Wrath of God). Hidden behind this word is the Greek "Hilasterion," which has the fascinating double meaning of being both the word for "a sacrifice for sin," such as was undertaken for the sins of the people on Yom Kippur, and also, the word for "the lid of the Ark of the Covenant," specifically, the Mercy Seat, where God was believed to sit physically enthroned on earth. Christ's work may be understood both to satisfy the wrath of God, and to enable communion between God and his creatures, just as the Hilasterion in the Old Testament served as a nexus of communion between heaven and earth. Hebrews 9.5 trades on this same ambiguity in the word Hilasterion. Although it might be tempting, especially with the explicit reference to Jesus' "blood," to connect the "passing over" in this verse with the event of Passover in Exodus, nailing down a close lexical link between the two is difficult. The word Paul uses here is never used by any other writer in the Old or New Testament, and means to ignore, or perhaps even relax, something. Nevertheless, the concept of destruction passing us by on account of Jesus' blood strongly evokes that imagery.
Romans 3.26-Paul concludes here an interesting line of reasoning, where he seems to say that the ungodly were owed much more travail on earth than they actually experienced, and so Jesus' righteousness and sacrifice was paying for a severe backlog of unpunished sin, as well as for our future justification.
Romans 3.27-29-Paul very directly and plainly summarizes what he has been saying up to this point, that the Jews have no ground to lord their heritage and obedience to the Law over the Gentiles, because a Jewish person also needs to be justified apart from the law through Jesus Christ, whose Father is the God of both Jews and Gentiles.
Romans 3.30-Just as the creed says, we have "One Lord, one faith..." An ancient creed of the Jews is the Shemah, "Hear O' Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one." Just as there is one God, there is one path to salvation through that God for all people. This is a sharp departure from the theology of the Jews, who, to this day, maintain that Gentiles are to follow a "Noahide" covenant, similar to the one made by Noah far prior to the birth of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which forbids a very limited range of behaviors, and is far less restrictive than the law," but which also placed them as sort of second-class citizens in God's kingdom. These Noahide laws are:
Romans 3.31-Although both Jew and Gentile have access to the same salvation, Paul exhorts his fellow Jews to join him in continuing to uphold and value the law.
Next: Romans, Chapter 4
Previous: Romans, Chapter 2
Back to the Centennial Scripture Challenge
Overview: This chapter is targeted more directly at Paul's Jewish readers, who might have felt themselves more righteous than the Gentile converts in the Roman church, and the barbarian potential converts in Spain. His point is both that the Jewish faith and teaching still has value, but that those under the law are nevertheless still equally condemned, along with the gentiles.
3.1-2-Paul Roots the unique advantages of his own race not in their receipt of the Law or of circumcision, but of the prophets oracles. The word "oracle" is the Greek word Logion (pronounced Loh-gee-on), and is related to the word "logos" (pronounced loh-gohs, cf. Logo, Logic, Logistics, Logarithm, etc.), which every Christian should know. Logos means "word, but with the loaded connotation of being the basis of logic or reason or thought or creativity (the same way that words are in our internal monologue and speech and writing). Logos is the word used in John 1 to describe the pre-existent spirit of Christ. The word of God is not just a mere speech, but something with the effective power to save, to heal, and to "not return void."
3.3-4-The oracles of God are a true and good representation of God's character, at a time when God's people, who were supposed to be living out the law as images of God, had failed and fallen away.
3.5-7-Although we have been unjust, God has "worked this for good," by demonstrating his righteousness and veracity through the inconsistency and evil of sinful people.
3.8-Some interpreted Paul's theology of grace as an opportunity to ignore the law and practice a very dissipated lifestyle. We see some of the results in 1st Corinthians, when the Corinthian church tolerates a man sleeping with his father's wife (whether this is his own mother is unclear). Paul is absolutely firm-Just because the law cannot save us, and just because the extent of God's graciousness and mercy is fully revealed in the ways that we fail to live up to the law, is not an excuse to abandon the instructions of God and follow our own passions.
3.9-This was the culmination of Romans 1. See Romans 2.1
Romans 3.10-18 overview: Here, Paul launches into rapid and diverse quotation of various scriptures, usually the Psalms, to convey once again the bad news of human condemnation under the law. His slight modifications of some of the scriptures he quotes serves to drive home the point: Jews too, like the gentiles, are under the wrath of God.
3.10-11-Using language that sounds a lot like Psalm 53.1-3, but an important shift has happened in the anthropology (see the notes on Chapter 2:1) of the text. The psalmist says "there is no one who does good," but Paul makes a small alteration to this assertion this to come to a striking conclusion: There is no one who is good. This is a sound conclusion based on the teachings of Jesus: "A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of."-Luke 6.45
Romans 3.12- is paraphrasing Psalm 14.1-3 in its Greek translation (the Septuagint) rather than the Hebrew version, hence Paul's use of kindness (chrestotes) rather than "good" (tov, in Hebrew). This indicates that Paul's readership included a heavy mix of Gentiles converts or Jews without extensive Torah education, as fluency in Koine (common) Greek was far more typical at the time, even among Jews, than facility with ancient Hebrew. Much has been made of Paul's use of "worthless," a verb sometimes used to refer to milk spoiling. Humans have "gone rotten," a process from which there is normally no coming back.
Romans 3.13-Psalm 5.9 and Psalm 140.3. If your translation says "asp" here, an asp is a type of viper, and actually comes straight out of the Greek language, where aspis is the word for a snake. This is a particularly loaded charge in the context of the Bible, where the Serpent is connected to the fall of humanity (Genesis 3), and serpents are sometimes depicted as a plague (Numbers 21.6).
Romans 3.14-Psalm 10.7
Romans 3.15-17-Isaiah 59.:7-8
Romans 3.18-Psalm 36.1
Romans 3.19-20-These verses serve to remind the Jewish-Christians in the audience that they will not be able to "boast" (Ephesians 2.9) over the Gentiles in the hour of God's judgement, but that judgement, apart from Christ, means that "no human will be justified in God's sight." This is a good lesson for Christians today, who think that leading a life which is generally considered morally acceptable, alone, will lead to some privileged status with God. All our status with God comes from Christ's work on our behalf.
Romans 3.21-Christ's work is "outside the law," in the sense that there was no provision in the law for one person to sacrifice himself for the wrongdoings of another (Romans 5:6-8), but is attested by the law and the prophets, in that the need for a Messiah, because of human frailty, has been well demonstrated in the Old Testament (Romans 3:10-18), and the coming of that Messiah is often alluded to in the Prophets, as Paul will go on to show.
Romans 3.22-Jesus Christ is the "Righteousness of God," the Greek word for "Righteousness" might also mean "justice." That is, Jesus' sacrifice shows what God's justice is really about: Mercy and forgiveness. This verdict of justice is available to those who... well, here we have a bit of a dilemma. This is a highly contentious verse because of the Greek phrase πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ("faith (of or in) Jesus Christ"), which one professor at Princeton Seminary often referred to as "the shootout at the Pistis-Christou corral." The substance of the debate is this: Is it faith in Christ that saves us, or is the the faith of Christ that saves us? That is, is it your personal belief in Christ that saves you, or is it somehow Christ's faith in God, or faithfulness to God, in going through with the plan of redemption, that saves you? Many books have been written on this subject and the debate is fairly technical, and which translation your bible uses says a lot about the theology and commitments of the translators. Here, it will be enough to say that if this phrase actually means "faith in Jesus Christ," as it is written in the NIV, Paul wrote it in a very, very unusual way. The proper nouns "Jesus Christ" are in the Greek Genitive case. Here's one grammarian's description of what that means:
In more technical terms one noun in the genitive case helps to qualify another noun by showing its "class" or "kind". The genitive case has more uses than most other cases, but in general a noun in the genitive case helps to limit the scope of another noun by indicating its "kind" or "class". It is generally translated into English with a prepositional phrase starting with the word "of."
So, the grammar seems to indicate that it is the faith of Christ that saves us. If it were to say that it was faith in Christ that saves us, we would expect a different case with some permutation of the word for "in" or "into." This reading comports with Paul's theology that it is Jesus' work on behalf of totally depraved and helpless humanity that brings about our salvation.
Romans 3.23-24-A neat summary of the argument thus far: All humans are sinners in need of a savior, and Jesus is that savior.
Romans 3.25- Includes the very important, but seldom discussed word "atonement" or "propitiation" (to appease the Wrath of God). Hidden behind this word is the Greek "Hilasterion," which has the fascinating double meaning of being both the word for "a sacrifice for sin," such as was undertaken for the sins of the people on Yom Kippur, and also, the word for "the lid of the Ark of the Covenant," specifically, the Mercy Seat, where God was believed to sit physically enthroned on earth. Christ's work may be understood both to satisfy the wrath of God, and to enable communion between God and his creatures, just as the Hilasterion in the Old Testament served as a nexus of communion between heaven and earth. Hebrews 9.5 trades on this same ambiguity in the word Hilasterion. Although it might be tempting, especially with the explicit reference to Jesus' "blood," to connect the "passing over" in this verse with the event of Passover in Exodus, nailing down a close lexical link between the two is difficult. The word Paul uses here is never used by any other writer in the Old or New Testament, and means to ignore, or perhaps even relax, something. Nevertheless, the concept of destruction passing us by on account of Jesus' blood strongly evokes that imagery.
Romans 3.26-Paul concludes here an interesting line of reasoning, where he seems to say that the ungodly were owed much more travail on earth than they actually experienced, and so Jesus' righteousness and sacrifice was paying for a severe backlog of unpunished sin, as well as for our future justification.
Romans 3.27-29-Paul very directly and plainly summarizes what he has been saying up to this point, that the Jews have no ground to lord their heritage and obedience to the Law over the Gentiles, because a Jewish person also needs to be justified apart from the law through Jesus Christ, whose Father is the God of both Jews and Gentiles.
Romans 3.30-Just as the creed says, we have "One Lord, one faith..." An ancient creed of the Jews is the Shemah, "Hear O' Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one." Just as there is one God, there is one path to salvation through that God for all people. This is a sharp departure from the theology of the Jews, who, to this day, maintain that Gentiles are to follow a "Noahide" covenant, similar to the one made by Noah far prior to the birth of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which forbids a very limited range of behaviors, and is far less restrictive than the law," but which also placed them as sort of second-class citizens in God's kingdom. These Noahide laws are:
- Do not deny God.
- Do not blaspheme God.
- Do not murder.
- Do not engage in illicit sexual relations.
- Do not steal.
- Do not eat from a live animal.
- Establish courts/legal system to ensure obedience to said laws.
Romans 3.31-Although both Jew and Gentile have access to the same salvation, Paul exhorts his fellow Jews to join him in continuing to uphold and value the law.
Next: Romans, Chapter 4
Previous: Romans, Chapter 2
Back to the Centennial Scripture Challenge