2:30 Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘I really did say 1 that your house and your ancestor’s house would serve 2 me forever.’ But now the Lord says, ‘May it never be! 3 For I will honor those who honor me, but those who despise me will be cursed!
119:46 I will speak 4 about your regulations before kings
and not be ashamed.
10:32 “Whoever, then, acknowledges 5 me before people, I will acknowledge 6 before my Father in heaven. 10:33 But whoever denies me before people, I will deny him also before my Father in heaven.
2:1 13 Therefore 14 you are without excuse, 15 whoever you are, 16 when you judge someone else. 17 For on whatever grounds 18 you judge another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge practice the same things.
1 tn The infinitive absolute appears before the finite verb for emphasis.
2 tn Heb “walk about before.”
3 tn Heb “may it be far removed from me.”
4 tn The series of four cohortatives with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive in vv. 46-48 list further consequences of the anticipated positive divine response to the request made in v. 43.
5 tn Or “confesses.”
6 tn Grk “I will acknowledge him also.”
7 tn Or “the Lord.” The Greek construction, along with the quotation from Joel 2:32 in v. 13 (in which the same “Lord” seems to be in view) suggests that κύριον (kurion) is to be taken as “the Lord,” that is, Yahweh. Cf. D. B. Wallace, “The Semantics and Exegetical Significance of the Object-Complement Construction in the New Testament,” GTJ 6 (1985): 91-112.
8 tn Grk “believes to righteousness.”
9 tn Grk “confesses to salvation.”
10 tn Grk “they have a zeal for God.”
11 tn Grk “in accord with knowledge.”
12 sn This is the first occurrence of law (nomos) in Romans. Exactly what Paul means by the term has been the subject of much scholarly debate. According to J. A. Fitzmyer (Romans [AB], 131-35; 305-6) there are at least four different senses: (1) figurative, as a “principle”; (2) generic, meaning “a law”; (3) as a reference to the OT or some part of the OT; and (4) as a reference to the Mosaic law. This last usage constitutes the majority of Paul’s references to “law” in Romans.
13 sn Rom 2:1-29 presents unusual difficulties for the interpreter. There have been several major approaches to the chapter and the group(s) it refers to: (1) Rom 2:14 refers to Gentile Christians, not Gentiles who obey the Jewish law. (2) Paul in Rom 2 is presenting a hypothetical viewpoint: If anyone could obey the law, that person would be justified, but no one can. (3) The reference to “the ones who do the law” in 2:13 are those who “do” the law in the right way, on the basis of faith, not according to Jewish legalism. (4) Rom 2:13 only speaks about Christians being judged in the future, along with such texts as Rom 14:10 and 2 Cor 5:10. (5) Paul’s material in Rom 2 is drawn heavily from Diaspora Judaism, so that the treatment of the law presented here cannot be harmonized with other things Paul says about the law elsewhere (E. P. Sanders, Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People, 123); another who sees Rom 2 as an example of Paul’s inconsistency in his treatment of the law is H. Räisänen, Paul and the Law [WUNT], 101-9. (6) The list of blessings and curses in Deut 27–30 provide the background for Rom 2; the Gentiles of 2:14 are Gentile Christians, but the condemnation of Jews in 2:17-24 addresses the failure of Jews as a nation to keep the law as a whole (A. Ito, “Romans 2: A Deuteronomistic Reading,” JSNT 59 [1995]: 21-37).
14 tn Some interpreters (e.g., C. K. Barrett, Romans [HNTC], 43) connect the inferential Διό (dio, “therefore”) with 1:32a, treating 1:32b as a parenthetical comment by Paul.
15 tn That is, “you have nothing to say in your own defense” (so translated by TCNT).
16 tn Grk “O man.”
17 tn Grk “Therefore, you are without excuse, O man, everyone [of you] who judges.”
18 tn Grk “in/by (that) which.”
19 tn Grk “is about to throw some of you,” but the force is causative in context.
20 tn Or “tempted.”
21 tn Or “experience persecution,” “will be in distress” (see L&N 22.2).
22 tn Grk “crown of life,” with the genitive “of life” (τῆς ζωῆς, th" zwh") functioning in apposition to “crown” (στέφανον, stefanon): “the crown that consists of life.”
23 tc The shorter reading adopted here has superior ms support (א A C P 2053 al latt co), while the inclusion of “your works and” (τὰ ἔργα σου καί, ta erga sou kai) before “where you reside” is supported by the Byzantine witnesses and is evidently a secondary attempt to harmonize the passage with 2:2, 19; 3:1, 8, 15.
24 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “Yet” to indicate the contrast between their location and their faithful behavior.
25 tn The present indicative verb κρατεῖς (kratei") has been translated as a progressive present.
26 tn Grk “the faith”; here the Greek article is used as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).
27 tn Grk “the faith of me” (τὴν πίστιν μου, thn pistin mou) with the genitive “of me” (μου) functioning objectively.
28 tn Or “martyr.” The Greek word μάρτυς can mean either “witness” or “martyr.”
29 tn Grk “killed among you.” The term “city” does not occur in the Greek text of course, but the expression παρ᾿ ὑμῖν, ὅπου ὁ σατανᾶς κατοικεῖ (par’ Jumin, {opou Jo satana" katoikei) seems to indicate that this is what is meant. See G. B. Caird, Revelation (HNTC), 36-38.
30 tn Grk “a few names”; here ὄνομα (onoma) is used by figurative extension to mean “person” or “people”; according to L&N 9.19 there is “the possible implication of existence or relevance as individuals.”
31 tn Or “soiled” (so NAB, NRSV, NIV); NCV “have kept their clothes unstained”; CEV “have not dirtied your clothes with sin.”
32 tn The word “dressed” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.
33 tn Or “who overcomes.”
34 tn Grk “thus.”
35 tn Or “white robes.”
36 tn The negation here is with οὐ μή (ou mh), the strongest possible form of negation in Koine Greek.
37 tn Or “will never wipe out.”
38 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.
39 tn Grk “will confess.”