12:20 Now Herod 5 was having an angry quarrel 6 with the people of Tyre 7 and Sidon. 8 So they joined together 9 and presented themselves before him. And after convincing 10 Blastus, the king’s personal assistant, 11 to help them, 12 they asked for peace, 13 because their country’s food supply was provided by the king’s country.
2:1 17 Therefore 18 you are without excuse, 19 whoever you are, 20 when you judge someone else. 21 For on whatever grounds 22 you judge another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge practice the same things.
3:9 What then? Are we better off? Certainly not, for we have already charged that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin,
1 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.
2 tn Here ἐπί (epi) followed by the genitive = “before,” especially in the language of lawsuits (BDAG 363 s.v. 3).
3 tc ‡ αὐτόν (auton, “him”) is found after πείσομεν (peisomen, “we will satisfy”) in the majority of witnesses, though it seems to be motivated by a need for clarification and cannot therefore easily explain the rise of the shorter reading (which is found in א B Θ 33 pc). Nevertheless, English style requires the pronoun. NA27 includes the word in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.
4 tn Grk “and you will not have to be worried” = “we will keep you out of trouble.”
5 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Herod) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
6 tn Or “was extremely angry.” L&N 33.453 gives the meaning “be angry and quarrel, quarrel angrily” here. However, in L&N 88.180 the alternative “to be violently angry, to be furious” is given. The term is used only once in the NT (BDAG 461 s.v. θυμομαχέω).
7 sn Tyre was a city and seaport on the coast of Phoenicia.
8 sn Sidon was an ancient Phoenician royal city on the coast between Berytus (Beirut) and Tyre (BDAG 923 s.v. Σιδών).
9 tn Or “with one accord.”
10 tn Or “persuading.”
11 tn On the term translated “personal assistant” BDAG 554 s.v. κοιτῶν states, “used as part of a title: ὁ ἐπὶ τοῦ κοιτῶνος the one in charge of the bed-chamber, the chamberlain.” This individual was not just a domestic servant or butler, but a highly respected person who had considerable responsibility for the king’s living quarters and personal affairs. The English word “chamberlain” corresponds very closely to this meaning but is not in common use today. The term “personal assistant,” while it might convey more business associations than management of personal affairs, nevertheless communicates the concept well in contemporary English.
12 tn The words “to help them” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.
13 tn Or “for a reconciliation.” There were grave political risks in having Herod angry at them. The detail shows the ruler’s power.
14 tn This contrast is clearer and stronger in Greek than can be easily expressed in English.
15 tn Grk “those who [are] from selfish ambition.”
16 tn Grk “are persuaded by, obey.”
17 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).
18 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.
19 tn That is, “you have nothing to say in your own defense” (so translated by TCNT).
20 tn Grk “O man.”
21 tn Grk “Therefore, you are without excuse, O man, everyone [of you] who judges.”
22 tn Grk “in/by (that) which.”