13:6 Wail, for the Lord’s day of judgment 6 is near;
it comes with all the destructive power of the sovereign judge. 7
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.
4:7 “Blessed 19 are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;
1 tn The word “this” is used to translate the Greek article τῆς (ths), bringing out its demonstrative force.
2 tn The word “aloud” has been supplied to indicate that in the original historical setting reading would usually refer to reading out loud in public rather than silently to oneself.
3 tn The words “blessed are” are repeated from the beginning of this verse for stylistic reasons and for clarity.
4 tn Grk “keep.” L&N 36.19 has “to continue to obey orders or commandments – ‘to obey, to keep commandments, obedience.’”
5 sn The time refers to the time when the things prophesied would happen.
6 tn Heb “the day of the Lord” (so KJV, NAB).
7 tn Heb “like destruction from the sovereign judge it comes.” The comparative preposition (כְּ, kÿ) has here the rhetorical nuance, “in every way like.” The point is that the destruction unleashed will have all the earmarks of divine judgment. One could paraphrase, “it comes as only destructive divine judgment can.” On this use of the preposition in general, see GKC 376 §118.x.
8 tn Heb “the days draw near and the word of every vision (draws near).”
9 tn Grk “the authority,” referring to the authority just described.
10 tn Grk “do you think this,” referring to the clause in v. 3b.
11 tn Grk “O man, the one who judges.”
12 tn Grk “and do them.” The other words are supplied to bring out the contrast implied in this clause.
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 Or “Happy.”