2:17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law 1 and boast of your relationship to God 2 2:18 and know his will 3 and approve the superior things because you receive instruction from the law, 4 2:19 and if you are convinced 5 that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 2:20 an educator of the senseless, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the essential features of knowledge and of the truth – 2:21 therefore 6 you who teach someone else, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? 2:22 You who tell others not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor 7 idols, do you rob temples? 2:23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by transgressing the law! 2:24 For just as it is written, “the name of God is being blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” 8
1 sn The law refers to the Mosaic law, described mainly in the OT books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
2 tn Grk “boast in God.” This may be an allusion to Jer 9:24.
3 tn Grk “the will.”
4 tn Grk “because of being instructed out of the law.”
5 tn This verb is parallel to the verbs in vv. 17-18a, so it shares the conditional meaning even though the word “if” is not repeated.
6 tn The structure of vv. 21-24 is difficult. Some take these verses as the apodosis of the conditional clauses (protases) in vv. 17-20; others see vv. 17-20 as an instance of anacoluthon (a broken off or incomplete construction).
7 tn Or “detest.”
8 sn A quotation from Isa 52:5.