2:25 For circumcision 2 has its value if you practice the law, but 3 if you break the law, 4 your circumcision has become uncircumcision.
3:5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates 5 the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is he? 6 (I am speaking in human terms.) 7
6:21 So what benefit 11 did you then reap 12 from those things that you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death.
7:1 Or do you not know, brothers and sisters 13 (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law is lord over a person 14 as long as he lives?
1 tn Or “detest.”
2 sn Circumcision refers to male circumcision as prescribed in the OT, which was given as a covenant to Abraham in Gen 17:10-14. Its importance for Judaism can hardly be overstated: According to J. D. G. Dunn (Romans [WBC], 1:120) it was the “single clearest distinguishing feature of the covenant people.” J. Marcus has suggested that the terms used for circumcision (περιτομή, peritomh) and uncircumcision (ἀκροβυστία, akrobustia) were probably derogatory slogans used by Jews and Gentiles to describe their opponents (“The Circumcision and the Uncircumcision in Rome,” NTS 35 [1989]: 77-80).
3 tn This contrast is clearer and stronger in Greek than can be easily expressed in English.
4 tn Grk “if you should be a transgressor of the law.”
3 tn Or “shows clearly.”
4 tn Grk “That God is not unjust to inflict wrath, is he?”
5 sn The same expression occurs in Gal 3:15, and similar phrases in Rom 6:19 and 1 Cor 9:8.
4 tn Grk “rendered inoperative.”
5 tn Grk “you were slaves of sin but you obeyed.”
6 tn Or “type, form.”
6 tn Grk “fruit.”
7 tn Grk “have,” in a tense emphasizing their customary condition in the past.
7 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.
8 sn Here person refers to a human being.