Ezekiel 20:18-21

20:18 “‘But I said to their children ¹  in the wilderness, “Do not follow the practices of your fathers; do not observe their regulations, ²  nor defile yourselves with their idols. 20:19 I am the Lord your God; follow my statutes, observe my regulations, and carry them out. 20:20 Treat my Sabbaths as holy ³  and they will be a reminder of our relationship, ⁴  and then you will know that I am the Lord your God.” 20:21 “‘But the children ⁵  rebelled against me, did not follow my statutes, did not observe my regulations by carrying them out (the one who obeys ⁶  them will live by them), and desecrated my Sabbaths. I decided to pour out ⁷  my rage on them and fully vent my anger against them in the wilderness.

John 7:19

7:19 Hasn’t Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps ⁸  the law! Why do you want ⁹  to kill me?”

Romans 2:23-25

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.” ¹⁰ 

2:25 For circumcision ¹¹  has its value if you practice the law, but ¹²  if you break the law, ¹³  your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

Galatians 6:13

6:13 For those who are circumcised do not obey the law themselves, but they want you to be circumcised so that they can boast about your flesh. ¹⁴ 

[20:18]  ¹ tn Heb “sons,” reflecting the patriarchal idiom of the culture.

[20:18]  ² tn Or “standard of justice.” See Ezek 7:27.

[20:20]  ³ tn Or “set apart my Sabbaths.”

[20:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “and they will become a sign between me and you.”

[20:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “sons.”

[20:21]  ⁶ tn Or “carries them out.”

[20:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “and I said/thought to pour out.”

[7:19]  ⁸ tn Or “accomplishes”; Grk “does.”

[7:19]  ⁹ tn Grk “seek.”

[2:24]  ¹⁰ sn A quotation from Isa 52:5.

[2:25]  ¹¹ 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).

[2:25]  ¹² tn This contrast is clearer and stronger in Greek than can be easily expressed in English.

[2:25]  ¹³ tn Grk “if you should be a transgressor of the law.”

[6:13]  ¹⁴ tn Or “boast about you in external matters,” “in the outward rite” (cf. v. 12).