John 7:19

7:19 Hasn’t Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps ¹  the law! Why do you want ²  to kill me?”

John 8:5

8:5 In the law Moses commanded us to stone to death ³  such women. ⁴  What then do you say?”

John 8:9

8:9 Now when they heard this, they began to drift away one at a time, starting with the older ones, ⁵  until Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.

Romans 2:12

2:12 For all who have sinned apart from the law ⁶  will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

Romans 2:17-29

The Condemnation of the Jew

2:17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law ⁷  and boast of your relationship to God ⁸  2:18 and know his will ⁹  and approve the superior things because you receive instruction from the law, ¹⁰  2:19 and if you are convinced ¹¹  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 ¹²  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 ¹³  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.” ¹⁴ 

2:25 For circumcision ¹⁵  has its value if you practice the law, but ¹⁶  if you break the law, ¹⁷  your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 2:26 Therefore if the uncircumcised man obeys ¹⁸  the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 2:27 And will not the physically uncircumcised man ¹⁹  who keeps the law judge you who, despite ²⁰  the written code ²¹  and circumcision, transgress the law? 2:28 For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something that is outward in the flesh, 2:29 but someone is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart ²²  by the Spirit ²³  and not by the written code. ²⁴  This person’s ²⁵  praise is not from people but from God.

Romans 3:19-20

3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under ²⁶  the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 3:20 For no one is declared righteous before him ²⁷  by the works of the law, ²⁸  for through the law comes ²⁹  the knowledge of sin.

Romans 7:9-14

7:9 And I was once alive apart from the law, but with the coming of the commandment sin became alive 7:10 and I died. So ³⁰  I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life brought death! ³¹  7:11 For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died. ³²  7:12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.

7:13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, so that it would be shown to be sin, produced death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual – but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin. ³³ 

Romans 7:2

7:2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her ³⁴  husband dies, she is released from the law of the marriage. ³⁵ 

Colossians 3:7-11

3:7 You also lived your lives ³⁶  in this way at one time, when you used to live among them. 3:8 But now, put off all such things ³⁷  as anger, rage, malice, slander, abusive language from your mouth. 3:9 Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with its practices 3:10 and have been clothed with the new man ³⁸  that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it. 3:11 Here there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave ³⁹  or free, but Christ is all and in all.

Galatians 3:10

3:10 For all who ⁴⁰  rely on doing the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not keep on doing everything written in the book of the law.” ⁴¹ 

[7:19]  ¹ tn Or “accomplishes”; Grk “does.”

[7:19]  ² tn Grk “seek.”

[8:5]  ³ sn An allusion to Lev 20:10 and Deut 22:22-24.

[8:5]  ⁴ sn The accusers themselves subtly misrepresented the law. The Mosaic law stated that in the case of adultery, both the man and woman must be put to death (Lev 20:10, Deut 22:22), but they mentioned only such women.

[8:9]  ⁵ tn Or “beginning from the eldest.”

[2:12]  ⁶ sn This is the first occurrence of law (nomos) in Romans. Exactly what Paul means by the term has been the subject of much scholarly debate. According to J. A. Fitzmyer (Romans [AB], 131-35; 305-6) there are at least four different senses: (1) figurative, as a “principle”; (2) generic, meaning “a law”; (3) as a reference to the OT or some part of the OT; and (4) as a reference to the Mosaic law. This last usage constitutes the majority of Paul’s references to “law” in Romans.

[2:17]  ⁷ sn The law refers to the Mosaic law, described mainly in the OT books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

[2:17]  ⁸ tn Grk “boast in God.” This may be an allusion to Jer 9:24.

[2:18]  ⁹ tn Grk “the will.”

[2:18]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “because of being instructed out of the law.”

[2:19]  ¹¹ 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.

[2:21]  ¹² 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).

[2:22]  ¹³ tn Or “detest.”

[2:24]  ¹⁴ sn A quotation from Isa 52:5.

[2:25]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ tn This contrast is clearer and stronger in Greek than can be easily expressed in English.

[2:25]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “if you should be a transgressor of the law.”

[2:26]  ¹⁸ tn The Greek word φυλάσσω (fulassw, traditionally translated “keep”) in this context connotes preservation of and devotion to an object as well as obedience.

[2:27]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “the uncircumcision by nature.” The word “man” is supplied here to make clear that male circumcision (or uncircumcision) is in view.

[2:27]  ²⁰ tn Grk “through,” but here the preposition seems to mean “(along) with,” “though provided with,” as BDAG 224 s.v. διά A.3.c indicates.

[2:27]  ²¹ tn Grk “letter.”

[2:29]  ²² sn On circumcision is of the heart see Lev 26:41; Deut 10:16; Jer 4:4; Ezek 44:9.

[2:29]  ²³ tn Some have taken the phrase ἐν πνεύματι (en pneumati, “by/in [the] S/spirit”) not as a reference to the Holy Spirit, but referring to circumcision as “spiritual and not literal” (RSV).

[2:29]  ²⁴ tn Grk “letter.”

[2:29]  ²⁵ tn Grk “whose.” The relative pronoun has been replaced by the phrase “this person’s” and, because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started in the translation.

[3:19]  ²⁶ tn Grk “in,” “in connection with.”

[3:20]  ²⁷ sn An allusion to Ps 143:2.

[3:20]  ²⁸ tn Grk “because by the works of the law no flesh is justified before him.” Some recent scholars have understood the phrase ἒργα νόμου (erga nomou, “works of the law”) to refer not to obedience to the Mosaic law generally, but specifically to portions of the law that pertain to things like circumcision and dietary laws which set the Jewish people apart from the other nations (e.g., J. D. G. Dunn, Romans [WBC], 1:155). Other interpreters, like C. E. B. Cranfield (“‘The Works of the Law’ in the Epistle to the Romans,” JSNT 43 [1991]: 89-101) reject this narrow interpretation for a number of reasons, among which the most important are: (1) The second half of v. 20, “for through the law comes the knowledge of sin,” is hard to explain if the phrase “works of the law” is understood in a restricted sense; (2) the plural phrase “works of the law” would have to be understood in a different sense from the singular phrase “the work of the law” in 2:15; (3) similar phrases involving the law in Romans (2:13, 14; 2:25, 26, 27; 7:25; 8:4; and 13:8) which are naturally related to the phrase “works of the law” cannot be taken to refer to circumcision (in fact, in 2:25 circumcision is explicitly contrasted with keeping the law). Those interpreters who reject the “narrow” interpretation of “works of the law” understand the phrase to refer to obedience to the Mosaic law in general.

[3:20]  ²⁹ tn Grk “is.”

[7:10]  ³⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “So” to indicate the result of the statement in the previous verse. Greek style often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” but English style generally does not.

[7:10]  ³¹ tn Grk “and there was found in/for me the commandment which was for life – this was for death.”

[7:11]  ³² tn Or “and through it killed me.”

[7:14]  ³³ tn Grk “under sin.”

[7:2]  ³⁴ tn Grk “the,” with the article used as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

[7:2]  ³⁵ tn Grk “husband.”

[3:7]  ³⁶ tn Grk “you also walked.” The verb περιπατέω (peripatew) is commonly used in the NT to refer to behavior or conduct of one’s life (L&N 41.11).

[3:8]  ³⁷ tn The Greek article with τὰ πάντα (ta panta) is anaphoric, referring to the previous list of vices, and has been translated here as “all such things.”

[3:10]  ³⁸ sn Put off all such things. The commands in vv. 8-9 are based on two reasons given in vv. 9-10 – reasons which are expressed in terms of a metaphor about clothing oneself. Paul says that they have put off the old man and have put on the new man. Two things need to be discussed in reference to Paul’s statement. (1) What is the meaning of the clothing imagery (i.e., the “have put off” and “have been clothed”)? (2) What is the meaning of the old man and the new man? Though some commentators understand the participles “have put off” (v. 9) and “have been clothed” (v. 10) as imperatives (i.e., “put off!” and “put on!”), this use of participles is extremely rare in the NT and thus unlikely here. It is better to take them as having the semantic force of indicatives, and thus they give an explanation of what had happened to the Colossians at the time of their conversion – they had taken off the old man and put on the new when they trusted in Christ (cf. 1:4). While it is difficult to say for certain what the background to Paul’s “clothing” metaphor might be (whether it is primarily Jewish and comes from the OT, or primarily Gentile and comes from some facet of the Greco-Roman religious milieu), it is nonetheless clear, on the basis of Paul’s usage of the expression, that the old man refers to man as he is in Adam and dominated by sin (cf. Rom 6:6; Eph 4:22), while the new man refers to the Christian whose new sphere of existence is in Christ. Though the metaphor of clothing oneself primarily reflects outward actions, there is a distinct inward aspect to it, as the rest of v. 10 indicates: being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it. Paul’s point, then, is that Christians should take off their dirty clothing (inappropriate behavior) and put on clean clothing (behavior consistent with knowing Christ) because this has already been accomplished in a positional sense at the time of their conversion (cf. Gal 3:27 with Rom 13:14).

[3:11]  ³⁹ tn See the note on “fellow slave” in 1:7.

[3:10]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “For as many as.”

[3:10]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all the things written in the book of the law, to do them.”