Luke 10:26-28

10:26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you understand it?” ¹  10:27 The expert ²  answered, “Love ³  the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, ⁴  and love your neighbor as yourself.” ⁵  10:28 Jesus ⁶  said to him, “You have answered correctly; ⁷  do this, and you will live.”

Isaiah 8:20

8:20 Then you must recall the Lord’s instructions and the prophetic testimony of what would happen. ⁸  Certainly they say such things because their minds are spiritually darkened. ⁹ 

Matthew 19:17-19

19:17 He said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” 19:18 “Which ones?” he asked. Jesus replied, “Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, 19:19 honor your father and mother, ¹⁰  and love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹¹ 

Mark 10:18-19

10:18 Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? ¹²  No one is good except God alone. 10:19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’” ¹³ 

Romans 3:20

3:20 For no one is declared righteous before him ¹⁴  by the works of the law, ¹⁵  for through the law comes ¹⁶  the knowledge of sin.

Romans 7:7-11

7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I ¹⁷  would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else ¹⁸  if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” ¹⁹  7:8 But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires. ²⁰  For apart from the law, sin is dead. 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 ²¹  I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life brought death! ²²  7:11 For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died. ²³ 

[10:26]  ¹ tn Grk “How do you read?” The pronoun “it” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[10:27]  ² tn Grk “And he”; the referent (the expert in religious law, shortened here to “the expert”) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[10:27]  ³ tn Grk “You will love.” The future indicative is used here with imperatival force (see ExSyn 452 and 569).

[10:27]  ⁴ sn A quotation from Deut 6:5. The fourfold reference to different parts of the person says, in effect, that one should love God with all one’s being.

[10:27]  ⁵ tn This portion of the reply is a quotation from Lev 19:18. The verb is repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[10:28]  ⁶ tn Grk “And he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[10:28]  ⁷ sn Jesus commends the reply (you have answered correctly). What is assumed here, given the previous context, is that he will respond to Jesus’ message, as to love God is to respond to his Son; see v. 22.

[8:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “to [the] instruction and to [the] testimony.” The words “then you must recall” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text vv. 19-20a are one long sentence, reading literally, “When they say to you…, to the instruction and to the testimony.” On the identity of the “instruction” and “testimony” see the notes at v. 16.

[8:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “If they do not speak according to this word, [it is] because it has no light of dawn.” The literal translation suggests that “this word” refers to the instruction/testimony. However, it is likely that אִם־לֹא (’im-lo’) is asseverative here, as in 5:9. In this case “this word” refers to the quotation recorded in v. 19. For a discussion of the problem see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 230, n. 9. The singular pronoun in the second half of the verse is collective, referring back to the nation (see v. 19b).

[19:19]  ¹⁰ sn A quotation from Exod 20:12-16; Deut 5:16-20.

[19:19]  ¹¹ sn A quotation from Lev 19:18.

[10:18]  ¹² sn Jesus’ response, Why do you call me good?, was designed to cause the young man to stop and think for a moment about who Jesus really was. The following statement No one is good except God alone seems to point the man in the direction of Jesus’ essential nature and the demands which logically follow on the man for having said it.

[10:19]  ¹³ sn A quotation from Exod 20:12-16; Deut 5:16-20, except for do not defraud, which is an allusion to Deut 24:14.

[3:20]  ¹⁴ sn An allusion to Ps 143:2.

[3:20]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “is.”

[7:7]  ¹⁷ sn Romans 7:7-25. There has been an enormous debate over the significance of the first person singular pronouns (“I”) in this passage and how to understand their referent. Did Paul intend (1) a reference to himself and other Christians too; (2) a reference to his own pre-Christian experience as a Jew, struggling with the law and sin (and thus addressing his fellow countrymen as Jews); or (3) a reference to himself as a child of Adam, reflecting the experience of Adam that is shared by both Jews and Gentiles alike (i.e., all people everywhere)? Good arguments can be assembled for each of these views, and each has problems dealing with specific statements in the passage. The classic argument against an autobiographical interpretation was made by W. G. Kümmel, Römer 7 und die Bekehrung des Paulus. A good case for seeing at least an autobiographical element in the chapter has been made by G. Theissen, Psychologische Aspekte paulinischer Theologie [FRLANT], 181-268. One major point that seems to favor some sort of an autobiographical reading of these verses is the lack of any mention of the Holy Spirit for empowerment in the struggle described in Rom 7:7-25. The Spirit is mentioned beginning in 8:1 as the solution to the problem of the struggle with sin (8:4-6, 9).

[7:7]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “I would not have known covetousness.”

[7:7]  ¹⁹ sn A quotation from Exod 20:17 and Deut 5:21.

[7:8]  ²⁰ tn Or “covetousness.”

[7:10]  ²¹ 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]  ²² tn Grk “and there was found in/for me the commandment which was for life – this was for death.”

[7:11]  ²³ tn Or “and through it killed me.”