Romans 2:17

The Condemnation of the Jew

2:17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law ¹  and boast of your relationship to God ² 

Romans 3:29-30

3:29 Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles too? Yes, of the Gentiles too! 3:30 Since God is one, ³  he will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

Romans 3:1

3:1 Therefore what advantage does the Jew have, or what is the value of circumcision?

Romans 2:1

The Condemnation of the Moralist

2:1 ⁴ Therefore ⁵  you are without excuse, ⁶  whoever you are, ⁷  when you judge someone else. ⁸  For on whatever grounds ⁹  you judge another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge practice the same things.

Psalms 32:11--33:1

32:11 Rejoice in the Lord and be happy, you who are godly!

Shout for joy, all you who are morally upright! ¹⁰ 

Psalm 33 ¹¹ 

33:1 You godly ones, shout for joy because of the Lord!

It is appropriate for the morally upright to offer him praise.

Psalms 43:4

43:4 Then I will go ¹²  to the altar of God,

to the God who gives me ecstatic joy, ¹³ 

so that I express my thanks to you, ¹⁴  O God, my God, with a harp.

Psalms 104:34

104:34 May my thoughts ¹⁵  be pleasing to him!

I will rejoice in the Lord.

Psalms 149:2

149:2 Let Israel rejoice in their Creator!

Let the people ¹⁶  of Zion delight in their king! ¹⁷ 

Isaiah 61:10

61:10 I ¹⁸  will greatly rejoice ¹⁹  in the Lord;

I will be overjoyed because of my God. ²⁰ 

For he clothes me in garments of deliverance;

he puts on me a robe symbolizing vindication. ²¹ 

I look like a bridegroom when he wears a turban as a priest would;

I look like a bride when she puts on her jewelry. ²² 

Habakkuk 3:17-18

3:17 When ²³  the fig tree does not bud,

and there are no grapes on the vines;

when the olive trees do not produce, ²⁴ 

and the fields yield no crops; ²⁵ 

when the sheep disappear ²⁶  from the pen,

and there are no cattle in the stalls,

3:18 I will rejoice because of ²⁷  the Lord;

I will be happy because of the God who delivers me!

Luke 1:46

Mary’s Hymn of Praise

1:46 And Mary ²⁸  said, ²⁹ 

“My soul exalts ³⁰  the Lord, ³¹ 

Galatians 4:9

4:9 But now that you have come to know God (or rather to be known by God), how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless ³²  basic forces? ³³  Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again? ³⁴ 

Galatians 5:22

5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit ³⁵  is love, ³⁶  joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ³⁷ 

Philippians 3:1

True and False Righteousness

3:1 Finally, my brothers and sisters, ³⁸  rejoice in the Lord! To write this again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.

Philippians 3:3

3:3 For we are the circumcision, ³⁹  the ones who worship by the Spirit of God, ⁴⁰  exult in Christ Jesus, and do not rely on human credentials ⁴¹ 

Philippians 4:4

4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, rejoice!

Philippians 4:1

Christian Practices

4:1 So then, my brothers and sisters, ⁴²  dear friends whom I long to see, my joy and crown, stand in the Lord in this way, my dear friends!

Philippians 1:8

1:8 For God is my witness that I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

[2:17]  ¹ sn The law refers to the Mosaic law, described mainly in the OT books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

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

[3:30]  ³ tn Grk “but if indeed God is one.”

[2:1]  ⁴ sn Rom 2:1-29 presents unusual difficulties for the interpreter. There have been several major approaches to the chapter and the group(s) it refers to: (1) Rom 2:14 refers to Gentile Christians, not Gentiles who obey the Jewish law. (2) Paul in Rom 2 is presenting a hypothetical viewpoint: If anyone could obey the law, that person would be justified, but no one can. (3) The reference to “the ones who do the law” in 2:13 are those who “do” the law in the right way, on the basis of faith, not according to Jewish legalism. (4) Rom 2:13 only speaks about Christians being judged in the future, along with such texts as Rom 14:10 and 2 Cor 5:10. (5) Paul’s material in Rom 2 is drawn heavily from Diaspora Judaism, so that the treatment of the law presented here cannot be harmonized with other things Paul says about the law elsewhere (E. P. Sanders, Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People, 123); another who sees Rom 2 as an example of Paul’s inconsistency in his treatment of the law is H. Räisänen, Paul and the Law [WUNT], 101-9. (6) The list of blessings and curses in Deut 27–30 provide the background for Rom 2; the Gentiles of 2:14 are Gentile Christians, but the condemnation of Jews in 2:17-24 addresses the failure of Jews as a nation to keep the law as a whole (A. Ito, “Romans 2: A Deuteronomistic Reading,” JSNT 59 [1995]: 21-37).

[2:1]  ⁵ tn Some interpreters (e.g., C. K. Barrett, Romans [HNTC], 43) connect the inferential Διό (dio, “therefore”) with 1:32a, treating 1:32b as a parenthetical comment by Paul.

[2:1]  ⁶ tn That is, “you have nothing to say in your own defense” (so translated by TCNT).

[2:1]  ⁷ tn Grk “O man.”

[2:1]  ⁸ tn Grk “Therefore, you are without excuse, O man, everyone [of you] who judges.”

[2:1]  ⁹ tn Grk “in/by (that) which.”

[32:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “all [you] pure of heart.” The “heart” is here viewed as the seat of one’s moral character and motives. The “pure of heart” are God’s faithful followers who trust in and love the Lord and, as a result, experience his deliverance (see Pss 7:10; 11:2; 36:10; 64:10; 94:15; 97:11).

[33:1]  ¹¹ sn Psalm 33. In this hymn the psalmist praises the Lord as the sovereign creator and just ruler of the world who protects and vindicates those who fear him.

[43:4]  ¹² tn The cohortative expresses the psalmist’s resolve. Prefixed with the vav (ו) conjunctive it also expresses the result or outcome of the preceding verbs “lead” and “escort.”

[43:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “to God, the joy of my happiness.” The phrase “joy of my happiness” employs an appositional genitive. Synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the degree of the psalmist’s joy. For a detailed discussion of the grammatical point with numerous examples, see Y. Avishur, “Pairs of Synonymous Words in the Construct State (and in Appositional Hendiadys) in Biblical Hebrew,” Semitics 2 (1971): 17-81.

[43:4]  ¹⁴ tn The cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive probably indicates purpose (“so that”) or intention.

[104:34]  ¹⁵ tn That is, the psalmist’s thoughts as expressed in his songs of praise.

[149:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “sons.”

[149:2]  ¹⁷ sn The Lord is the king here, as the parallelism in the previous line (“their creator”) indicates.

[61:10]  ¹⁸ sn The speaker in vv. 10-11 is not identified, but it is likely that the personified nation (or perhaps Zion) responds here to the Lord’s promise of restoration.

[61:10]  ¹⁹ tn The infinitive absolute appears before the finite verb for emphasis.

[61:10]  ²⁰ tn Heb “my being is happy in my God”; NAB “in my God is the joy of my soul.”

[61:10]  ²¹ tn Heb “robe of vindication”; KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV “robe of righteousness.”

[61:10]  ²² tn Heb “like a bridegroom [who] acts like a priest [by wearing] a turban, and like a bride [who] wears her jewelry.” The words “I look” are supplied for stylistic reasons and clarification.

[3:17]  ²³ tn Or “though.”

[3:17]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the produce of the olive disappoints.”

[3:17]  ²⁵ tn Heb “food.”

[3:17]  ²⁶ tn Or “are cut off.”

[3:18]  ²⁷ tn Or “in.”

[1:46]  ²⁸ tc A few witnesses, especially Latin mss, (a b l* Ir^arm Or^lat mss Nic) read “Elizabeth” here, since she was just speaking, but the ms evidence overwhelmingly supports “Mary” as the speaker.

[1:46]  ²⁹ sn The following passage has been typeset as poetry because many scholars regard this passage as poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage, so the decision to typeset it as poetry should be viewed as a tentative decision about its genre.

[1:46]  ³⁰ tn Or “lifts up the Lord in praise.”

[1:46]  ³¹ sn This psalm (vv. 46-55) is one of the few praise psalms in the NT. Mary praises God and then tells why both in terms of his care for her (vv. 46-49) and for others, including Israel (vv. 50-55). Its traditional name, the “Magnificat,” comes from the Latin for the phrase My soul magnifies the Lord at the hymn’s start.

[4:9]  ³² tn Or “useless.” See L&N 65.16.

[4:9]  ³³ tn See the note on the phrase “basic forces” in 4:3.

[4:9]  ³⁴ tn Grk “basic forces, to which you want to be enslaved…” Verse 9 is a single sentence in the Greek text, but has been divided into two in the translation because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence.

[5:22]  ³⁵ tn That is, the fruit the Spirit produces.

[5:22]  ³⁶ sn Another way to punctuate this is “love” followed by a colon (love: joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control). It is thus possible to read the eight characteristics following “love” as defining love.

[5:22]  ³⁷ tn Or “reliability”; see BDAG 818 s.v. πίστις 1.a.

[3:1]  ³⁸ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:12.

[3:3]  ³⁹ tn There is a significant wordplay here in the Greek text. In v. 2 a rare, strong word is used to describe those who were pro-circumcision (κατατομή, katatomh, “mutilation”; see BDAG 528 s.v.), while in v. 3 the normal word for circumcision is used (περιτομή, peritomh; see BDAG 807 s.v.). Both have τομή (the feminine form of the adjective τομός [tomo"], meaning “cutting, sharp”) as their root; the direction of the action of the former is down or off (from κατά, kata), hence the implication of mutilation or emasculation, while the direction of the action of the latter is around (from περί, peri). The similarity in sound yet wide divergence of meaning between the two words highlights in no uncertain terms the differences between Paul and his opponents.

[3:3]  ⁴⁰ tc The verb λατρεύω (latreuw; here the participial form, λατρεύοντες [latreuonte"]) either takes a dative direct object or no object at all, bearing virtually a technical nuance of “worshiping God” (see BDAG 587 s.v.). In this text, πνεύματι (pneumati) takes an instrumental force (“by the Spirit”) rather than functioning as object of λατρεύοντες. However, the word after πνεύματι is in question, no doubt because of the collocation with λατρεύοντες. Most witnesses, including some of the earliest and best representatives of the Alexandrian, Western, and Byzantine texts (א* A B C D² F G 0278^vid 33 1739 1881 Ï co Ambr), read θεοῦ (qeou; thus, “worship by the Spirit of God”). But several other important witnesses (א² D* P Ψ 075 365 1175 lat sy Chr) have the dative θεῷ (qew) here (“worship God by the Spirit”). Ì⁴⁶ is virtually alone in its omission of the divine name, probably due to an unintentional oversight. The dative θεῷ was most likely a scribal emendation intended to give the participle its proper object, and thus avoid confusion about the force of πνεύματι. Although the Church came to embrace the full deity of the Spirit, the NT does not seem to speak of worshiping the Spirit explicitly. The reading θεῷ thus appears to be a clarifying reading. On external and internal grounds, then, θεοῦ is the preferred reading.

[3:3]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “have no confidence in the flesh.”

[4:1]  ⁴² tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:12.