Romans 11:33

11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how fathomless his ways!

Romans 2:3

2:3 And do you think, ¹  whoever you are, when you judge ²  those who practice such things and yet do them yourself, ³  that you will escape God’s judgment?

Romans 9:20

9:20 But who indeed are you – a mere human being ⁴  – to talk back to God? ⁵  Does what is molded say to the molder, “Why have you made me like this?” ⁶ 

Romans 2:1

The Condemnation of the Moralist

2:1 ⁷ Therefore ⁸  you are without excuse, ⁹  whoever you are, ¹⁰  when you judge someone else. ¹¹  For on whatever grounds ¹²  you judge another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge practice the same things.

[2:3]  ¹ tn Grk “do you think this,” referring to the clause in v. 3b.

[2:3]  ² tn Grk “O man, the one who judges.”

[2:3]  ³ tn Grk “and do them.” The other words are supplied to bring out the contrast implied in this clause.

[9:20]  ¹ tn Grk “O man.”

[9:20]  ² tn Grk “On the contrary, O man, who are you to talk back to God?”

[9:20]  ³ sn A quotation from Isa 29:16; 45:9.

[2:1]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ tn That is, “you have nothing to say in your own defense” (so translated by TCNT).

[2:1]  ⁴ tn Grk “O man.”

[2:1]  ⁵ tn Grk “Therefore, you are without excuse, O man, everyone [of you] who judges.”

[2:1]  ⁶ tn Grk “in/by (that) which.”