15
Y. The Conclusion, xv. 14 ; xvi. 1, 3, 17, 21, 25.
Iou5a/w, to the Jew) After the Babylonish captivity, all the Israelites, as Josephus informs us, were called Jews ; hence the Jew is opposed to the Greek. For a different reason, the Greek is opposed to the Barbarian ; ver 14. — Kpurov) concerning this particle, see App. Crit. Ed. ii.,1) on this verse. The apostle, as I have shown, treats of faith, ch. i. to iv. ; of salvation , ch. v. to viii. ; of the Jew and the Greek, ch. ix. to xi. The knowledge of this division is very useful for the right under- standing of the epistle. The third part of the discussion, that concerning the Jew and the Greek, neither weakens nor strengthens the genuineness of the particle npurov. Paul uses it rather for the purpose of convicting [confuting their notion of their own peculiar justification by the mere posses- sion of the law] the Jews, ii. 9, 10 ; but the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, not more to the believing Jew, than to the Greek.
17. AixaioffvvT) Qsov, the righteousness of God) The right- eousness of God is frequently mentioned in the New Testament, often in the books of Isaiah and Daniel, most often in the Psalms. It sometimes signifies that righteousness , by wThich God Himself is righteous, acts righteously, and is acknowledged to be righteous, ch. iii. 5 ; and also that righteousness, as it is termed in the case of [when applied to] men, either particular or universal, in which grace, and mercy also, are included, and which is shown principally in the condemnation of sin, and in the justification of the sinner ; and thus, in this view, the essen- tial righteousness of God is evidently not to be excluded from the business of justification, ch. iii. 25, etc. Hence it sometimes signifies this latter righteousness , by which a man (in conse- quence of the gift of God , Matt. vi. 33) becomes righteous, and is righteous ; and that, too, either by laying hold of the right- eousness of Jesus Christ through faith, ch. iii. 21, 22, or by imitating that [the former spoken of] righteousness of God, in
1 The margin of the second edition considered the reading <7rpZrov less firmly established, while the larger edition had left it to the decision of the reader. The German version gives no decisive opinion. — E.B. [A CD support 7rpuTov\ also, A/Yulg. and Origen. BGy, omit irparov. — Ed.]