1. Aio, wherefore). Paul passes from the Gentiles to the Jews, as the whole of the following discourse clearly shows ; and yet he does not use the transitive, but the illative particle, of which two the latter, as being the more powerful, absorbs the former. The Gentile does evil ; the Jew does evil. Then in the 6th and following verses, he comprehends both, Jews and Gentiles. — avaKo’koyrirog, inexcusable.) Man seeks to defend himself. — ot v&pu^e, 0 man) In ch. i. he spoke of the Gentiles in the third person, but he deals with the Jew in the second person singular ; even as the law itself deals with the Jew, not in the second, but in the third person singular ; because it had no concern with any one but the Jew. — Comp. ch. iii. 19. But the apostle, who directs his discourse to Gentiles and Jews, addresses the Jew indeed in the second person singular, hut calls him by the name [O man] common to all. — comp. ch. i. 18 ; nor does he acknow- ledge the Jew, as such, ver. 17, 28. The same difference between the third and second persons occurs again, ver. 14, 17. It is a not dissimilar circumstance, that the Gentiles are put off [as to their condemnation] till the final judgment, ver. 16 ; but the Jews are threatened by the law with a present judgment also [besides the final one ver. 2.] — 6 xpivuv, tliou that judgest) being removed [i.e. wherein thou art distinguished] from those that have pleasure in evil-doers, i. 32. Paul uses a weighty expression. The JewT esteems himself superior to the Greek, ver. 19, etc. Paul now calls that an act of judging, and by it opens up a way for him- self, with a view to show the judgment of God. It is mere self- love in a man, that, in proportion as he thinks others worse than himself, he thinks the better of himself, Gal. vi. 4. The figure paregmenon1 occurs here ; for xaraxptvsig follows. — Comp. ch. xiv. 22, 23 ; 1 Cor. iv. 3, etc., xi. 29, etc. ; J ames ii. 4. — srspov, another) who is of no concern to thee ; whose more open unrighteousness profits thee nothing ; a heathen.
1 A joining together of conjugate forms, or of simples and compounds, ex. gr. here, xpiveig, xctrocxpivug. — Ed.