33
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is no man, who does not fulfil some of the requirements of the law (ex ruv roD vo/aou). He did not choose to say edvixoi , which is usually taken rather in a bad sense. — / ir\ vo/tov voyov fiy, — not the law : the law not) Not even here is the change in the arrange- ment of the words without a reason ; in the former place, the not is the emphatic word, so that greater force may be given to the, have not; in the latter place, the word vofio v, the law , contains the emphasis, thus forming an antithesis to the sa vroig, unto them- selves. So also, vo>oc, law , has sometimes the article, and some- times not, and not without a good reason in each instance, ver. 13, 23, 27, iii. 19-21, vii. 1., etc. — py<rs/, by nature) The construc- tion is, w vofjjov eyovra tpvosi, not having the law by nature } [But Engl. vers, joins nature with do, not with having ] precisely as in ver. 27, n ex cpvcttig axpofivffn'ct, the uncircumcision by nature , con- trary to the Syriac version of ver. 27, which connects the word nature with doing , 66 doing by nature the law? The Gentiles are by nature (that is, when left to themselves, as they are born, not as individuals, but as nations), destitute of the (written) law ; the Jews are by nature Jews, Gal. ii. 15, and therefore have by nature the (written) law, ch. xi. 24, the end of the verse. Nor yet, however, is there any danger, that the force of the construction, which most follow, do by nature those things , which are of [con- tained in] the law , should be lost ; for what the Gentiles, who have not the law, do, they in reality do by nature. The term law , in the writings of the apostle, does not occur in the philo- sophical, but in the Hebrew use ; therefore, the phrase, natural law , is not found in sacred Scripture; ver. 12 shows, that the thing itself is true. — noty do), not only in actual performance, but also in their inmost thoughts, ver. 15, at the end. — oSro/, these ) This little word turns the collective noun tQvri , Gentiles , to a distribu- tive sense [so far to wit as they really do it. — V. g.] — vofiog, a law) What the law is to the Jews, that the Gentiles are to their own- selves.
15. ’Evde/xvuvrai, they show) [demonstrate] to themselves, to others, and, in some respects, to God Himself. — ro tpyov rov vo/xo y,
1 It may be thought by this interpretation, that the clause which precedes the words, von Natur, in the German version should be omitted to avoid the ambiguity, although , perhaps , the Author knowingly and willingly made use of the ambiguous [equivocal] punctuation. — E. B.