Ver. 1 {. τὸ περισσὸν τοῦ ᾿Ιουδαίον is that which the Jew has ‘over and above” the Gentile. τίς ἡ ὠφέλεια τῆς.
603
ἐπιστεύθησαν τὰ "λόγια τοῦ Θεοῦ. 3. τί γὰρ, εἰ ἠπίστησάν τινες; a Acts vii
48; Heb.
μὴ ἡ ἀπιστία αὐτῶν τὴν πίστιν τοῦ Θεοῦ καταργήσει; 4. μὴ γένοιτο: ντα , Wie x 5 A BS ον” , 4 et. 1ν.11. γινέσθω δὲ ὁ Θεὸς ἀληθής, πᾶς δὲ ἄνθρωπος ψεύστης, καθὼς! γέγραπ- ται, “' Ὅπως ἂν δικαιωθῇς ἐν τοῖς λόγοις σου, καὶ νικήσῃς ἐν τῷ _) For καθως ΝΝΒ read καθαπερ. νικησῃς BGKL, etc., γικησεις NADE. For the distribution of authorities here, see note on πρωτον, page 589, note*. The com-
bination of B with such later Western authorities as G here also lessens its weight ; its reading is probably part of that Western element which it contains, {.ε., B and G here represent practically one authority. But the other group of MSS. represents at least two groups of witnesses, the ‘neutral’? in ΜΑ, and the Western in D, and its reading is therefore to be preferred. Weiss, however (Teaxthritik der paulinischen Briefe, S. 46), would reject the indicative both here and in 2 Cor. xii.21. The change
ΟΓει and η he regards as accidental; in KLP it occurs some sixty times.
περιτομῆς; = “' What good does his cir- cumcision do him?” πολὺ goes with τὸ περισσόν. κατὰ πάντα τρόπον: however you choose to view the posi- tion. πρῶτον μὲν suggests that such an enumeration of Jewish prerogatives might have been made here as is given at length in ix. 4 f. In point of fact, Paul mentions one only, in which the whole force of the Jewish objection to the arguments of chap. ii. is contained, and after disposing of it feels that he has settled the question, and passes on. The first, most weighty, and most far- reaching advantage of the Jews, is that ‘they were entrusted with the oracles of Ged”. They were made in His grace the depositaries and guardians of revelation. τὰ λόγια τοῦ θεοῦ must be regarded as the contents of revelation, having God as their author, and at the time when Paul wrote, identical with the O.T. Scriptures. In the LXX the word λόγιον occurs mainly as the equi-
valent of [JVON, which in various
passages (e¢.g., Ps. cxix. 38) has the sense of “ promise”; in ordinary Greek it means ‘oracle,’ the Divine word given at a shrine, and usually referring to the future ; hence it would be natural in using it to think of the prophetic rather than the statutory element in the O.T., and this is what is required here. The O.T. as a whole, and as a revelation of God, has a forward look; it anticipates completion and excites hope; and it is not too much to say that this is sug- gested by describing it as τὰ λόγια τοῦ θεοῦ. The sum of it was that God had promised to His people “‘a future and a hope ” (Jer. xxix. 11: see margin, R.V.), and this promise seemed threatened by the argument of the last chapter.
Ver. 3 f. rl γάρ; For how? i.e.,
Well then, how stands the case? Cf. Phil. i. 18. et ἠπίστησάν τινες = if some did disbelieve. It is not necessary to render this, with reference to ἐπιστ- εύθησαν in ver. 2, “if some proved faithless to their trust’. What is in Paul’s mind is that ‘the oracles of God” have had their fulfilment in Christ, and that those to whom they were entrusted have in some cases (whether few or many he does not here consider) refused their faith to that fulfilment. Surely it is no proper in- ference that their unbelief must make God’s faithfulness of no effect. He has kept His promise, and as far as it lay with Him has maintained the original advantage of the Jews, as depositaries and first inheritors of that promise, whatever reception they may have given to its fulfilment. Away with the thought of any reflection upon Him! When the case is stated between God and man there can only be one conclusion: let God come out (γινέσθω) true, and every man a liar; let Him be just, and every man condemned. This agrees with the words of Scripture itself in Ps. li. (1.) 6, which Paul quotes exactly after the LXX: the Hebrew is distinctly different, but neither it nor the original context are regarded. ἐν τοῖς λόγοις σου is a translation of Hebrew words which mean “when Thou speakest,”’ i.¢., apparently, when Thou pronouncest sentence upon man; here the sense must be, “that Thou mayest be pronounced just in respect of what Thou hast spoken,” i,e., the λόγια, the oracles or promises en- trusted to Israel. µνικήσεις: win thy case (see note on text). Burton, Moods and Tenses, §§ 198, 199. ἐν τῷ κρίνεσθαί. σε: Probably the infinitive is passive: “‘when thou art judged’; not middle, ‘*when thou submittest thy case to the