In ver. 5 ff. Paul describes more fully, and in Ο.Τ. terms, the two Ways of attaining δικαιοσύνη---ἶανν and faith. His aim 1s to show that they are mutu- ally exclusive, but that the latter is open and accessible to all.
Ver. 5. Μωυσῆς γὰρ γράφει: Moses’ authority is unimpeachable on this point. The righteousness that comes from law’
670 ΠΡΟΣ ΡΩΜΑΙΟΥΣ x.
4 / ‘ ~ a γὰρ νόµου Χριστὸς εἰς δικαιοσύνην παντί τῷ πιστεύοντι. 5. Μωσῆς γὰρ γράφει τὴν δικαιοσύνην τὴν ἐκ τού νόµου,! “Ort 6 ποιήσας αὐτὰ
~ > « £ Ch. ix. 30; ἄνθρωπος (ήσεται ἐν αὐτοῖς ... 6. ἡ δὲ ἐκ! πίστεως δικαιοσύνη οὕτω Gal. iii. 8. g Cf. Eph.
et. bry ai’ : h Ch. ix.g, TOUT €oTt™ Χριστὸν καταγαγεῖν Ἰ. “7, Τίς καταβήσεται eis τὴν
~ [ή , λέγει, “Mi, εἴπῃς ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ σου, Τίς ἀναβήσεται” εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν ;'
1 την ex Tov νοµον DFKLP ; om. τον $B (A). ortstands after γραφει, not before ὁ ποιησας, in NAD! 17, vulg. It stands as in the received text in \°>BD°FGKL, etc. Most edd. put it after γραφει, but not Weiss, who argues that it was removed from its proper place after νοµον in order to provide an object for ποιησας after αυτα had been dropped. He reads M. yap γραφει την δ. τ. εκ νοµον oT: o π. αυτα a. ζ. εν αυτη. According to W. and H. the original text was οτι την δικαιοσυνην την εκ νοµον ο ποιησας ανθρωπος ἵησεται evauty. Possibly this best explains the variants, but it strikes one as too artificially grammatical for Paul. αυτα οπι. tAD-gr., vulg. For εν αντοις (from LXX), which is found in DFKLP, §'AB 17, 47, vulg. read εν
αντη; and so all edd.
must be an achievement: the man who has done it shall live in it, Lev. xviii. 5. Paul writes ἐν αὐτῃῇ with reference to δικαιοσύνην: the ἐν αὐτοῖς of the LXX refers to πάντα τὰ κρίµατα which pre- cedes. Moses, of course, in writing thus did not mock his people; the O.T. religion, though an imperfect, was a real religion, under which men could be right with God. To keep the law of God and live by doing so (Mt. xix. 17) was the natural aim and hope of a true Israelite ; only, in this case, the law was not a collection of statutes, but a revelation of God’s character and will, and he who sought to keep it did so not alone, but in conscious dependence on God whose grace was shown above all things else by His gift of such a revelation. Paul, however, is writing with Pharisees and legalists in his eye, and with the remem- brance of his own experience as a Phari- see in his heart; and kis idea no doubt is
that this road leads nowhere. Cf. Gal. iii. 10-12. To keep the law thus is an impossibility.
Ver.6f. 4 δὲ ἐκ πίστεως δικαιοσύνη οὕτως λέγει. It is remarkable that Paul does not make Moses his authority here, though he is about to express himself in words which certainly go back to Deut. xxx. 12-14, It is the righteousness of faith itself which speaks, describing its own character and accessibility in words with a fine flavour of inspiration about them. But it is not so much a quota- tion we find here, as a free reproduction and still freer application of a very familiar passage of the Ο.Τ. Τε is irrele- vant to point out that what the writer in Deuteronomy means is that the law (ἡ ἐντολὴ αὕτη ἣν ἐγὼ ἐντέλλομαί σοι
«σήµερον) is not oppressive nor imprac-
ticable (as Paul in ver. 5 tacitly assumes it to be); the Apostle is not thinking in the least what the writer of Deuter- onomy meant; as the representative of the righteousness of faith, he is putting his own thoughts—his inspired convic- tion and experience of the Gospel—into a free reproduction of these ancient in- spired words. μὴ εἴπῃς ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ σον: = do not think, especially thoughts you would be ashamed to utter. τίς ἀναβήσεται els τὸν οὐρανόν; .. . ἢ τίς καταβήσεται εἰς τὴν ἄβυσσον; There is no impossible preliminary to be ac- complished before the true religion is got under way; we have neither to scale heaven nor descend into the abyss. ἄβυσσος (in N.T.) only in Le. viii. 31 and seven times in Rev. But ef. Ps. cvi. 26, Ἰχχ. 20. The passage in Deuteronomy has eis τὸ πέραν τῆς θαλάσσης. These two indefinite pro- verbial expressions for the impossible are interpreted by Paul. With τοῦτ᾽ ἔστιν (vers. 6, 7), he introduces a midrash upon each. The first means (in his mind) bringing Christ down; the second, bringing Christ up from the dead. Evi- dently the righteousness of faith is con- cerned with a Christ of whom both these things are true—a descent from heaven, and a rising from the dead, Incarnation and Resurrection. We could not bring about either by any effort, but we do not need to; Christ incarnate and risen is here already, God’s gift to faith.