The one who is physically uncircumcised yet keeps the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.
Parallel translations
- WEB Won’t the uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfills the law, judge you, who with the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law?
- KJV And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law?
- NKJV And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law?
- NASB And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a violator of the Law?
- NLT In fact, uncircumcised Gentiles who keep God’s law will condemn you Jews who are circumcised and possess God’s law but don’t obey it.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The physically uncircumcised who keep the law will condemn the law-breaking Jew who has the letter and circumcision. Outward credentials cannot shield a disobedient heart.
Overview
Paul argues that an obedient Gentile, though uncircumcised, will stand in judgment over the disobedient Jew who has both the written law and circumcision yet breaks the law. Possessing the 'letter' and the sign without obedience brings condemnation, not vindication. This further dismantles confidence in external privilege and prepares for the definition of a true Jew.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Matt 12:41–42The men of Nineveh will stand at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now One greater than Jonah is here.
- Rom 8:4so that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
- 2 Cor 3:6And He has qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
- Rom 2:29No, a man is a Jew because he is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise does not come from men, but from God.
- Rom 7:6–8But now, having died to what bound us, we have been released from the law, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
- Rom 13:10Love does no wrong to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
- Gal 5:14The entire law is fulfilled in a single decree: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
- Matt 3:15“Let it be so now,” Jesus replied. “It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness in this way.” Then John permitted Him.
- Heb 11:3By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
- Matt 5:17–20Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
- Acts 13:22After removing Saul, He raised up David as their king and testified about him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after My own heart; he will carry out My will in its entirety.’
- Rom 2:20an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—
- Ezek 16:48–52As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did as you and your daughters have done.
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 2:27 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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