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?
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?
- BSB 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.
- 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 shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.
- Rom 8:4That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
- 2 Cor 3:6Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
- Rom 2:29But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
- Rom 7:6–8But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
- Rom 13:10Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
- Gal 5:14For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
- Matt 3:15And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.
- Heb 11:3Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
- Matt 5:17–20Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
- Acts 13:22And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.
- Rom 2:20An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.
- Ezek 16:48–52As I live, saith the Lord GOD, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters.
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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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