What, then, is the advantage of being a Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?
Parallel translations
- WEB Then what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the profit of circumcision?
- KJV What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
- NKJV What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision?
- NASB Then what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision?
- NLT Then what’s the advantage of being a Jew? Is there any value in the ceremony of circumcision?
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
If judgment is impartial, what advantage does being a Jew or being circumcised offer? Paul raises the natural objection to his argument.
Overview
Having shown that Jews and Gentiles alike face judgment, Paul anticipates the objection: does Jewish identity then count for nothing? This rhetorical question, characteristic of Paul's diatribe style, lets him clarify rather than dismiss the genuine privileges God gave Israel. It keeps his argument from being misread as denying God's covenant faithfulness.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Rom 2:25–29Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.
- Gen 25:32“Look,” said Esau, “I am about to die, so what good is a birthright to me?”
- Eccl 6:11For the more words, the more futility—and how does that profit anyone?
- Eccl 6:8What advantage, then, has the wise man over the fool? What gain comes to the poor man who knows how to conduct himself before others?
- Heb 13:9Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace and not by foods of no value to those devoted to them.
- Isa 1:11–15“What good to Me is your multitude of sacrifices?” says the LORD. “I am full from the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I take no delight in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
- 1 Cor 15:32If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for human motives, what did I gain? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
- Mal 3:14You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What have we gained by keeping His requirements and walking mournfully before the LORD of Hosts?
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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 3:1 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.