What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
Parallel translations
- WEB Then what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the profit of circumcision?
- BSB What, then, is the advantage of being a Jew? Or what is the value 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 2:25–29For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.
- Gen 25:32And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?
- Eccl 6:11Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what is man the better?
- Eccl 6:8For what hath the wise more than the fool? what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living?
- Heb 13:9Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.
- Isa 1:11–15To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
- 1 Cor 15:32If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die.
- Mal 3:14Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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.