Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Romans 3:12 - 3:12
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
They are together become unprofitable (ἅμα ἠχρειώθησαν)
Only here in the New Testament: Together carries forward the all. The Hebrew of the Psalm means have become corrupt. The Greek word is to become useless. Compare Joh 15:6.
Good (χρησττότητα)
Only in Paul's writings. The radical idea of the word is profitableness. Compare have become unprofitable. Hence it passes readily into the meaning of wholesomeness. See on Mat 11:30. It is opposed by Paul to ἀποτομία abruptness, severity (Rom 11:22). It is rendered kindness in Eph 2:7; Col 3:12; Gal 5:22. Paul, and he only, also uses ἀγαθωσύνη for goodness. The distinction as drawn out by Jerome is that ἀγαθωσύνη represents a sterner virtue, showing itself in a zeal for truth which rebukes, corrects, and chastises, as Christ when He purged the temple. Χρηστότης is more gentle, gracious, and kindly Bishop Lightfoot defines it as a kindly disposition to one's neighbor, not necessarily taking a practical form, while ἀγαθωσύνη energizes the χρηστότης.