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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Romans 2:20 - 2:20
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
A corrector of the foolish (paideutēn aphronōn). Old word (from paideuō) for instructor, in Plato, and probably so here, though corrector or chastiser in Heb 12:9 (the only N.T. instances). See note on Luk 23:16. Late inscriptions give it as instructor (Preisigke). Aphronōn is a hard word for Gentiles, but it is the Jewish standpoint that Paul gives. Each termed the other “dogs.”
Of babes (nēpiōn). Novitiates or proselytes to Judaism just as in Gal 4:1. Paul used it of those not of legal age.
The form (tēn morphōsin). Rare word only in Theophrastus and Paul (here and 2Ti 3:5). Pallis regards it as a Stoical term for education. Lightfoot considers the morphōsis as “the rough-sketch, the pencilling of the morphē,” the outline or framework, and in 2Ti 3:5 “the outline without the substance.” This is Paul’s picture of the Jew as he sees himself drawn with consummate skill and subtle irony.