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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Romans 3:3 - 3:3
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
For what if? (ti gar ei̇). But Westcott and Hort print it, Timothy gaṙ ei. See note on Phi 1:18 for this exclamatory use of ti gar (for how? How stands the case?).
Some were without faith (ēpistēsan). First aorist active indicative of apisteō, old verb, to disbelieve. This is the common N.T. meaning (Luk 24:11, Luk 24:41; Act 28:24; Rom 4:20). Some of them “disbelieved,” these “depositaries and guardians of revelation” (Denney). But the word also means to be unfaithful to one’s trust and Lightfoot argues for that idea here and in 2Ti 2:13. The Revised Version renders it “faithless” there. Either makes sense here and both ideas are true of some of the Jews, especially concerning the Messianic promises and Jesus.
The faithfulness of God (tēn pistin tou theou). Undoubtedly pistis has this sense here and not “faith.” God has been faithful (2Ti 2:13) whether the Jews (some of them) were simply disbelievers or untrue to their trust. Paul can use the words in two senses in Rom 3:3, but there is no real objection to taking ēpistēsan, apistian, pistin, all to refer to faithfulness rather than just faith.