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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Romans 3:19 - 3:19
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
19. οἴδαμεν δὲ. What is the connexion? The disadvantage of the Jew has been shown not to be complete—Scripture being adduced to support the statement that all are under sin. So far Jew and Gentile are equal. But the Jew is brought more signally and definitely under GOD’s judgment, just because of his possession of the law: the utterance of the law is in a special degree addressed to him; and he is less able, consequently, even than the Gentile to maintain any plea against GOD. These verses, then, explain the qualification contained in οὐ πάντως. In a certain sense he is at a disadvantage as compared with the Gentile. Greater privilege involves greater responsibility. (So with Gifford, practically, though not in detail.) We may say then, also, that we have here the final answer to τί τὸ περισσὸν τοῦ Ἰ. (Rom 3:1). It was a true advantage to have fuller light, even though it brought greater condemnation (cf. ἐν δὲ φάει καὶ ὄλεσσον).
οἴδαμεν δὲ. δὲ carries us back to Rom 3:9, οὐ πάντως.
οἴδαμεν. Almost = of course.
ὁ νόμος. Not = τὰ λόγια, Rom 3:2, but in its common sense ‘the Mosaic law.’ S. Paul presses the point that the injunctions of the law are meant for those who receive them, and by them the Jew is condemned, as against the plea of the Jew that his privileged position exempts him from judgment. Cf. Gifford, ad lo[108]. and on Rom 2:3.
[108] ad loc ad locum
φραγῇ. 2Co 11:10, Heb 11:33 only. ἐμφράττειν more common w. στόμα; cf. Wetst.
ὑπόδικος. Only here in N.T.; = liable to an action. The dative seems always to be used of the person injured, not of the judge. The metaphor, then, suggests a trial as between GOD and His people.