Romans 2:17-20 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Behold Here he applies the matter he had discussed in the preceding verses more closely to the Jews, and proves, that, notwithstanding all their pretences and privileges, they were transgressors of the law, and so could not be justified by works, any more than the Gentiles. And here therefore he refutes the highest point of Jewish glorying, after a further description of it, interposed Romans 2:17-20, and refuted Romans 2:21-24. The description consists of twice five articles; of which the former five, Romans 2:17-18, show what he boasts of in himself; the other five, (Romans 2:19-20,) what he glories in with respect to others. The first particular of the former five answers to the first of the latter; the second to the second, and so on. Thou art called a Jew A professor of the true religion, and a worshipper of the true God. Dr. Macknight is of opinion that in this and the following verses, the apostle intended to address chiefly the men of rank and learning among the Jews; a supposition to which he thinks it is no objection that probably there were no doctors of the law, nor Jewish scribes and priests at Rome, when this letter was written; because, “as the apostle was reasoning against the whole body of the nation, his argument required that he should address the teachers of every denomination, to whom the things written in this and the following verses best agree. Besides, as he had addressed the heathen legislators, philosophers, and priests, in the first chapter, for the purpose of showing them the bad use they had made of the knowledge they derived from the works of creation, it was natural for him in this to address the Jewish scribes, priests, and doctors, to show them how little they had profited by the knowledge which they had derived from revelation. Of the Jewish common people the apostle speaks, Romans 3:20, &c., where he proves that they also were extremely vicious.” And restest in the law Dependest on it alone, and on the having of it, for justification and salvation, though it can only condemn thee. And makest thy boast of God As thy God; as belonging only to you Jews, and being yours in a peculiar manner; the founder of your commonwealth; your lawgiver, protector, and Saviour. And knowest his will By special revelation, and more fully than the Gentiles. And approvest the things that are more excellent Hast attained to a considerable degree of understanding in the law, so as to place a proper value upon things according to their worth, and to distinguish between things lawful and unlawful. The original words, δοκιμαζεις τα διαφεροντα, may be rendered, and triest, or, approvest on trial, the things that differ. Being instructed, &c. Or, as Beza interprets κατηχουμενος εκ τον νομου, Being educated, or instructed from thy childhood, out of the law, 2 Timothy 3:15. And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind Vainly presumest that thou hast knowledge enough to teach others. The Jewish doctors, in contempt of the Gentiles, were wont to speak of them as blind in darkness ignorant babes and boasted of themselves as guides, to whose direction the Gentiles, in matters of religion, ought implicitly to submit. This boasting of the Jews the apostle introduced here, to show that their sins were greatly aggravated by the revelation of which they boasted. Who hast the form of knowledge A system, body, or model of that knowledge, which is scattered up and down in the law, and of the truths which are there delivered. For the original word, μορφωσις, seems to bear this meaning: and the apostle may be considered as comparing the law to a looking-glass, which exhibits exact images of things, as the Apostle James likewise does, James 1:25. This implies that they not only considered themselves as having a sketch, or the outlines, of the truth contained in the law, but the most accurate knowledge of it. And this they counted sufficient to save them, though they lived in a loose and ungodly manner.