The PuritanBoard - View Single Post - Romans 3:19-20 Jews and Gentiles both under the Law?

Mathetes · #4 (**permalink**) 07-21-2007, 03:14 AM

Moo's commentary puts it this way, for what it's worth:

Quote:

19 "Paul now draws out the implications of the series of quotations for the position of human beings before the divine judge. 'We know' introduces a circumstance that would be generally acknowledged by Paul and his readers. In this case, the circumstance is the applicability of 'whatever the law says' to those who are 'in the law'. The first occurrence of 'law' (νομος) refers to the series of quotations just concluded. Since these quotations are drawn from the Psalms and Isaiah, νομος does not designate, as it usually does in Paul, the law of Moses, the torah, but the OT canon (cf. also 1 Cor. 9:8, 9; 14:21, 34; Gal. 4:21b). The second occurrence of νομος - 'it speaks to those who are in the law' - may also refer to the OT as a whole, or it may revert to the more usual narrower meaning, 'Mosaic law.'

The difference is not great since in either case 'those in the law' are the Jews, who live within the sphere of the revelation of God given in the Scripture/law. This interpretation is preferable to giving νομος the more broad signification of divine law in any form, and, in line with 2:14 - 15, expanding 'those in the law' to include all people. For, while the explicitly universal terms of the last part of the verse might suggest so broad a scope, this view has against it the close identification of νομος with the written Scripture in this context (cf. vv. 10 - 18). And it is clear that, whatever access to God's law Gentiles may have, it does not come in this 'written,' 'inscripturated' form. Paul's purpose is to insist that the OT passages quoted in vv. 10 - 18, while not all originally directed to Israel as a whole, are, indeed, 'speaking to' the Jews generally. They cannot be excluded from the scope of sin.

The purpose for which the words of Scripture address the Jews is 'that every mouth might be stopped and the whole world be held accountable to God.' The terminology of this clause reflects the imagery of the courtroom. 'Shutting the mouth' connotes the situation of the defendant who has no more to say in response to the charges brought against him or her. The Greek word translated 'accountable' occurs nowhere else in the Scriptures, but it is used in extra-biblical Greek to mean 'answerable to' or 'liable to prosecution,' 'accountable.' Paul pictures God both as the one offended and as the judge who weighs the evidence and pronounces the verdict. The image, then, is of all humanity standing before God, accountable to him for willful and inexusable violations of his will, awaiting the sentence of condemnation that their actions deserve.

But how is it that Paul can use accusations addressed to Jews ('those in the law') to declare that all people are guilty? Some would limit the reference of 'every mouth' to Jews, but the parallelism with 'the whole world' makes this unlikely. Probably Paul is using an implicit 'from the greater to the lesser' argument: if Jews, God's chosen people, cannot be excluded from the scope of sin's tyranny, then it surely follows that Gentiles, who have no claim on God's favor, are also guilty. We must remember that Paul's chief purpose throughout Rom. 1:18 - 3:20 is not to demonstrate that Gentiles are guilty and in need of God's righteousness - for this could be assumed - but that Jews bear the same burden and have the same need. It is for this reason that, while all people are included in the scope of vv. 19 - 20, there is particular reference to the Jews and their law."