Romans 3
Romans 3 is the third chapter of the Epistle to the Romans in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It was composed by Paul the Apostle, while he was in Corinth in the mid-50s AD, with the help of an amanuensis, Tertius, who added his own greeting in Romans 16:22.
In this chapter, Paul asks a series of rhetorical questions in order to develop his theological message, and quotes extensively from the Hebrew Bible. Theologian Albert Barnes suggests that "the design of the first part of this chapter is to answer some of the objections which might be offered by a Jew to the statements in the last chapter."
Text
The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 31 verses.Textual witnesses
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:- Papyrus 40
- Codex Vaticanus
- Codex Sinaiticus
- Codex Alexandrinus
- Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus
Old Testament references
- Romans 3:4 references Psalm 51:4
- Romans 3:10–12 references Psalm 14:1–3, Psalm 53:1–3 and Ecclesiastes 7:20
- Romans 3:13 references Psalm 5:9 and Psalm 140:3
- Romans 3:14 references Psalm 10:7
- Romans 3:17 references Isaiah 59:7–8
- Romans 3:18 references Psalm 36:1
- Romans 3:20 references Psalm 143:2b
God's righteousness upheld (verses 1–7)
Verse 1
The first of a Jew's objections is stated here. "A Jew would naturally ask, if the view which the apostle had given were correct, what special benefit could the Jew derive from his religion?" The objection follows from Romans 2:26: ''if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the requirements of the Law, his uncircumcision will be regarded as circumcision.''Verse 2
The Jewish "advantage" is really an act of entrustment. Nonconformist theologian Matthew Poole stated that "to the Jews were credited, or given in custody, the Holy Scriptures". Stephen, whose martyrdom Paul had witnessed before his conversion, called the scriptures the 'living oracles'. Handley Moule, in the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, notes that this verse anticipates a more complete summary of the Jewish "advantage" in Romans 9:4, where "the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises" are listed as the inheritance of the Jewish people.Slanderous criticisms
In verse 8, Paul refers to slanderous accusations made by "some people", that believers say "Let's do evil that good may result".Bishop Charles Ellicott suggests that these accusers might have been the Jews or "the Judaizing party"; Barnes says it is "doubtless" that they were Jews; Moule argues that they were Paul's "inveterate adversaries in the Church".
No one is righteous (verses 9–20)
Paul's statement that "both Jews and Greeks are under the power of sin" exposes the impossibility of either Gentile or Jew, unaided by God, being able to become righteous, as supported by a compilation of citations from the Hebrew Bible in verses 10–18 describing humanity's utter depravity or incapability of not sinning. Only Christ can break sin's power for Jews as well as for Gentiles.The revelation of God's righteousness (verses 21–26)
This section revisits 'the grand theme', "the righteousness of God", which is introduced in the Thanksgiving part of chapter 1. Comprising one paragraph, verses 21–26 is called by Stuhlmacher as "the heart of the letter to the Romans", stating that "the divine character—faithful, gracious, forgiving, and merciful—has been revealed in Jesus Christ, specifically in his death as "a sacrifice for sin effective through faith"." With that actions, "altogether apart from human initiative", God has fulfilled "what God always intended to do" "and so is proved righteous".Verse 23
- "Come short" is translated from, also rendered as 'to be in want/impoverished' ; 'to suffer need" ; 'to be destitute', and here in the sense of 'to suffer from defect, to fail to attain'.
Verse 25
Justification by faith – a conclusion (verses 27–31)
Verse 28
- "We conclude" is translated from. The verb is plural: "we conclude" in the King James Version and New King James Version, "we hold" in the Revised Standard Version and New Revised Standard Version, "we consider" in the New American Bible, "as we see it" in the Jerusalem Bible and New Jerusalem Bible, "we maintain" in the New American Standard Version, "we reason" or "we maintain" in the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, arbitramur in the Vulgate. Anglican bishop Charles Ellicott considers that we conclude "conveys too much the idea of an inference; the statement is rather made in the form of an assertion, we consider or we hold", whereas the 18th-century English Baptist theologian John Gill treats the phrase as a "conclusion from the premises".
Verse 29