Lessons #83 and 84
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual delivery not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GW = God’s Word, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New American Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +
+ HCSB = Holman Christian Standard Bible +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
+ 4. Text is based on 1984 edition of the NIV +
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Two Jewish Advantages (Rom 3:1-4)
1 What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? 2 Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God. 3 What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness? 4 Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.”
In the preceding section of Romans 2:25-29, the apostle defined a true Jew by declaring that such a person is one that has received true circumcision that we interpreted to mean regeneration or rebirth. Furthermore, the apostle had argued that a person could be a true Jew without physical circumcision and without being an ethnic Jew. It is possible that a reader may misconstrue what the apostle said about the Jews and think that the apostle was downplaying being a Jew. Or a person may conclude that the apostle is saying that there is no advantage to being a Jew or in physical circumcision, something the Jews prided themselves with respect to Gentiles. Therefore, to be sure that his readers should not think he was downplaying being a Jew or bashing the Jews as some falsely accused him, the apostle discoursed the advantages of being a Jew in the passage of Romans 3:1-4 that we are about to study or to expound.
Let me begin by stating that there are two advantages of being a Jew that the apostle gave in our passage of study. I will give them right away so you know what we will be expounding. The first advantage of being a Jew is belonging to the group that received God’s promises and by implication the written word of God. The second is belonging to the group of people that are the recipients of God’s faithfulness. This being the case, the message the apostle wanted the readers of this epistle to understand about being a Jew is that Jews have the advantages of being the recipients of God’s promises and by implication possessors of the Scripture and being beneficiaries of God’s faithfulness. This message, of course, implies that the Jews are God’s covenant people. However, believers today are God’s covenant people. Consequently, we can tailor this message to what we believe the Holy Spirit wants us to hear from the passage we are about to expound. This message is that You have the privilege of God’s word in written form and are the beneficiary of His faithfulness. Thus, as we expound the passage before us, you should not think of the two advantages the apostle gave in our passage as applicable only to the Jews but that you as a believer in Christ share in these advantages that the Jews of the OT times had.
We should note from the start of the exposition of the passage before us that the apostle followed a specific pattern in providing the two advantages of being a Jew or two advantages that belong to Jews. This pattern is that of rhetorical questions and answers. This means that he began with a question in verse 1 and answered the question in verse 2. The answer in verse 2 provided the first advantage of being a Jew or advantage that belongs to a Jew. Then the apostle posed a second and a third question in verse 3 although the third question hinted at the answer that is given in verse 4 that is an implied second advantage of being a Jew or advantage that belonged to a Jew. With this observation out of the way, we are ready to examine the passage before us.
The apostle began Romans 3:1 with a Greek expression that is more literally translated what then…? This is because the Greek begins with an interrogative pronoun (tis) that may mean “who, which, what?” It may mean “why” as an interrogative expression of reason for something as in the Lord Jesus’ question during His Sermon on the Mount that indicates believers should not worry as we read in Matthew 6:28:
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.
Apostle Paul used it to ask question as to the reason he and others who preached the gospel would risk their lives if there were no resurrection as we read in 1 Corinthians 15:30:
And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour?
In our verse of Romans 3:1, it is used with the meaning “what?” and it is followed by a Greek particle (oun) that is used in two general ways. It may be used as a marker of continuation of a narrative so that it may be translated “then, so, now.” It may also be used as a marker of inference, denoting that what it introduces is the result of or an inference from what precedes in which case it may be translated “therefore, then.” It is in this second usage that the word is used in our verse to indicate that what the apostle states results from what he previously stated, especially, beginning in Romans 2:28 where he conveyed who a true Jew is and what true circumcision is.
Be that as it may, the first part of the apostle’s first rhetorical question is given in the NIV in Romans 3:1 What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew. The question is elliptical in the Greek in that there is no verb used since literally the Greek reads What then (is) the advantage of the Jew.
The word “advantage” is translated from a Greek word (perissos) that pertains to that which is not ordinarily encountered, hence means “remarkable, over and above, extraordinary.” Thus, it is the word that is used in Jesus’ question to His disciples that if they greet only their brothers, they are not doing anything more than is necessary or remarkable as recorded in Matthew 5:47:
And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?
The question what are you doing more than others? may alternatively be translated what are you doing that is remarkable? The word may mean “abundant, profuse” as it pertains to being extraordinary in amount as it is used to describe the life the Lord Jesus brought as He declared as recorded in John 10:10:
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
The sentence they may have life, and have it to the full may be translated as they may have life, and have it abundantly. In our passage of Romans 3:1, the word is used in the sense of “advantage,” that is, “the quality of having a superior or more favorable position.”
The word “advantage” is associated with the word “Jew” since the NIV reads in being a Jew although literally the Greek reads of the Jew. The Greek syntax used indicates that the literal phrase of the Jew is to be unpacked to read “belonging to the Jew” or “possessed by the Jew.” Thus, the apostle’s question concerns the advantage that belongs to or is possessed by a Jew. Many of our English versions reflect this interpretation in the use of the word “has” or “have.” For example, the NASB puts the question as what advantage has the Jew? The NET reads what advantage does the Jew have. Of course, a handful of English versions translated the Greek to read as we have in the NIV. That aside, because the focus is the advantage possessed by the Jew, let me review completely what we have said in the past about a Jew.
The word “Jew” is translated from a Greek word (Ioudaios) that although strictly means “persons belonging to Judea”, that is, a “Judean” but it has been used in different ways depending on the period of history of Israel that is in view. Prior to exile, the term “Jews” was used to describe Judeans as we can gather from some passages. The term was used to describe Judeans in 2 Kings 16:6:
At that time, Rezin king of Aram recovered Elath for Aram by driving out the men of Judah. Edomites then moved into Elath and have lived there to this day.
The phrase the men of Judah is the way the translators of the NIV translated a Hebrew word (yehûḏî) that means “Judean, Jew.” Prophet Jeremiah used the term in the same sense of Judeans that witnessed the signing of deed to the property he bought as recorded in Jeremiah 32:12:
and I gave this deed to Baruch son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel and of the witnesses who had signed the deed and of all the Jews [or Judeans] sitting in the courtyard of the guard.
He also used it to describe all Hebrews prior to the exile with respect to the agreement by slave owners to free their Hebrew slaves, as recorded in Jeremiah 34:9:
Everyone was to free his Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Jew in bondage.
This usage of the term to describe all Hebrews was applicable in the time of exile. For example, Mordecai, from the tribe of Benjamin, was described as a Jew in Esther 2:5:
Now there was in the citadel of Susa a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, named Mordecai son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish,
Of course, it will seem that the term was widely used to describe the other Ten tribes who were scattered all over the vast kingdom of King Xerxes since the attempt to exterminate the Jews was one that was widespread throughout the kingdom of Xerxes. During the period of exile, the term was applied to some Gentiles who allied with the Jews, as implied in Esther 8:17:
In every province and in every city, wherever the edict of the king went, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating. And many people of other nationalities became Jews because fear of the Jews had seized them.
The people of other nationalities became Jews in the general sense of one who identifies with beliefs, rites, and customs of Mosaic tradition. Consequently, after the exile, the term “Jews” was applied not only to those who are from the Southern Kingdom of Israel but to Gentiles who were adherents to the religion of the Judeans.
In the NT time, the term “Jews” was used to describe Judeans as those who adhered to Mosaic tradition. Of course, it is not a term that these Judeans used to describe themselves since they preferred to use the term “Israel”. That Judeans did not generally use the term to address themselves, but the term “Israel” may be seen by comparing the descriptions of Jesus during His crucifixion. On the one hand, the Jews referred to Him as the “King of Israel” in Mark 15:31–32:
31 In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! 32 Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.
On the other hand, the Roman soldiers referred to Him as “King of the Jews” in Mark 15:17–18:
17 They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. 18 And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!”
That others used the term to refer to Judeans as those who adhere to Mosaic tradition is evident in its use by the Samaritan woman that Jesus spoke with, as recorded in the fourth chapter of John, specifically, John 4:9:
The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Jews used the term to describe themselves when it is intended to differentiate themselves from Gentiles. Thus, Peter used that term when he preached in Cornelius’ house, as recorded in Acts 10:28:
He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.
It is in the same sense that Apostle Paul used it in his rebuke of Peter, as we read in Galatians 2:14:
When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
Apostle Paul in this usage indicates that a Jew is one who by birth is an Israelite and so practices Mosaic tradition. But that is not all, he also implied that a true Jew is not one who is merely a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as evident in circumcision but one that is regenerated, as that is what we can gather from Romans 2:28–29:
28 A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. 29 No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.
In any case, the term “Jew” refers originally to those who are Judeans, but it extended to those who are Hebrew people. Of course, today Hebrew people are found in every nation in the world although some of them do not even know they are Hebrews. However, current research to locate the lost tribes of Israel have led to a few discoveries. The tribe of Gad has been traced to the Ibos in Nigeria, the Yinglings of Sweden, the Gaddo/Caddo tribes of the Native Americans, among others. The tribe of Dan to Sudan, some Levites in Lemba tribe of Ethiopia. Other Hebrew people have been found in other parts of the world such as India. This should not surprise anyone because of what Prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 11:11:
In that day the LORD will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the sea.
By the way, proper identification of the Jews/Hebrews is important because of the promise of Yahweh to Abraham recorded in Genesis 12:3:
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
Many Christians in this country, for example, support present Israel because of this promise but the present Israel consists primarily of a tiny fraction of the Hebrew people. Thus, for consistency they ought to know who the rest are, to avoid bringing curse on them through opposing other Hebrew people in other parts of the world or not coming to their defense.
Be that as it may, the question of who a Jew is, should be understood primarily as Apostle Paul would have used the term in the epistle we are considering. You see, in modern time, the word is used in different ways because of the existence of modern state of Israel. A person is accepted as a Jew by Orthodox Judaism if the person has been born to a Jewish mother and who, according to them, has not apostatized in the sense of being a Christian or converted to any religion. Others would include a Jew as one who has a Jewish father or who has converted to Judaism. Of course, Jewish leaders prefer the term “Israel” to describe the Hebrew people. Nonetheless, the term “Jew” may refer to a Hebrew person that practices Mosaic tradition. We say this because when Apostle Paul identified himself as a Jew, he meant one who was born a Hebrew that practiced the Mosaic tradition. He referred himself as a Jew during his address to a Jewish audience in Jerusalem as narrated in Acts 22:3:
“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. Under Gamaliel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are today.
Here, he associated being a Jew to the law, but he also associated being a Jew as that which one is born, as in Galatians 2:15:
“We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’
To him, it is probably inconceivable that one would be a Jew without being a Hebrew, as we can gather from his description of himself as a Hebrew in Philippians 3:5:
circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee;
The point is while the term “Jew” may be used to include those who are not born as Jews but have converted to Judaism, that is not what the apostle would have had in mind in the phrase of Romans 3:1 in being a Jew. He would mean naturally born Hebrews who are considered different from Gentiles. Hence, the first part of the question of the apostle concerns the advantage that belongs to a naturally born Hebrew person.
In the preceding section of Romans 2:28-29, the apostle focused on who is a true Jew in terms of circumcision, so it is fitting that he asked the first question not only in terms of the word “Jew” but also in terms of circumcision. Consequently, the second part of the first question is introduced with the word or. The word “or” is translated from a Greek particle (ē) that may mean “than” as a marker of comparison as Apostle Paul used it to indicate that a person who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues if the tongues are not interpreted as we read in 1 Corinthians 14:5:
I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. He who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may be edified.
The Greek particle may mean “or” as a marker of alternative. The alternative may express opposites that are mutually exclusive as, for example, “to fall” is opposite of “to stand” as the apostle used it in rebuking those who judge other believers needlessly in Romans 14:4:
Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
The alternative may express related and similar terms, where one can take the place of the other or one supplements the other as Apostle Paul used the word “obstacle” as a word that can take the place of the expression “stumbling block” in Romans 14:13:
Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way.
In our passage of Romans 3:1, the particle is used as marker of an alternative interrogative sentence since it is a fact that a Jew boasted about circumcision so that the apostle posed an alternative question that still is concerned with one that is a Jew.
Anyhow, the alternative form of the first question is given in the second part of Romans 3:1 or what value is there in circumcision? Again, the apostle’s question is elliptical since there is no verb used because literally, the Greek reads or what the value of the circumcision? The word “value” is translated from a Greek noun (ōpheleia) that means “advantage, use, benefit.” Hence, the question is concerned with the benefit of circumcision. Of course, the apostle’s question is not concerned with health benefit of circumcision. For example, today, most men in the Western World are circumcised because medical science showed the risk for cervical cancer among women is reduced if they have sexual relationship with circumcised males than uncircumcised.
The word “circumcision” is an important word in the alternative question of the apostle, so we need to review that we studied in the past about circumcision. The word “circumcision” is translated from a Greek word (peritomē) that refers to the cutting away the foreskin of male children. However, the translators of the NIV translated the word “Jews” four times in the NT. Once the word is translated “Jews” in Colossians 4:11:
Jesus, who is called Justus, also sends greetings. These are the only Jews among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have proved a comfort to me.
The word Jews of the NIV is literally of the circumcision. The other three times the translators of the NIV used the meaning “Jews” to translate our word are all in the second chapter of Apostle Paul’s epistle to the Galatians. For example, we have the translation “Jews” used in Galatians 2:7:
On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews.
The sentence Peter had been to the Jews is literally Peter to the circumcision. The believers in the early church in Jerusalem who insisted in circumcision for Gentiles was necessary for them to become saved were apparently those Apostle Paul referred as “circumcision group” that caused Peter to act hypocritically, as we read in Galatians 2:12:
Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.
The circumcision group refers to the group of Jewish Christians who still believed in the necessity of circumcision to become God’s people.
Circumcision as it relates to the Hebrews, or the Israelites goes back to the time of Abraham. It was a sign of the covenant between God and Abraham that extends to his descendants that was to take place on the eighth day of birth, as stated in Genesis 17:10–12:
10 This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring.
Since there were others that practiced circumcision, it became uniquely a requirement for the Israelites to do this on the eighth day, as reiterated in Leviticus 12:3:
On the eighth day the boy is to be circumcised.
Other groups that practiced circumcision are mentioned in Jeremiah 9:25–26:
25 “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh— 26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the desert in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”
However, in the ancient world, especially in the NT time, circumcision was that which described the Israelites or Jews as exclusive of other people. It is because circumcision uniquely characterized the Hebrew or Israelites that it was used as a rouse in the plot of Jacob’s sons in revenge for the rape of their sister Dinah by Shechem. When Shechem along with his father, Hamor, proposed marriage to Dinah, her brothers refused on the grounds that Shechem and his people were not circumcised. However, they agreed on one condition, that the people of Shechem submit to circumcision as stated in Genesis 34:14–17:
14 They said to them, “We can’t do such a thing; we can’t give our sister to a man who is not circumcised. That would be a disgrace to us. 15 We will give our consent to you on one condition only: that you become like us by circumcising all your males. 16 Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves. We’ll settle among you and become one people with you. 17 But if you will not agree to be circumcised, we’ll take our sister and go.”
We called this suggestion of Jacob’s sons a rouse because while the men were in pain suffering from circumcision effects, Simeon and Levi attacked and killed the men of the city of Shechem as stated in Genesis 34:25–26:
25 Three days later, while all of them were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting city, killing every male. 26 They put Hamor and his son Shechem to the sword and took Dinah from Shechem’s house and left.
The point is that circumcision was an outward sign of a male being a Hebrew or an Israelite that if people wanted to identify with Israel’s God, they were required to undergo circumcision. Thus, the instruction that permits an alien living in Israel to participate in celebration of the Passover concerned being subjected to circumcision as we read in Exodus 12:48–49:
48 “An alien living among you who wants to celebrate the LORD’s Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat of it. 49 The same law applies to the native-born and to the alien living among you.”
It is because of the importance of circumcision in identifying with Israel’s God that a proselyte (a non-Jewish convert who accepted the Jewish faith and completed specific rituals to become a Jew) was required to undergo circumcision. Later Jewish Rabis insisted that to enjoy the good life in the hereafter requires circumcision and lack of it with burning in the fires of Ge-Hinnom. It is because the belief of the importance of circumcision that in the Maccabean period, women had their sons circumcised even at the threat of death as implied in the Apocryphal book of 1 Maccabees 1:60–61 (NRSV):
60 According to the decree, they put to death the women who had their children circumcised, 61 and their families and those who circumcised them; and they hung the infants from their mothers’ necks.
Be that as it may, the Greek word (peritomē) translated “circumcision” in Romans 3:1 is used in two general ways in the NT. It refers to “circumcision” that is to be understood both literally and figuratively. Literally, it is used in sense of the rite of circumcision, as the word is used by the Lord Jesus Christ in His defense of His activities on Sabbaths as they referenced the fact that the Jews would circumcise on the Sabbath in John 7:22:
Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a child on the Sabbath.
Figuratively, it is used for spiritual circumcision to describe the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in a believer, as it is used by Apostle Paul in Colossians 2:11:
In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ,
The verbal phrase the circumcision done by Christ has been variously interpreted by interpreters since literally the Greek reads by the circumcision of Christ. Some take the verbal phrase to mean that the apostle was speaking of the circumcision that Christ underwent as every Jewish boy. Others say it is the circumcision of the pattern of Christ. None of these views appear to me to be correct. For there is no reason to refer to the physical circumcision of Christ when speaking of the real circumcision of the Colossians which no doubt is a spiritual one. Furthermore, the Greek syntax permits the phrase of Christ to be understood either as produced by Jesus Christ or that Christ is the source of the circumcision of the Colossians. Considering the context of Colossians 2:11 and the Bible in general, it is best to take the literal Greek phrase by the circumcision of Christ as the circumcision done by Christ. Of course, the verbal phrase the circumcision done by Christ refers to regeneration or the salvation that Christ has granted the Colossians and other believers. It is this regeneration or spiritual heart transplant that Yahweh promised Israel that will lead them to be obedient to Him as stated in Deuteronomy 30:6:
The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.
The word LORD is better translated Yahweh as the personal name of the God of Israel. This Yahweh that would circumcise the Israelites is Jesus Christ since He is the One that led Israel in the desert, and He is the Rock that Apostle Paul identified as Christ in 1 Corinthians 10:4:
and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
Another usage of the Greek word (peritomē) translated “circumcision” is for a person who is circumcised. In this usage, the word is used both literally and figuratively. Literally, the word is used to describe a Jew, as in Romans 15:8:
For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs
The phrase a servant of the Jews is literally a servant of the circumcision. Of course, since the word is used literally for a Jew, it is used to distinguish a Jew from a Gentile, as per the passage we cited previously, that is, Galatians 2:7:
On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews.
The phrase to the Gentiles is literally to the uncircumcised while the phrase to the Jews is literally to the circumcised. Apostle Paul was explicit that the term “uncircumcised” is used to describe Gentiles in Ephesians 2:11:
Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (that done in the body by the hands of men)—
The Greek word translated “circumcision” is used literally not only for Jews but also for Jews who are believers in Christ or Christians. Hence, the word is used to describe believers who are Jews that accompanied Apostle Peter when he preached the gospel to Cornelius and those assembled with him, as we read in Acts 10:45:
The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.
Figuratively, the Greek word (peritomē) translated “circumcision” in Romans 3:1 is used to describe all believers. This is the sense that Apostle Paul used it to describe believers in Christ, Jews and Gentiles, in Philippians 3:3:
For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—
Our examination of the Greek word (peritomē) translated “circumcision” in Romans 3:1 indicates that it can be used to describe an ethnic Jew as well as believers in Christ whether Jews or Gentiles. Nonetheless, in Romans 3:1, the apostle used it to mean “circumcision,” that is, the state of having been circumcised, meaning the removing of the foreskin of males. The apostle’s focus is on circumcision as it relates to being a Jew, the one carried out on the eighth day of birth of a male child. That aside, the apostle’s first question is concerned with the advantage possessed by a Jew. In application of the message of this section that we are considering, we will deal with the question of what advantages Christians have after we have finished considering the questions and answers the apostle gave in this passage of Romans 3:1-4 that we are studying.
In any case, the apostle answered the first question beginning with the phrase of Romans 3:2 Much in every way! The word “much” is translated from a Greek adjective (polys) that pertains to being a large number, hence means “many, a great number of” as Apostle Paul used it to indicate that many individuals would be made righteous because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross as we read in Romans 5:19:
For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
The word may in some contexts mean “majority” or “most” as the word is used to describe those that decided for the ship carrying Apostle Paul to Rome to proceed instead of listening to the advice of the apostle not to proceed as we read in Acts 27:12:
Since the harbor was unsuitable to winter in, the majority decided that we should sail on, hoping to reach Phoenix and winter there. This was a harbor in Crete, facing both southwest and northwest.
The word may mean “number” in the sense of undetermined quantity as it is used in Paul’s defense in referencing the period of governorship of Governor Felix over Israel as we read in Acts 24:10:
When the governor motioned for him to speak, Paul replied: “I know that for a number of years you have been a judge over this nation; so I gladly make my defense.
The word may mean “few” in reference to a number that is less than or equal to ten as in the promise of the Lord Jesus to His disciples regarding the event that would occur about ten days after His ascension as we read in Acts 1:5:
For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
The phrase in a few days should be understood to refer to about ten days from the time of this promise. This use of the phrase “about ten days” is based on the fact that the Lord Jesus was with His disciples for forty days following His resurrection as stated in Acts 1:3:
After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.
The promise was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost as implied in Acts 2:1–4:
1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Pentecost is the fiftieth day, counted from the first day after the Sabbath of the Passover as indicated in Leviticus 23:15–16:
15 “‘From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. 16 Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD.
Jesus Christ rose from death on the first day of the week that is the day after the Sabbath and He was with His disciples for forty days, so if we remove forty from fifty, we have ten hence our assertion that phrase in a few days in Acts 1:5 should be understood to refer to about ten days. This aside, in our passage of Romans 3:2, the Greek word we are considering has the sense of “much,” that is, “a great amount or extent; a lot.” In other words, the apostle used the word to indicate that there are a lot of advantages that belong to the Jews since he added the phrase of Romans 3:2 in every way!
The word “way” is translated from a Greek noun (tropos) that may mean “manner, way, fashion,” that is, the manner in which something is done as the word is used by Apostle Paul to caution the Thessalonians about being deceived in any fashion regarding the Second Coming of Christ as recorded in 2 Thessalonians 2:3:
Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.
The word may mean the way in which a person behaves or lives and so means “ways, customs, kind of life” as the word is used by the human author of Hebrews to instruct believers to live a life that is free from love of money as stated in Hebrews 13:5:
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
In our passage of Romans 3:2, the word means “way or respect.” Hence, the apostle conveyed that there are in many ways or respects a Jew possesses advantage over a Gentile although the word Gentile is not directly used in our verse.
Apostle Paul began his assertion regarding the advantage that belongs or that is possessed by a Jew with the phrase of Romans 3:2 First of all. Literally, the Greek simply reads for first, indeed. The expression “first of all” is how the translators of the NIV rendered a Greek word (prōton) with two general meanings. The first pertains to being first in a sequence, inclusive of time, set (number), or space. When used of time it may mean “first” as an adjective as Apostle Paul used it in his acknowledgment of the participation of the Philippians in his ministry of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ as stated in Philippians 1:5:
because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
As an adverb, the word in this first general usage may mean “after” as Apostle Paul used it to inform believers in Rome of his intention to visit them on his proposed journey to Spain as we read in Romans 15:24:
I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to visit you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while.
The second general meaning of the Greek word pertains to prominence. So, it may mean “most important” as in the question of one of the teachers of the law directed to Jesus Christ regarding the most important of all the commandments as we read in Mark 12:28:
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
The word may be used as adverb of degree with the meaning “in the first place, above all” as Apostle Peter used it as he described how we got our Scripture in 2 Peter 1:20:
Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation.
In our passage of Romans 3:2, the word is used with the meaning “firstly,” that is, “before anything else” so that the apostle conveyed the degree of importance to what he states especially since he used a Greek particle (men) that in this verse, although not directly translated in the NIV, is used for emphasis since that particle could mean “indeed.” Thus, the apostle describes the most important thing that belongs to a Jew or the Jewish people as a group.
In any case, the apostle stated what is the most important or most significant about the advantage that belongs to a Jew. It is this that he stated in the next sentence of Romans 3:2 they have been entrusted with the very words of God. What is it that the apostle meant in this advantage? We are out of time, so we will answer this question in our next study. Nonetheless, let me remind you of the message we stated regarding our passage which is You have the privilege of God’s word in written form and are the beneficiary of His faithfulness.
01/23/26