Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Romans · About this commentary
You Bear the Name of a Jew
Romans 2:17-20
17 Indeed you bear the name of a Jew, rest on the law, glory in God, · WEB
The privileges are listed without irony — five verbs of advantage and four titles of office — and every one of them is real.
Indeed you bear the name of a Jew, rest on the law, glory in God, know his will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law.
The indictment of the moralist now becomes specific, and Paul begins with an inventory of privileges — every item of which he grants as genuine. The name itself, carried as an honor. Resting on the law: possessing revelation, a settled place to stand while the nations guess. Glorying in God: knowing the true God by covenant name while the world trades his glory for images Romans 1:23. Knowing his will — not inferring it from sunsets but reading it. Approving the things that are excellent: the trained moral palate that discriminates finely, formed by lifelong instruction.
None of this is sarcasm. Paul will say in his own voice that the Jew's advantage is much in every way Romans 3:1–2, and will list the privileges of Israel with tears rather than irony Romans 9:4–5. The gifts are real; that is exactly what gives the coming charge its force.
Then the four titles of office, and they climb: a guide of the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of babies — having in the law the form of knowledge and of the truth.
The titles are Israel's actual vocation, given at calling: a light to the nations, a kingdom of priests. Paul does not mock the job description; the servant songs wrote it. And the last phrase concedes the most: in the law they really do possess the form — the embodiment, the outline — of knowledge and of the truth. The teacher has the right textbook.
The paragraph simply stops there, mid-sentence in effect, with the résumé complete and glowing — because the letter's method is to let privilege state its full case before asking the one question privilege cannot survive Romans 2:21. Advantage was never the issue. What was done with it is, and the next verses turn the teacher's own syllabus on the teacher.
settled What this mark means