Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans John Calvin
Chapter 3
CHAPTER 3
Romans 3:1-2
Romans 3:1-2
1. What advantage 87 then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
1. Quae igitur praerogativa Iudaei, aut quae utilitas circumcisionis? 2. Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
2. Multa per omnem modem; ac primum quidem, quod illis credits sunt oracula Dei.
1. Though Paul has clearly proved that bare circumcision brought nothing to the Jews, yet since he could not deny but that there was some difference between the Gentiles and the Jews, which by that symbol was sealed to them by the Lord, and since it was inconsistent to make a distinction, of which God was the author, void and of no moment, it remained for him to remove also this objection. It was indeed evident, that it was a foolish glorying in which the Jews on this account indulged; yet still a doubt remained as to the design of circumcision; for the Lord would not have appointed it had not some benefit been intended. He therefore, by way of an objection, asks, what it was that made the Jew superior to the Gentile; and he subjoins a reason for this by another question, What is the benefit of circumcision? For this separated the Jews from the common class of men; it was a partition-wall, as Paul calls ceremonies, which kept parties asunder.
2. Much in every way, etc.; that is, very much. He begins here to give the sacrament its own praise; but he concedes not, that on this account the Jews ought to have been proud; for when he teaches that they were sealed by the symbol of circumcision, by which they were counted the children of God, he does not allow that they became superior to others through any merit or worthiness of their own, but through the free mercy of God. If then regard be had to them as men, he shows that they were on a level with others; but if the favors of God be taken to the account, he admits that they possessed what made them more eminent than other men.
— prerogative," {τὸ} {περισσὸν}, rendered "pre-eminence" by Macknight; "præstantia — superiority" by Beza and Pareus; and "advantage" in our version, and by Doddridge and Stuart. — Ed.