Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans John Calvin
Chapter
Romans 10:1-4
Romans 10:1-4
1. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
1. Fratres, benevolentia certe cordis mei, et deprecatio ad Deum super Israel, est in salutem.
2. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
2. Testimonium enim reddo illis, quod zelum Dei habent, sed non secundum scientiam:
3. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
3. Ignorantes enim Dei justitiam, et propriam justitiam quaerentes statuere, justitiae Dei subjecti non fuerunt;
4. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
4. Finis enim Legis Christus in justitiam omni credenti. 318
1. We here see with what solicitude the holy man obviated offenses; for in order to soften whatever sharpness there may have been in his manner of explaining the rejection of the Jews, he still testifies, as before, his goodwill towards them, and proves it by the effect; for their salvation was an object of concern to him before the Lord, and such a feeling arises only from genuine love. It may be at the same time that he was also induced by another reason to testify his love towards the nation from which he had sprung; for his doctrine would have never been received by the Jews had they thought that he was avowedly inimical to them; and his defection would have been also suspected by the Gentiles, for they would have thought, as we have said in the last chapter, that he became an apostate from the law through his hatred of men. 319
318The {γὰρ}, "for," at the beginning of Romans 10:4, connects it with the latter part of the preceding, as the {γὰρ}, "for," in the preceding connects it with the latter part of Romans 10:2; and {γὰρ} also in Romans 10:5 expresses a reason for what Romans 10:4 contains. So that we have a regular chain; the following sentence gives a reason for the one immediately preceding in four instances. — Ed.
319Calvin's Latin for this verse is: "Fratres, benevolentia certe cordis mei et deprecatio ad Deum super Israel est in salutem — Brethren, the goodwill indeed of my heart and prayer to God for Israel is for their salvation." The word for "goodwill," {εὐδοκία}, means a kind disposition towards another, it means here a benevolent or a sincere desire, or, according to Theophylact,