D. All mankind found guilty (3:9–20)
D. All mankind found guilty (3:9–20)
‘Well then,’ the interlocutor proceeds, ‘you have said that it is an advantage to belong to the Jewish nation. Does it not follow that we Jews are superior to those Gentiles who lack the privileges we enjoy?’ ‘No indeed,’ says Paul; ‘we may have received greater advantages, but we are in fact in no better case than they are. They have sinned, it is true; but then, so have we. All, Jews and Gentiles alike, are bound to plead guilty before the bar of God. The situation is well summed up in the words of Scripture.’
Here Paul adduces a catena of Old Testament quotations in which the general sinfulness of humanity is summed up. The catena comes in here to clinch a case already established by various arguments. If the quotations were examined one by one, it would be necessary to relate them to their historical contexts; some at least of them had a particular rather than a universal reference. But the general picture which they here present rounds off the case which Paul has been building up. And if he supposes an objection to his use of these quotations, the objection is not that he has detached them from their historical contexts, but that they refer to the wicked Gentiles only, not to Israel. ‘No,’ he replies, ‘these quotations are taken from the Jewish Scriptures, and therefore the people whom they have primarily in view are Jews.’ What is written in the law (here meaning the Hebrew Bible as a whole) applies naturally to the people of the law. The law brings out men and women’s sinfulness but does nothing to cure it. Jews as well as Gentiles, then, have to confess themselves morally bankrupt. If there is any hope for either group, it can be found only in the mercy of God and not in any claim that individuals or nations may try to establish on him. Because of the universal fact of sin, the way of acceptance with God by reason of our works of righteousness is closed—the notice is clearly worded: ‘No Road This Way.’
9. No, not at all. There is a prima facie clash between this answer to ‘Are we Jews any better off?’ and the answer in verse 2 to ‘Then what advantage has the Jew?’—‘Much in every way.’ But that earlier answer had reference to the privileges inherited by Jews as members of the elect nation; ‘No, not at all’ relates to their standing before God. Privileges or no privileges, Jews and Gentiles stand equally in need of his grace. N. A. Dahl omits ‘No, not at all’ (following the uncial P) and takes the preceding question to mean ‘What do we hold before us as a defence?’ (answer: ‘Nothing; we are all alike held fast by sin’).13
10–12. ‘None is righteous … no one does good, not even one.’ Quoted from Psalm 14:1c, 2b–3 (repeated in Ps. 53:1c, 2b–3).
13. ‘Their throat is an open grave, they use their tongues to deceive.’ Quoted from Psalm 5:9.
14. ‘Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.’ Quoted from Psalm 10:7.
15–17. ‘Their feet are swift to shed blood … the way of peace they do not know.’ Quoted from Isaiah 59:7–8.
18. ‘There is no fear of God before their eyes.’ Quoted from Psalm 36:1.
19. Whatever the law says. The reference is to the preceding quotations; but since none of them is taken from the Law in the stricter sense (the Pentateuch)—they are all drawn from the Psalter, with one exception, which comes from Isaiah—‘law’ here must mean the Hebrew Scriptures in general. See pp. 60f.
20. No human being will be justified in his sight by works of the law. A free quotation and amplification of Psalm 143:2, ‘(Enter not into judgment with thy servant [cf. Ps. 51:4, quoted in verse 4 above]; for) no man living is righteous before thee.’ Cf. Galatians 2:16 (‘a man is not justified by works of the law’); 3:11 (‘no man is justified before God by the law’). Paul adds the reason why no-one can be justified in God’s sight ‘by works of the law’; it is that through the law comes knowledge of sin. This affirmation is repeated and expanded in 5:20; 7:7–11