Romans Chapter 10 verse 2 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerses 2, 3. - For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God. For ζῆλον Θεοῦ, meaning zeal for God, cf. John 2:17; Acts 22:3; Galatians 1:14. The word ζῆλος was commonly used for the religious ardour of the Jews at that time (cf. Acts 21:20, Πάντες ζηλωταὶ τοῦ νόμου ὑπάρχουσι), and there was a faction among them called distinctively Ζηλωταὶ, to which Simon Zelotes (Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13) is supposed to have belonged originally. St. Paul's mention of the religious zeal of the Jews of his day is apposite in this place. In Romans 9:1-5, where he was about to speak of their rejection from the inheritance of the promises, he appropriately dwelt on their ancient privileges; here, where he has in view their own failure to respond to God's purpose for them, he as appropriately refers to their undoubted zeal, which he regrets should be misdirected. But not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of (ἀγνοοῦντες, in explanation of οὐ κατ ἐπίγνωσιν preceding) God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own (righteousness, repeated here, is ill supported), they have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. For the meaning of God's righteousness, opposed to man's own righteousness, see on Romans 3:19, 20; also on Romans 1:17, and Introduction.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(2) A zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.--It would be difficult to find a more happy description of the state of the Jews at this period. They had "a zeal for God." "The Jew," said Josephus, "knows the Law better than his own name . . . The sacred rules were punctually observed . . . The great feasts were frequented by countless thousands . . . Over and above the requirements of the Law, ascetic religious exercises advocated by the teachers of the Law came into vogue. . . . Even the Hellenised and Alexandrian Jews under Caligula died on the cross and by fire, and the Palestinian prisoners in the last war died by the claws of African lions in the amphitheatre, rather than sin against the Law. What Greek," exclaims Josephus, "would do the like? . . . The Jews also exhibited an ardent zeal for the conversion of the Gentiles to the Law of Moses. The proselytes filled Asia Minor and Syria, and--to the indignation of Tacitus--Italy and Rome." The tenacity of the Jews, and their uncompromising monotheism, were seen in some conspicuous examples. In the early part of his procuratorship, Pilate, seeking to break through their known repugnance to everything that savoured of image-worship, had introduced into Jerusalem ensigns surmounted with silver busts of the emperor. Upon this the people went down in a body to Caesarea, waited for five days and nights in the market-place, bared their necks to the soldiers that Pilate sent in among them, and did not desist until the order for the removal of the ensigns had been given. Later he caused to be hung up in the palace at Jerusalem certain gilded shields bearing a dedicatory inscription to Tiberius. Then, again, the Jews did not rest until, by their complaints addressed directly to the emperor, they had succeeded in getting them taken down. The consternation that was caused by Caligula's order for the erection of his own statue in the Temple is well known. None of the Roman governors dared to carry it into execution; and Caligula himself was slain before it could be accomplished.Justice must be done to the heroic spirit of the Jews. But it was zeal directed into the most mistaken channels. Their religion was legal and formal to the last degree. Under an outward show of punctilious obedience, it concealed all the inward corruption described by the Apostle in Romans 2:17-29, the full extent of which was seen in the horrors of the great insurrection and the siege of Jerusalem.