{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"ROM","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Romans","commonName":"Romans","introduction":"THE GENUINENESS of the Epistle to the Romans has never been questioned. It has the unbroken testimony of all antiquity, up to CLEMENT OF ROME, the apostle's \"fellow laborer in the Gospel, whose name was in the Book of Life\" (Phi 4:3), and who quotes from it in his undoubted Epistle to the Corinthians, written before the close of the first century. The most searching investigations of modern criticism have left it untouched.\n\nWHEN and WHERE this Epistle was written we have the means of determining with great precision, from the Epistle itself compared with the Acts of the Apostles. Up to the date of it the apostle had never been at Rome (Rom 1:11, Rom 1:13, Rom 1:15). He was then on the eve of visiting Jerusalem with a pecuniary contribution for its Christian poor from the churches of Macedonia and Achaia, after which his purpose was to pay a visit to Rome on his way to Spain (Rom 15:23-28). Now this contribution we know that he carried with him from Corinth, at the close of his third visit to that city, which lasted three months (Act 20:2-3; Act 24:17). On this occasion there accompanied him from Corinth certain persons whose names are given by the historian of the Acts (Act 20:4), and four of these are expressly mentioned in our Epistle as being with the apostle when he wrote it--Timotheus, Sosipater, Gaius, and Erastus (Rom 16:21, Rom 16:23). Of these four, the third, Gaius, was an inhabitant of Corinth (Co1 1:14), and the fourth, Erastus, was \"chamberlain of the city\" (Rom 16:23), which can hardly be supposed to be other than Corinth. Finally, Phœbebe, the bearer, as appears, of this Epistle, was a deaconess of the Church at Cenchrea, the eastern port of Corinth (Rom 16:1). Putting these facts together, it is impossible to resist the conviction, in which all critics agree, that Corinth was the place from which the Epistle was written, and that it was despatched about the close of the visit above mentioned, probably in the early spring of the year 58. The FOUNDER of this celebrated church is unknown. That it owed its origin to the apostle Peter, and that he was its first bishop, though an ancient tradition and taught in the Church of Rome as a fact not to be doubted, is refuted by the clearest evidence, and is given up even by candid Romanists. On that supposition, how are we to account for so important a circumstance being passed by in silence by the historian of the Acts, not only in the narrative of Peter's labors, but in that of Paul's approach to the metropolis, of the deputations of Roman \"brethren\" that came as far as Appii Forum and the Three Taverns to meet him, and of his two years' labors there (Act 28:15, Act 28:30)? And how, consistently with his declared principle--not to build on another man's foundation (Rom 15:20) --could he express his anxious desire to come to them that he might have some fruit among them also, even as among other Gentiles (Rom 1:13), if all the while he knew that they had the apostle of the circumcision for their spiritual father? And how, if so, is there no salutation to Peter among the many in this Epistle? or, if it may be thought that he was known to be elsewhere at that particular time, how does there occur in all the Epistles which our apostle afterwards wrote from Rome not one allusion to such an origin of the church at Rome? The same considerations would seem to prove that this church owed its origin to no prominent Christian laborer; and this brings us to the much-litigated question.\n\nFor WHAT CLASS of Christians was this Epistle principally designed--Jewish or Gentile? That a large number of Jews and Jewish proselytes resided at this time at Rome is known to all who are familiar with the classical and Jewish writers of that and the immediately subsequent periods; and that those of them who were at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost (Act 2:10), and formed probably part of the three thousand converts of that day, would on their return to Rome carry the glad tidings with them, there can be no doubt. Nor are indications wanting that some of those embraced in the salutations of this Epistle were Christians already of long standing, if not among the earliest converts to the Christian faith. Others of them who had made the apostle's acquaintance elsewhere, and who, if not indebted to him for their first knowledge of Christ, probably owed much to his ministrations, seemed to have charged themselves with the duty of cherishing and consolidating the work of the Lord in the capital. And thus it is not improbable that up to the time of the apostle's arrival the Christian community at Rome had been dependent upon subordinate agency for the increase of its numbers, aided by occasional visits of stated preachers from the provinces; and perhaps it may be gathered from the salutations of the last chapter that it was up to that time in a less organized, though far from less flourishing state, than some other churches to whom the apostle had already addressed Epistles. Certain it is, that the apostle writes to them expressly as a Gentile Church (Rom 1:13, Rom 1:15; Rom 15:15-16); and though it is plain that there were Jewish Christians among them, and the whole argument presupposes an intimate acquaintance on the part of his readers with the leading principles of the Old Testament, this will be sufficiently explained by supposing that the bulk of them, having before they knew the Lord been Gentile proselytes to the Jewish faith, had entered the pale of the Christian Church through the gate of the ancient economy.\n\nIt remains only to speak briefly of the PLAN and CHARACTER Of this Epistle. Of all the undoubted Epistles of our apostle, this is the most elaborate, and at the same time the most glowing. It has just as much in common with a theological treatise as is consistent with the freedom and warmth of a real letter. Referring to the headings which we have prefixed to its successive sections, as best exhibiting the progress of the argument and the connection of its points, we here merely note that its first great topic is what may be termed the legal relation of man to God as a violator of His holy law, whether as merely written on the heart, as in the case of the heathen, or, as in the case of the Chosen People, as further known by external revelation; that it next treats of that legal relation as wholly reversed through believing connection with the Lord Jesus Christ; and that its third and last great topic is the new life which accompanies this change of relation, embracing at once a blessedness and a consecration to God which, rudimentally complete already, will open, in the future world, into the bliss of immediate and stainless fellowship with God. The bearing of these wonderful truths upon the condition and destiny of the Chosen People, to which the apostle next comes, though it seem but the practical application of them to his kinsmen according to the flesh, is in some respects the deepest and most difficult part of the whole Epistle, carrying us directly to the eternal springs of Grace to the guilty in the sovereign love and inscrutable purposes of God; after which, however, we are brought back to the historical platform of the visible Church, in the calling of the Gentiles, the preservation of a faithful Israelitish remnant amidst the general unbelief and fall of the nation, and the ultimate recovery of all Israel to constitute, with the Gentiles in the latter day, one catholic Church of God upon earth. The remainder of the Epistle is devoted to sundry practical topics, winding up with salutations and outpourings of heart delightfully suggestive. \n\n\n\nNext: Romans Chapter 1\n\n","order":45,"numberOfChapters":16,"sha256":"b8a602d2ed3395e50b3ee5f84c6c9c736a6e21b7c0aabb38a28263eef72f3b6d","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ROM/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ROM","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":16,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ROM/16.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ROM","chapter":16},"totalNumberOfVerses":385},"chapter":{"number":2,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["treasurest up unto thyself wrath against--rather \"in.\" \n\nthe day of wrath--that is wrath to come on thee in the day of wrath. What an awful idea is here expressed--that the sinner himself is amassing, like hoarded treasure, an ever accumulating stock of divine wrath, to burst upon him in \"the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God!\" And this is said not of the reckless, but of those who boasted of their purity of faith and life.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["To them who, &c.--The substance of these verses is that the final judgment will turn upon character alone. \n\nby patient continuance in well-doing, &c.--Compare Luk 8:15 : \"That on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience\"; denoting the enduring and progressive character of the new life.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, &c.--referring to such keen and determined resistance to the Gospel as he himself had too painfully witnessed on the part of his own countrymen. (See Act 13:44-46; Act 17:5, Act 17:13; Act 18:6, Act 18:12; and compare Th1 2:15-16). \n\nindignation and wrath--in the bosom of a sin-avenging God.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["Tribulation and anguish--the effect of these in the sinner himself.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["to the Jew first--first in perdition if unfaithful; but if obedient to the truth, first in salvation (Rom 2:10).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["For as many as have sinned--not \"as many as have sinned at all,\" but, \"as many as are found in sin\" at the judgment of the great day (as the whole context shows). \n\nwithout law--that is, without the advantage of a positive Revelation. \n\nshall also perish without law--exempt from the charge of rejecting or disregarding it. \n\nand as many as have sinned in the law--within the pale of a positive, written Revelation. \n\nshall be judged by the law--tried and condemned by the higher standard of that written Revelation.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["For not the hearers, &c.--As touching the Jews, in whose ears the written law is continually resounding, the condemnation of as many of them as are found sinners at the last involves no difficulty; but even as respects the heathen, who are strangers to the law in its positive and written form--since they show how deeply it is engraven on their moral nature, which witnesses within them for righteousness and against iniquity, accusing or condemning them according as they violate or obey its stern dictates--their condemnation also for all the sin in which they live and die will carry its dreadful echo in their own breasts.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing--that is, perhaps by turns doing both.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["In the day, &c.--Here the unfinished statement of Rom 2:12 is resumed and closed. \n\nshall judge the secrets of men--here specially referring to the unfathomed depths of hypocrisy in the self-righteous whom the apostle had to deal with. (See Ecc 12:14; Co1 4:5). \n\naccording to my gospel--to my teaching as a preacher of the Gospel.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["Behold--\"But if\" is, beyond doubt, the true reading here. (It differs but in a single letter from the received reading, and the sense is the same).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["approvest the things that are excellent--\"triest the things that differ\" (Margin). Both senses are good, and indeed the former is but the result of the latter action. (See on Phi 1:10).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law--not being left, as the heathen are, to vague conjecture on divine things, but favored with definite and precise information from heaven.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["thou that abhorrest idols--as the Jews did ever after their captivity, though bent on them before. \n\ndost thou commit sacrilege?--not, as some excellent interpreters, \"dost thou rob idol temples?\" but more generally, as we take it, \"dost thou profane holy things?\" (as in Mat 21:12-13, and in other ways).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["as it is written--(See Isa 52:5, Marginal reference).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["For circumcision--that is, One's being within the covenant of which circumcision was the outward sign and seal. \n\nverily profiteth, if thou keep the law--if the inward reality correspond to the outward sign. \n\nbut if, &c.--that is, \"Otherwise, thou art no better than the uncircumcised heathen.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the . . . law, &c.--Two mistaken interpretations, we think, are given of these words: First, that the case here supposed is an impossible one, and put merely for illustration [HALDANE, CHALMERS, HODGE]; second that it is the case of the heathen who may and do please God when they act, as has been and is done, up to the light of nature [GROTIUS, OLSHAUSEN, &c.]. The first interpretation is, in our judgment, unnatural; the second, opposed to the apostle's own teaching. But the case here put is, we think, such as that of Cornelius (Acts 10:1-48), who, though outside the external pale of God's covenant, yet having come to the knowledge of the truths contained in it, do manifest the grace of the covenant without the seal of it, and exemplify the character and walk of Abraham's children, though not called by the name of Abraham. Thus, this is but another way of announcing that God was about to show the insufficiency of the mere badge of the Abrahamic covenant, by calling from among the Gentiles a seed of Abraham that had never received the seal of circumcision (see on Gal 5:6); and this interpretation is confirmed by all that follows.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":28,"content":["he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, &c.--In other words, the name of \"Jew\" and the rite of \"circumcision\" were designed but as outward symbols of a separation from the irreligious and ungodly world unto holy devotedness in heart and life to the God of salvation. Where this is realized, the signs are full of significance; but where it is not, they are worse than useless.\n\nNote, (1) It is a sad mark of depravity when all that is designed and fitted to melt only hardens the heart (Rom 2:4, and compare Pe2 3:9; Ecc 8:11). (2) Amidst all the inequalities of religious opportunity measured out to men, and the mysterious bearing of this upon their character and destiny for eternity, the same great principles of judgment, in a form suited to their respective discipline, will be applied to all, and perfect equity will be seen to reign throughout every stage of the divine administration (Rom 2:11-16). (3) \"The law written on the heart\" (Rom 2:14-15) --or the Ethics of Natural Theology--may be said to be the one deep foundation on which all revealed religion reposes; and see on Rom 1:19-20, where we have what we may call its other foundation--the Physics and Metaphysics of Natural Theology. The testimony of these two passages is to the theologian invaluable, while in the breast of every teachable Christian it wakens such deep echoes as are inexpressibly solemn and precious. (4) High religious professions are a fearful aggravation of the inconsistencies of such as make them (Rom 2:17-24). See Sa2 12:14. (5) As no external privileges, or badge of discipleship, will shield the unholy from the wrath of God, so neither will the want of them shut out from the kingdom of heaven such as have experienced without them that change of heart which the seals of God's covenant were designed to mark. In the sight of the great Searcher of hearts, the Judge of quick and dead, the renovation of the character in heart and life is all in all. In view of this, have not all baptized, sacramented disciples of the Lord Jesus, who \"profess that they know God, but in works deny Him,\" need to tremble--who, under the guise of friends, are \"the enemies of the cross of Christ?\"\n\n\n\n\nNext: Romans Chapter 3\n\n"]}],"introduction":"THE JEW UNDER LIKE CONDEMNATION WITH THE GENTILE. (Rom. 2:1-29)\n\nthe goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance--that is, is designed and adapted to do so.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ROM/2.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ROM","chapter":2},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ROM/3.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ROM","chapter":3},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ROM/1.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ROM","chapter":1},"numberOfVerses":17}