2 For I bear them witness that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
And they having heard [it] glorified God, and said to him, Thou seest, brother, how many myriads there are of the Jews who have believed, and all are zealous of the law.
And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in full knowledge and all intelligence,
But Israel, pursuing after a law of righteousness, has not attained to [that] law. Wherefore? Because [it was] not on the principle of faith, but as of works. They have stumbled at the stumblingstone,
in whom the god of this world has blinded the thoughts of the unbelieving, so that the radiancy of the glad tidings of the glory of the Christ, who is [the] image of God, should not shine forth [for them].
They are not rightly zealous after you, but desire to shut you out [from us], that ye may be zealous after them. But [it is] right to be zealous at all times in what is right, and not only when I am present with you --
What then [was] your blessedness? for I bear you witness that, if possible, plucking out your own eyes ye would have given [them] to me.
For according to [their] power, I bear witness, and beyond [their] power, [they were] willing of their own accord,
Because [it is] the God who spoke that out of darkness light should shine who has shone in our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in [the] face of [Jesus] Christ.
*I* indeed myself thought that I ought to do much against the name of Jesus the Nazaraean. Which also I did in Jerusalem, and myself shut up in prisons many of the saints, having received the authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death I gave my vote.
And they heard him until this word, and lifted up their voice, saying, Away with such a one as that from the earth, for it was not fit he should live.
crying, Israelites, help! this is the man who teaches all everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place, and has brought Greeks too into the temple, and profaned this holy place.
Also that a person be without knowledge is not good; and he that hasteth with his feet maketh false steps.
and said, Come with me, and see my zeal for Jehovah. So they made him ride in his chariot.
In that day Jehovah, with his sore and great and strong sword, will visit leviathan the fleeing serpent, and leviathan the crooked serpent; and he will slay the monster that is in the sea.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Romans 10
Commentary on Romans 10 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 10
The dissolving of the peculiar church-state of the Jews, and the rejection of that polity by the repealing of their ceremonial law, the vacating of all the institutions of it, the abolishing of their priesthood, the burning of their temple, and the taking away of their place and nation, and in their room the substituting and erecting of a catholic church-state among the Gentile nations, though to us, now that these things have long since been done and completed, they may seem no great matter, yet to those who lived when they were doing, who knew how high the Jews had stood in God's favour, and how deplorable the condition of the Gentile world had been for many ages, it appeared very great and marvellous, and a mystery hard to be understood. The apostle, in this chapter, as in the foregoing and that which follows, is explaining and proving it; but with several very useful digressions, which a little interrupt the thread of his discourse. To two great truths I would reduce this chapter:-
Rom 10:1-11
The scope of the apostle in this part of the chapter is to show the vast difference between the righteousness of the law and the righteousness of faith, and the great pre-eminence of the righteousness of faith above that of the law; that he might induce and persuade the Jews to believe in Christ, aggravate the folly and sin of those that refused, and justify God in the rejection of such refusers.
Rom 10:12-21
The first words express the design of the apostle through these verses, that there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, but they stand upon the same level in point of acceptance with God. In Jesus Christ there is neither Greek nor Jews, Col. 3:11. God doth not save any nor reject any because they are Jews, nor because they are Greeks, but doth equally accept both upon gospel terms: There is no difference. For the proof of this he urges two arguments:-