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Romans

About this book
Chapter 2

1 Therefore you are without excuse, whoever you are, when you judge someone else. For on whatever grounds you judge another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge practice the same things. 2 Now we know that God’s judgment is in accordance with truth against those who practice such things. 3 And do you think, whoever you are, when you judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape God’s judgment? 4 Or do you have contempt for the wealth of his kindness, forbearance, and patience, and yet do not know that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?⁠ 5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourselves in the day of wrath,⁠ when God’s righteous judgment is revealed!⁠ 6 He will reward each one according to his works:⁠ 7 eternal life to those who by perseverance in good works seek glory and honor and immortality, 8 but wrath and anger to those who live in selfish ambition and do not obey the truth but follow unrighteousness. 9 There will be affliction and distress on everyone who does evil, on the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, for the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For there is no partiality with God.⁠ 12 For all who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous before God, but those who do the law will be declared righteous.⁠ 14 For whenever the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things required by the law, these who do not have the law are a law to themselves.⁠ 15 They show that the work of the law is written in their hearts, as their conscience bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or else defend them,⁠ 16 on the day when God will judge the secrets of human hearts, according to my gospel through Christ Jesus. 17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of your relationship to God 18 and know his will and approve the superior things because you receive instruction from the law, 19 and if you are convinced that you yourself are a guide to the blind,⁠ a light to those who are in darkness, 20 an educator of the senseless, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the essential features of knowledge and of the truth— 21 therefore you who teach someone else, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who tell others not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by transgressing the law!⁠ 24 For just as it is written, “the name of God is being blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”⁠ 25 For circumcision has its value if you practice the law,⁠ but if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26 Therefore if the uncircumcised man obeys the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 And the physically uncircumcised man, by keeping the law, will judge you to be the transgressor of the law, even though you have the letter and circumcision! 28 For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something that is outward in the flesh, 29 but someone is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart by the Spirit and not by the letter.⁠ This person’s praise is not from people but from God.

Texts in conversation

Compare Romans 2:4 and Jonathan Habakkuk 3:2

New Testament · Targum

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Summary

The Aramaic translation of Habakkuk 3 in Targum Jonathan interprets it about delayed judgment, portraying God giving the unrighteous time to repent. In Romans, Paul similarly teaches that divine patience is meant to lead to repentance.

Passages

Romans 2:4

New Testament
2 Now we know that God’s judgment is in accordance with truth against those who practice such things. 3 And do you think, whoever you are, when you judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape God’s judgment? 4 Or do you have contempt for the wealth of his kindness, forbearance, and patience, and yet do not know that God’s kindness leads you to repentance? 5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourselves in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed! 6 He will reward each one according to his works:
55–58 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Romans

Jonathan Habakkuk 3:2

Targum
2 Lord I have heard of your power, I have feared the greatness of your works. You give a respite to the wicked if they convert to your Law. But if they do not convert but provoke your anger in the midst of the years you have given them to live, then it will be that you make your power known in the midst of the years when you have said that you will renew the world and will take vengeance on the wicket who have transgressed your word. But with mercy you will remember the righteous who have done your will. 3 When God gave the Law to His people, He was revealed from the South and the Holy one from Mount Paran. The heavens were opened through eternal power at the splendor of His glory, and the earth was full of the words of His praise.
200–300 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jonathan Habakkuk

References

"... In this connection we cannot avoid the discussion of the early Christian interpretation of Habakkuk 3:2 because the text has played a significant role in Christological argumentations. The earliest Christian interpretation of Habakkuk 3:2 is presented in Irenaeus’s Adversus haereses III 16,7. He quotes the latter part of the Septuagint translation of the verse (“By this Thou shalt be known when the years have drawn nigh; Thou shalt be set forth when the time comes; because my soul is disturbed by anger, Thou shalt remember Thy mercy”) and argues that the life, passion and death of Jesus were preordained by God ... Origen connects Habakkuk 3:2 with Isaiah 6:3 and uses them both as arguments for Christology and, in fact, also for the Holy Triad. Second he is dependent on some early Jewish-Christian material which was mediated for him by his Hebrew Master and which clearly represents an orthodox variant of Christology. That Origen has transmitted an early Jewish Christian interpretation of Habakkuk 3:2 in De Principiis seems reasonable because in his Commentary on Romans (III 8,2–8) he interprets Habakkuk 3:2 otherwise by connecting the verse to Exodus 25:22 and argues – as we have done here – that the two living creatures refer to Cherubim on the Ark. Only then does he make his own Christological implications by emphasizing that at this time the mercy-seat (Romans 3:25) is Jesus and the Word and the Spirit representing Cherubim manifesting themselves in and through Jesus. That Habakkuk 3:2 has played a central role in Christian mission proclamation in the area of Jerusalem receives support from the sermons of Cyril of Jerusalem who refers to this text in his Catechetical Lectures ..."
Antti Laato, “Yahweh Manifests Himself between Two Cherubim: An Approach to the Reception History of Hab 3:2,” in Encounters in Past and Present: Contributions to the Conversation; A Festschrift for the 60th Birthday of Martin Tamcke, ed. Claudia Rammelt et al. (Berlin: LIT Verlag Dr. W. Hopf, 2015), 55–64.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Romans 2:4 and Jonathan Habakkuk 3:2

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