A Near Word for Every People

In 9:3 “my brethren” meant Israel; here “Brethren” turns back to the believers in Rome, and Israel becomes the subject of prayer instead. “Heart’s desire” is eudokia, good pleasure, a word more often used of God’s own will (Ephesians 1:5). “Prayer” is deesis, a specific request rather than prayer in general.

“I bear them record” is courtroom language: Paul testifies for the defence. He knew the zeal from inside. In Acts 22:3 he tells a Jerusalem crowd he “was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day”, and Philippians 3:6 lists “concerning zeal, persecuting the church”. “Knowledge” is epignosis, recognition that is precise and personal.

“Ignorant” is agnoeo, not knowing, a play on the knowledge of verse 2. “Establish” is histemi, to make something stand, as one sets up a monument. “Submitted themselves” uses hypotasso, the verb of 8:7, where the mind of the flesh “is not subject to the law of God”.

The Greek puts the key word first: “end of the law is Christ.” Romans has already used telos twice, in 6:21–22, for the outcome a way of life arrives at: death, then everlasting life. “Every one” is pas, the word that will carry verses 11 to 13.

Leviticus 18:5, from the chapter that sets Israel’s ways apart from “the doings of the land of Egypt” and of Canaan. Paul used the same line in Galatians 3:12. Moses “describeth”, literally writes, the righteousness of the law, while in the next verse the righteousness of faith speaks aloud.

“Say not in thine heart” is not from Deuteronomy 30 but from Deuteronomy 9:4, where Moses warns Israel not to think, “For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land.” Paul prefaces Moses’ words about nearness with Moses’ own warning against self-credit. The bracketed “that is” is a Jewish way of commenting line by line.

Deuteronomy 30:13 asks who will cross the sea. Paul says “the deep”, abyssos, the word for the underworld, which the demons dread in Luke 8:31. An Aramaic paraphrase of Deuteronomy, Targum Neofiti, also bends this verse toward the depths, imagining a Jonah who might go down into the great sea.

Deuteronomy 30:14 ends “that thou mayest do it”; Paul stops before those words. “Word” is rhema, the spoken word, the same term as “the word of God” in verse 17. “Which we preach” uses kerysso, to proclaim as a herald does, so the near word is one Paul is carrying.

Mouth comes before heart because that is Deuteronomy’s order. “The Lord Jesus” is the earliest confession of the church, “Jesus is Lord” (1 Corinthians 12:3; Philippians 2:11). In the Greek Old Testament, Kyrios, Lord, stands for the divine name, which prepares for the quotation from Joel in verse 13.

Now heart comes first and mouth second, the natural order of believing and then saying. The verse is Hebrew-style parallelism: “unto righteousness” and “unto salvation” are two views of one event, not two stages. “Confession” is homologeo, literally to say the same thing, to agree aloud with what God has said.

Paul quoted this line at 9:33. The Greek Old Testament of Isaiah 28:16 has no word for “every”; the pas behind “whosoever” is Paul’s own addition, and the next two verses explain why he made it. “Ashamed” means put to shame, the disgrace of trusting something that fails.

“There is no difference” is the phrase of 3:22. There it meant no difference in guilt, “for all have sinned”; here it means no difference in access. “Greek” stands for every non-Jew. “Rich unto all” pictures the Lord as a benefactor with more than enough for every caller.

Joel 2:32, the verse Peter quoted at Pentecost (Acts 2:21). In Joel “the LORD” is the divine name, and Paul applies it to the Jesus confessed as Lord in verse 9. Joel’s verse goes on to speak of “the remnant whom the LORD shall call”, the remnant of 9:27.

Four questions climb backward, each link resting on the one below, a form ancient teachers called a climax. The Greek reads “how shall they believe him whom they have not heard”, meaning Christ himself heard in the preaching. “Preacher” is the herald who announces a king’s decree in public.

“Sent” is apostello, the verb behind “apostle”. Isaiah 52:7 pictures a runner crossing the mountains to Zion shouting “Thy God reigneth!”, the news of return from exile. “Beautiful” is horaios, related to hora, hour; in Greek it can also mean timely, arriving when due.

Behind the King James lies a wordplay: “obeyed” is hypakouo, literally to hear under, from akouo, to hear; and “report” is akoe, a hearing. Isaiah 53:1 opens the song of the suffering servant, and asks how few have taken in what was announced.

“Hearing” is akoe again, the same word as “report” a verse earlier, so faith comes from the report that is heard. Most of the oldest manuscripts read “the word of Christ” rather than “the word of God”; the King James follows the later copies.

Psalm 19:4 is about the sky preaching without words. The Hebrew reads “their line is gone out”, a measuring cord, which the King James keeps in the psalm; Paul follows the Greek “sound”. “Yes verily” is menounge, a strong corrective, “on the contrary, indeed”. “World” is oikoumene, the inhabited earth.

“First Moses” sets up a line of witnesses, with Isaiah next. Deuteronomy 32:21, from the Song of Moses, is measure for measure: Israel moved God to jealousy with a “no god”, so God will move Israel with a “no people”. “Provoke to jealousy”, parazeloo, returns in 11:11 and 11:14.

“Is very bold” is apotolmao, to dare outright, as if the words were risky to say. Isaiah 65:1 may originally speak of Israel itself, a people God sought who did not seek him; Paul, reading from the Greek, divides 65:1 and 65:2 between the Gentiles and Israel.

Paul moves “all day long” to the front of Isaiah 65:2 for weight. “Gainsaying” is antilego, to answer back, a word the Greek adds to Isaiah’s “rebellious”. Hands spread out through a whole day are the gesture of someone pleading, or of a parent waiting with arms open.