Romans 2:18-24
2:18 and know his will 1 and approve the superior things because you receive instruction from the law, 2
2:19 and if you are convinced 3 that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,
2:20 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 –
2:21 therefore 4 you who teach someone else, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?
2:22 You who tell others not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor 5 idols, do you rob temples?
2:23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by transgressing the law!
2:24 For just as it is written, “the name of God is being blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” 6
1 tn Grk “the will.”
2 tn Grk “because of being instructed out of the law.”
3 tn This verb is parallel to the verbs in vv. 17-18a, so it shares the conditional meaning even though the word “if” is not repeated.
4 tn The structure of vv. 21-24 is difficult. Some take these verses as the apodosis of the conditional clauses (protases) in vv. 17-20; others see vv. 17-20 as an instance of anacoluthon (a broken off or incomplete construction).
5 tn Or “detest.”
6 sn A quotation from Isa 52:5.