Romans 2:22

Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?

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Word by word — the Greek

Word	Greek	Strong’s	Meaning
sayest	λέγων legōn	G3004	properly · verb — present active participle, vocative singular masculine
not	μὴ mē	G3361	(adverb) not · particle — negative
adultery	μοιχεύειν moicheuein	G3431	to commit adultery · verb — present active infinitive
adultery	μοιχεύεις; moicheueis	G3431	to commit adultery · verb — present active indicative, 2nd person singular
abhorrest	βδελυσσόμενος bdelussomenos	G948	to be disgusted · verb — present middle or passive deponent participle, vocative singular masculine
idols	εἴδωλα eidōla	G1497	an image (i.e. for worship) · noun — accusative plural neuter
sacrilege	ἱεροσυλεῖς; hi'erosuleis	G2416	to be a temple-robber (figuratively) · verb — present active indicative, 2nd person singular

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Malachi 3:8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
Matthew 12:39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the…
Jeremiah 5:7 How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they t…
Jeremiah 7:9-10 Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;
Jeremiah 9:2 Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers…
Ezekiel 22:11 And one hath committed abomination with his neighbour’s wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter in law; and another in thee hath…
Malachi 1:8 And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor;…
Malachi 1:14 But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great King…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Romans 2:17–end

In the latter part of the chapter the apostle directs his discourse more closely to the Jews, and shows what sins they were guilty of, notwithstanding their profession and vain pretensions. He had said (Rom 2:13) that not the hearers but the doers of the law are justified; and he here applies that great truth to the Jews. Observe, I. He allows their profession (Rom 2:17-20) and specifies their particular pretensions and privileges in which they prided themselves, that they might see he did not condemn them out of ignorance of what they had to say for themselves; no, he knew the best of their cause. 1. They were a peculiar people, separated and distinguished from all others by their having th…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Romans 2:22

thou that abhorrest idols--as the Jews did ever after their captivity, though bent on them before. dost 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).

Adam Clarke on Romans 2:21

Thou therefore - Dr. Taylor has paraphrased this and the three following verses thus: "What signify your pretensions to knowledge, and the office of teaching others, if you have no regard to your own doctrine? What are you the better for preaching against theft, if you are a thief yourself? Or for declaring adultery unlawful, if you live in the practice of it? Or for representing idolatry abominable, if you are guilty of sacrilege? What honors or singular favors do you deserve, if, while you glory in the law and your religious privileges, you dishonor God, and discredit his religion, by transgressing his law, and living in open contradiction to your profession? And this is more than supposit…

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John Gill on Romans 2:22

Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery,.... Adultery here is to be taken not figuratively for adulterating the word of God, and mixing it with their own inventions; but literally for the sin of adultery, and that not in heart only, but in act: dost thou commit adultery? an iniquity which greatly prevailed among the Jews at this time of day; hence Christ calls them "an adulterous generation", Matthew 12:39; and that to such a degree, that by the advice of their great Rabbi, R. Jochanan ben Zaccai, they left off the trial of the suspected woman, cases of this nature being so very numerous: and this sin prevailed not only among the common people, but among their principal doctors; a…

The Church Fathers

There is not just one kind of adultery, for you commit adultery if you give anyone other than God what the soul owes exclusively to him.
— Pelagius, PELAGIUS'S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

The Jew adulterates the law by removing the truth of Christ from it and putting lies in his place. In another of his epistles Paul writes: "They are adulterers of God's Word." A man is sacrilegious when he denies Christ, whom the law and the prophets call God. Did the Jews ever say, "Thou art God and we did not know it" of God the Father, when the entire law proclaims the authority of God the Father, by whom all things are made? But when the Son of God appeared, what he was was hidden and not revealed until after the resurrection. It was then that it was said of him: "Thou art God and we did not know it."
— Ambrosiaster, COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Fall of man — An expression probably borrowed from the Apocryphal Book of Wisdom, to express the fact of the revolt of our first parents from God, and the consequent sin and misery in which they and all their…
Formalism · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Hypocrisy · 6:26,70;7:19;15:2,6; — 6:26,70;7:19;15:2,6;
Hypocrites · Described as: Professing but not practising — Described as: Professing but not practising

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Romans 2:22

Word by word — the Greek

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Romans 2:17–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Romans 2:22

Adam Clarke on Romans 2:21

John Gill on Romans 2:22

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Romans 2:22

Word by word — the Greek

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Romans 2:17–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Romans 2:22

Adam Clarke on Romans 2:21

John Gill on Romans 2:22

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Calvin on Romans 2:17-24

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Romans 2:22