Romans 10:5. Now follows, as far as Romans 10:10, the proof of Romans 10:4, and that from Moses himself.

γράφει τὴν δικ.] writes concerning righteousness, John 1:46; Hermann, ad Eur. Phoen. 574. As to the use of the present tense, comp. the frequent λέγει in scriptural citations.

The passage introduced by the recitative ὅτι is Leviticus 18:5, almost exactly after the LXX. Comp. Nehemiah 9:29; Ezekiel 20:21; Galatians 3:12.

αὐτά] refers in the original, and so also here, to the προστάγματα Θεοῦ, which Paul supposes as well known; but the principal stress lies upon ποιήσας: he who shall have done them, so that thus Moses exhibits the doing as the condition of the attainment of ζωή (which is referred by Paul not to the happy and prosperous life in Palestine, but to its antitype, the ζωὴ αἰώνιος).

ἐν αὐτοῖς] i.e. by the fact, that they are fulfilled.

Romans 10:5. Μωυσῆς γὰρ γράφει: Moses’ authority is unimpeachable on this point. The righteousness that comes from law must be an achievement: the man who has done it shall live in it, Leviticus 18:5. Paul writes ἐν αὐτῇ with reference to δικαιοσύνην: the ἐν αὐτοῖς of the LXX refers to πάντα τὰ κρίματα which precedes. Moses, of course, in writing thus did not mock his people; the O.T. religion, though an imperfect, was a real religion, under which men could be right with God. To keep the law of God and live by doing so (Matthew 19:17) was the natural aim and hope of a true Israelite; only, in this case, the law was not a collection of statutes, but a revelation of God’s character and will, and he who sought to keep it did so not alone, but in conscious dependence on God whose grace was shown above all things else by His gift of such a revelation. Paul, however, is writing with Pharisees and legalists in his eye, and with the remembrance of his own experience as a Pharisee in his heart; and his idea no doubt is that this road leads nowhere. Cf. Galatians 3:10-12. To keep the law thus is an impossibility.

5. For] The connexion is that the Law led up to Christ both by prescribing a condemnatory standard as its own, and by mysteriously suggesting the nearness and freeness of the Gospel.

describeth] Lit. writeth.

That the man, &c.] Leviticus 18:5. Cp. Deuteronomy 27:26; Jeremiah 11:1-10; and, as a commentary, Galatians 3:10-13, and the rest of that chapter.

Romans 10:5. Γράφει, writes of), [thus exhibiting the truth that] “the letter killeth.” It is antithetic to Romans 10:6; Romans 10:8 : [the righteousness by faith] speaks, with the living voice [not writes, as Moses]. There is also another similar antithesis: Moses in the concrete; the righteousness which is of faith in the abstract.—ὅτι ὁ ποιήσας, κ.τ.λ.) Leviticus 18:5, LXX., ποιήσετε αὐτὰ ἁ ποιήσας, κ.τ.λ.

Verse 5. - For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the Law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by (literally, in) them (Leviticus 18:5). This quotation is intended to express, in the words of Moses himself, the principle of Law, viz. the requirement of entire observance of it, such as the apostle elsewhere contends is impossible (cf. Galatians 3:10-12). It may be objected that Moses himself, in the original passage, does not seem to be setting forth any such impossible requirement. He says, in the name of the Lord, "Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, which, if a man do, he shall live in them;" implying, it would seem, that a man might so keep them as to live in them; else were the injunction delusive. In the quotation also of the same text in Ezekiel 20:11, 13, 21 and Nehemiah 9:29, only such a requirement as might have been fulfilled appears to be understood. But St. Paul (as appears from the context, and from Galatians 3:12, where the text is similarly cited) refers to it as expressing the strict principle of law, as above defined. It, then, the text, in its original connection, seems to fall short of the sense put upon it, we may understand the apostle to quote it as a well-known one, sufficiently suggestive, if taken, as he intends it to be, in connection with others, such as Deuteronomy 27:26, cited with it in Galatians 3:10, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them." It is his way to refer to familiar texts, or such as most readily occur to him, as suggestive of Old Testament ideas which he expects his readers to be acquainted with. Calvin's remarks on this whole passage deserve attention: "Lex bifariam accipitur. Nunc enim significat universam doctrinam a Mose proditam, nunc pattern illam quae ministerii ejus propria erat; quae scilicet praeceptis, praemis, et poenis continetur Quod ergo hic de justitia Legis dicitur referre convenit non ad totam Mosis functionem, sed ad partem istam quae peculiariter quodammodo ei commissa fuit." His drift is, that the passage before us intimates the strict principle of law, which it was the peculiar function of Moses to promulgate, whereas the passage which follows from Deuteronomy is significant of its universa doctrina. This distinction may help us to understand St. Paul's drift, in referring, as he proceeds to do, to Deuteronomy 30:11-14. The determination of this drift is attended with some difficulty. First, we observe that, whereas the original passage certainly refers to the Law given to the Israelites through Moses - to the same "statutes and judgments" that were the subject of the previous quotation - St. Paul applies it to describe justification through faith in Christ; and, secondly, that, in order to apply it, he alters some parts of it, and interposes comments of his own. One view is that he is only making a free-use of the words of the passage to clothe his own thoughts. So Bengel: "Ad hunc locum quasi parodia suavissime alludit, sine expressa allegatione." But his obvious intention, here as elsewhere, to support his positions from the old Scriptures surely precludes this view. Nor can he be supposed to cite the passage as simply prophetical of the gospel which was to supersede the Law, since it evidently was not so. The proper view seems to be that he adduces it as illustrating, in the first place. what Calvin calls the universa doetrina of the Law itself, with regard to its actual application as a norma vivendi to the needs of man. Here, he would say, the very Mosaic dispensation is presented to us, not as exacting any impossible obedience to the strict behests of law, but only such as the "circumcised in heart" could render, and be accepted still; it is presented to us, not as a rigid external code, enjoining and threatening, but as a word very nigh unto us, even in our heart, that we may do it; it is, in fact, an anticipation and foreshadowing of gospel salvation. In confirmation of this view of the apostle's meaning, it is to be observed that the passage occurs, not in the earlier books of Moses, but in Deuteronomy, which appears as an appendix to them, containing for the most part long discourses in the style of the prophets, wherein the Law is, as it were, spiritualized, and its universa doctrina opened out. In it we feel ourselves as rising out of the region of strict legal exaction into a higher and more spiritual one. Observe also that the passage before us is based on the idea of a people circumcised in heart, and loving the Lord with all the heart and all the soul (vers. 6, 20); on an ideal view of a state of favour and acceptance never realized in Jewish history, but such as we find often in the prophetic writings (cf. Jeremiah 31:31-34, the famous passage referred to more than once in the New Testament as having its eventual fulfilment in Christ). Thus the passage before us is legitimately referred to by St. Paul, as an intimation in the Pentateuch itself of the "righteousness which is of faith." Romans 10:5Describeth the righteousness - that (γράφει τὴν δικαιοσύνην - ὅτι)

The best texts transfer ὅτι that, and read γράφει ὅτι, etc. Moses writeth that the man, etc. See Leviticus 18:5.

Those things - by them (αὐτὰ - ἐν αὐτοῖς)

Omit those things, and read for ἐν αὐτοῖς by them, ἐν αὐτῇ by it, i.e., the righteousness which is of the law. The whole, as Rev., Moses writeth that the man that doeth the righteousness which is of the law shall live thereby.

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