Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Romans 10:14

f. It is difficult to trace very clearly the line of the Apostle's thought here. Many scholars (including W. and H. and Lipsius) connect Romans 10:14-15 closely with what precedes, and mark a break between Romans 10:15 and Romans 10:16. It is as if Paul were expanding the πᾶς of Romans 10:13 and justifying that universal preaching of the Gospel which was itself a stumbling-block to the Jews. Every one who invokes the name of the Lord shall be saved, and therefore the conditions of such invocation must be put within reach of every one. It is no argument against this interpretation that the ideas it introduces are not essential to the main purpose of the chapter, which is to prove the culpability of the Jews: the eager fulness of Paul's mind often carries him on thus. Others read Romans 10:14-21 continuously, and mark a break at Romans 10:13 (e.g., Weiss, Sanday and Headlam). They lay stress on the οὖν in Romans 10:14 (cf. Romans 9:14; Romans 9:30; Romans 11:1; Romans 11:11) as indicating that a paragraph has ended, and that the writer is facing the consequences which flow from it, the objections which can be made to it, etc. In this case the connection would be something like this. Salvation depends upon invoking Christ; but to invoke Christ depends upon certain conditions which the Jews may say it has been beyond their power to fulfil; let us inquire into the conditions, and see whether such a plea holds good. The first of these connections seems to me much the simpler, and it has the advantage of covering the second. For if the invocation of Christ, which is the sole and universal condition of salvation, has been made possible for all men, it has been made possible for the Jews. The special application to them, in which the argument of the chapter is clinched, is not made till Romans 10:19; here they are only involved with the rest of the world which has heard the Gospel. πῶς οὖν ἐπικαλέσωνται : sc. τοῦτον. πῶς δὲ πιστεύσωσιν οὗ οὖκ ἤκουσαν; It is simplest to render, How are they to believe on Him Whom they have not heard? identifying the voice of the preachers with that of Christ. Winer, p. 249. Cf. Ephesians 2:17. The rendering, Him of Whom they have not heard, would be legitimate in poetry. πῶς δὲ ἀκούσωσιν : this deliberative form is in all probability right: see critical note and Blass, Gramm. des Neut. Griech., 205. ἐὰν μὴ ἀποσταλῶσιν : viz., by the Lord Whom they preach, and Who is heard speaking when they speak. Cf. 1 Corinthians 1:17, ἀπέστειλέν με Χριστὸς … εὐαγγελίζεσθαι. To find here the idea of an official ministry, as something belonging essentially to the constitution of the Church, is grotesque. “St. Paul argues back from effect to cause, through the series of Prayer, Faith, Hearing, Preaching, Sending; thus the last link in his argument must be the first in the realisation from which the rest follow; this one therefore he confirms by the prophetic announcement in Isaiah 52:7 ” (Gifford). ὡς ὡραῖοι : the true text of Romans greatly abbreviates the prophet's words, but the joy with which the deliverance from Babylon was foreseen is in keeping with that with which Paul contemplates the universal preaching of the Gospel.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Romans 10:14

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