Romans 2:3

Vv. 3. “ But thou countest upon this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? ”

We might, with Hofmann, take the verbs λογίζῃ and καταφρονεῖς (thou countest, thou despisest) in an affirmative sense. But the ἤ, or indeed, at the beginning of Romans 2:4 would rather incline us, following Paul's ordinary usage, to interpret these words in the interrogative sense; not, however, that we need translate the former in the sense of: thinkest thou? The interrogation is less abrupt: “thou thinkest no doubt?” The word λογίζεσθαι, to reason, well describes the false calculations whereby the Jews persuaded themselves that they would escape the judgment with which God would visit the Gentiles. Observe the σύ, thou: “that thou wilt escape, thou,” a being by thyself, a privileged person! It was a Jewish axiom, that “every one circumcised has part in the kingdom to come.” A false calculation. Such, then, is the first supposition serving to explain the security of the Jew; but there is a graver still. Perhaps this false calculation proceeds from a moral fact hidden in the depths of the heart. Paul drags it to the light in what follows.