Romans 9:2,3

Rom 9:2-3 contain the matter of that truth so solemnly announced in Romans 9:1. The parallelism of the two propositions of the verse, as always, is the indication of a rising feeling. A triple gradation has been remarked between the two propositions. First, between the two subjects: λύπη, grief, which denotes an inward sadness; ὀδύνη, lamentation, which refers to the violent outburst of grief, though it should only be inwardly; then a gradation between the two epithets μεγάλη, great, and ἀδιάλειπτος, continual: it is so intense that it accompanies all the moments of his life; finally, between the two regimens μοι, to me, and τῇ καρδίᾳ μου, to my heart, the latter term denoting the deepest spring of the emotions of the me.

Here still Paul leaves us to read between the lines the tragical word which expresses the cause of this grief.

Vv. 3. “ For I could wish that myself were anathema away from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh. ”

This inward fact is the proof of the intensity of the feeling expressed in Romans 9:2 (for); and it is to this almost incredible fact that the exceptional affirmations of Romans 9:1 applied.

The imperfect indicative ηὐχόμην, literally, I was wishing, has in Greek the force of throwing this wish into the past, and into a past which remains always unfinished, so that this expression takes away from the wish all possibility of realization. The meaning therefore is: “I should wish, if such a desire could be realized.” If the apostle had meant to speak of a wish really formed by him, though under certain conditions, he would have expressed this idea by the present optative εὐχοίμην, or by the aorist εὐξαίμην with ἄν (Acts 26:29); comp. Galatians 4:20, and also Acts 25:22 (where Agrippa expresses his desire, while stating it as unrealizable, that he might not have the appearance of encroaching on the authority of Festus). It is from not understanding or applying the meaning of the Greek imperfect indicative that recourse has been had to so many unnatural explanations, intended to spare the apostle a wish which seemed to have in it something offensive to Christian feeling. Thus the interpretation of the Itala (optabam), Ambrosiaster, Pelagius, the Vulgate, Luther, Chalmers: “ I wished (formerly when in my blind fanaticism I persecuted the church of Christ).” The apostle would, on this view, be recalling the fact that it was his ardent love for his people which had then driven him away from the Christ (who had appeared in Jesus). But it is not of what he was formerly, it is of what he is now, as the apostle of the Gentiles, that Paul wishes to bear testimony; and that the expression: far from Christ, may prove the strength of his love to Israel, the testimony must go forth from a heart which has recognized Jesus as the Christ, and is able to appreciate Him at His proper value. Finally, some indication or other of the time when he formed this wish would have been necessary (ποτέ, formerly, Romans 7:9).

Some English expositors, among the last Morison and Tregelles, have made the first half of Romans 9:3 a parenthesis, and joined the end of the verse “for my brethren”..., with Romans 9:2. What Paul, according to this view, meant to express by the wish, was the profound misery of Israel, a misery in which he himself also was formerly involved. But Morison has withdrawn this explanation, which is really inadmissible, and he now proposes to translate: I might desire (to go all that length). The examples which he quotes to justify this meaning appear to me insufficient, and the idea itself lacks precision. Finally, Lange, after Michaelis, has made a still more unfortunate attempt. He translates: “I made a vow,” and explains it of an engagement, accompanied no doubt with an imprecation, which he took, it is held, at the hands of the high priest when he was preparing to set out to Damascus, there to persecute the Christians (Acts 9:2). He undertook in some way or other, at the peril of his Messianic blessedness, to save Judaism by extirpating the heresy. To set aside such an explanation it is enough to point to the imperfect ηὐχόμην, which would require, since the matter in question is a positive fact, to be replaced by the aorist ηὐξάμην, or at least accompanied with some kind of chronological definition.

It need not be asked how this vow could ever be realized. Paul himself declares that it is an impossibility; but if its accomplishment depended only on his love, he would certainly express such a wish before the Lord.

The word ἀναθεμα, anathema, from ἀνατίθημι, to expose, to set in view, always denotes an object consecrated to God. But this consecration may have in view either its preservation as a pious offering in a sanctuary (donaria) in this case the LXX. and the N. T. use the form ἀνάθημα, for example 2Ma 5:16, and Luke 21:5 or it may be carried out by the destruction of the consecrated object, as in the case of the ban (chérem); the LXX. and the N. T. prefer in that sense using the form ἀνάθεμα (for example, Joshua 7:12; Galatians 1:8-9; 1 Corinthians 16:22). This distinction between the two forms of the word did not exist in classic Greek.

The expression is so strong, especially with the regimen ἀπὸ Χριστοῦ, away from Christ, that it is impossible to apply it either, with Grotius, to ecclesiastical excommunication, or, with Jerome, to a violent death inflicted by Christ (substituting ὑπό, by, for ἀπό, for from). Paul has evidently in mind the breaking of the bond which unites him to Christ as his Saviour. He would consent, if it were possible, to fall back again forever into the state of condemnation in which he lived before his conversion, if by the sacrifice of his salvation he could bring about the conversion of his people Israel. The words: away from Christ, express the bitterness that such an anathema would have for his heart; and yet he would face it, if it were possible thus to exchange lots with his people. Here is, as it were, the paroxysm of patriotic devotion. The pronoun myself, if placed, as in the Byz. text, before the term: to be anathema, sets Paul in contrast to the Jews who are really in this state: “I should myself like to be anathema (rather than they).” But if, with the other documents, it be placed after the words: to be anathema, it serves to contrast the real with the alleged Paul, who was made the mortal enemy of the Jews in consequence of the mission which he carried out among the Gentiles: “to be anathema myself, I who am represented as the despiser of my nation, and who have in fact the sad mission of consecrating the divorce between Israel and her God!” To the notion of spiritual and theocratic kinship denoted by the title brethren, the expression: kinsmen according to the flesh, adds the idea of natural human kinship by blood and nationality.