Read Romans 2 here (text coming …) or at Bible Gateway.
The Greek Testament has no Hebrew paragraph divisions. This is my outline of chapter two:
1:16-17, Theme of the letter: the Gospel reveals the righteousness of God;
1:18-5:21, Justification and the righteousness of God;
1:18-3:19, The unrighteousness of man;
1:18, The wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousness of men;
1:19-32, The unrighteousness of idolatry (denial of God as Creator);
2:1-11, The unrighteousness of man judging man;
2:12-27, The unrighteousness of breaking the Law/ righteousness of keeping the Law;
2:28-29, Circumcision identifies Israel and is of the heart;
Rom 2:1-16 Chiastic Structure:
Judging and judgment is a Repeating theme in this chapter.
To judge is in Greek, Strong’s G2919, κρίνω krino, a primitive verb meaning, “to separate, select, choose;” hence, “to determine,” and so “to judge, pronounce judgment.” This use of the verb “judge” is the same as in Mat 7:1, “Judge not that you be not judged.”
The translators of the Hebrew Testament into Greek used krino for Strong’s H1777, דין diyn, a primitive verb meaning, “to judge, to plead the cause.” The ancient pictographs are dalet + yud + nun.
dalet ד = door, thus enter, move, hang
yud י = closed hand, thus work, throw, worship
nun נ ן = seed, thus continue, heir, son
In the days of Patriarchs, the eldest of the tribe, the one who received the birthright and blessing of the tribe’s father before his death, would sit in the door of his tent, and the sons of the tribe would come to him with their disputes, and he would render judgment between them, which was binding. Even in later days you read of the elders sitting in the gate, that is, the door of the city, where the same function of dispensing wisdom, and of rendering decisions, was carried out (see Est 2:21, 3:3). The parable being told by the Hebrew Root Word is of the door (dalet) where the hand was closed (yud) to the son (nun); i.e., rendering judgment.
This is judging in the courtroom sense, to examine the evidence and pronounce judgment based on that evidence. Jesus cautioned us to not pronounce judgments on people in this sense, because we do not have all the evidence in front of us, so our judgment is going to be skewed. We can not see the motives of the heart, for example. (Yes, we must judge–behaviors and actions only, not thoughts, hearts, motives, or people.)
If there are questions, this is a good resource:
Matthew 7, Judge not – Christine Miller
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