We by nature are Jews, and not of the Gentiles sinners.

“"We being Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles." These words are hortatory, but are couched in the form of a reproof, on account of those Jews. So elsewhere, under cover of one meaning he conveys another; as where he says in his Epistle to the Romans, "But now I go unto Jerusalem, ministering unto the saints." (Rom. xv: 25.) Here his object was not simply to inform them of the motive of his journey to Jerusalem, but to excite them to emulation in the giving of alms. Had he merely wished to explain his motive, it would have sufficed to say, "I go to ministering unto the saints;" but now observe what he says in addition; "For it hath been the good pleasure of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints that are at Jerusalem. Yea, it hath been their good pleasure and their debtors they are." And again, "For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, they owe it to them, also to minister unto them in carnal things." (Rom. xv: 26, 27) Observe how he represses the high thoughts of the Jews; preparing for one thing by means of another, and his language is authoritative. "We being Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles." The phrase, "Jews by nature," implies that we, who are not proselytes, but educated from early youth in the Law, have relinquished our habitual mode of life, and betaken ourselves to the faith which is in Christ.”

“Having worked out from the case of those around Peter that circumcision should not be applied, he now works this out in a more complete way. For if those who were Jews from childhood, and not prostylites, but having been brought up in the Law, having seen the weakness of the Law in justifying man, transpose themselves to the grace through faith, how much more those who were not from the beginning from the Law, but from the nations, and having later come to believe in Christ, are not obliged to incline themselves to the Law which is impotent in making one upright.”

“Above he showed the truth of the apostolic doctrine preached by him, from the authority of the other apostles; here he shows the same thing from their manner of life and example. And concerning this he does two things. First he shows his proposition through the manner of life of the apostles; second, the objection of adversaries, that "if, seeking to be justified," etc. Concerning the first he does three things. First he sets forth beforehand the condition of the apostles; second he touches upon their manner of life, at the place "but knowing that a man is not justified," etc.; third, the condition intended, at the place "wherefore by the works of the law," etc. Now the condition of the apostles, and also of Paul himself, is this: that according to natural origin they proceeded from the Jews. And this is what he says: "we," namely I and the other apostles, "are by nature," that is, by natural origin, "Jews," not proselytes. 2 Corinthians 11:22: "They are Hebrews, so am I," etc. And this is great praise, because, as is said in John 4:22, salvation is from the Jews. And "not sinners of the Gentiles," that is, we are not sinners, as the idolatrous and unclean Gentiles are. But against this is what is said in 1 John 1:8: "If we shall say that we have no sin," etc.; therefore the Jews are sinners. I respond. It must be said that to be sinning is one thing, to be a sinner another. For the first denominates an act, but the second a readiness, or habit, toward sinning. Whence Scripture is accustomed to call the wicked, and those burdened with grave loads of sins, "sinners." The Jews, therefore, growing proud on account of the law, as it were restrained by it from sins, called the Gentiles, who were without the rein of the law and prone to sin, "sinners." Ephesians 4:14: "let us not be carried about by every wind of doctrine," etc. When therefore the Apostle says "not sinners of the Gentiles," it is explained thus: that is, we are not of the number of the sinners who are among the Gentiles, etc. Consequently, when he says "but knowing that a man is not justified," etc., he sets forth the manner of life of the apostles, which indeed is not in the things of the law, but in the faith of Christ. And concerning this he does two things. First he expresses the reason for the apostolic manner of life; second he sets forth the apostolic manner of life itself, at the place "and we in Christ," etc. The apostolic manner of life, then, was in faith, and not in the things of the law. The reason for this is that although we were Jews by nature and nourished in the things of the law, nevertheless, knowing for certain that a man is not justified by the works of the law, that is, through the legal works, except through the faith of Jesus Christ, therefore, forsaking those things, we conduct our lives in the precepts of faith. Romans 3:28: "For we reckon a man to be justified by faith without the works of the law." Acts 4:12: "there is no other name," etc. But against this: for in Romans 2:13 it is said: "For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified," etc. It seems, therefore, that a man is justified by the works of the law. I respond. It must be said that "to be justified" can be taken in two ways: namely, to carry out justice, and to become just. Now in the first way, a man is justified who does works of justice. But no one becomes just except from God, through grace. It must be known, therefore, that of the works of the law, some were moral, and some indeed ceremonial. But the moral works, although they were contained in the law, nevertheless could not properly be called "works of the law," since man is led to them by natural instinct, and by the natural law. But the ceremonial works are properly called "works of the law." However much, therefore, a man is justified — as regards the carrying out of justice — by the moral works, and also by the ceremonial works, insofar as to observe them is a work of obedience, so far as they pertain to the sacraments; and it is taken in this way according to the saying of the Apostle in Romans 2:13. As to becoming just, however, a man is seen not to be justified by these, from the works of the law, because the sacraments of the old law did not confer grace. Below, 4:9: "you are turned again to the weak elements," that is, elements not conferring grace, nor containing grace in themselves. But the sacraments of the new law, although they are material elements, are nevertheless not weak elements, because they contain grace in themselves, whence they are also able to justify. But if any in the old law were just, they were not just from the works of the law, but only from the faith of Christ, whom God set forth as a propitiator through faith, as is said in Romans 3:20. Whence also the sacraments themselves of the old law were nothing but certain professions of the faith of Christ, just as our sacraments also are; but differently, because those sacraments configured the grace of Christ as it were future; but our sacraments make profession as containing, as it were, present grace. And therefore he says pointedly, that a man is not justified by the works of the law, except through the faith of Jesus Christ, because even if formerly some who kept the works of the law were justified, this nevertheless was not except through the faith of Jesus Christ. Now from this knowledge which the apostles had, that justification is not through the working of the law, but through the faith of Christ, he concludes the manner of life of the apostles, choosing the faith of Christ and leaving aside the works of the law. Whence there follows, "and we believe in Christ Jesus," because, as is said in Acts 4:12, "there is no other name given," etc. Whence there follows, "that we may be justified by the faith of Christ." Romans 5:1: "Being justified therefore by faith," etc. And lest anyone believe that, together with the law of Christ, the works of the law also justify, he adds, "and not by the works of the law." Romans 3:28: "For we reckon that a man is justified by faith," etc. From this he concludes the principal point intended, saying that if the apostles, who are Jews by nature, do not seek to be justified through the works of the law, but through faith, that "no flesh is justified by the works of the law," nor can any man whatsoever be justified through the works of the law. For here "flesh" is taken for man, namely a part for the whole, as in Isaiah 40: "all flesh shall see the salvation of our God." But in saying "wherefore," etc., he concludes as it were from the greater. For it seems more natural or reasonable that the Jews, rather than others, should be justified through the works of the law, not through faith; but this is not so: wherefore, etc.”

“We who are Jews by nature,.... I Paul, and you Peter and Barnabas, and the rest of the Jews at Antioch. Some are Jews by grace, in a spiritual sense, as all are that are Christ's, that are true believers in him, that are born again, and have internal principles of grace formed in their souls, of whatsoever nation they be; see Rom 2:28. Others become Jews by being proselytes to the Jewish religion: such were the Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven, that were dwelling at Jerusalem, when the Spirit was poured down on the apostles on the day of Pentecost, Act 2:5, but these here spoken of were such as were Jews by birth; they were born so, were descended of Jewish parents, and from their infancy were brought up in the Jewish religion, and under the law of Moses, and in the observance of it: and not sinners of the Gentiles: , "the wicked of the nations of the world", as the (l) Jews call them. Not but that the Jews also were sinners both by nature and practice, were involved in the guilt of sin, under the power of it, and defiled with it, as the apostle elsewhere most fully proves: nor is this said with regard to the vain opinion the Jews had of themselves, as very holy and righteous persons, who in their own apprehension needed neither repentance nor remission; and who looked upon the Gentiles as very unholy and unfit for conversation with them: but this more particularly respects that part of the character of the Heathens, that they were without the law, and were under no restraints, but lived in all manner of wickedness, without hope and God in the world, and so were notorious sinners, filled with all unrighteousness, profligate and abandoned to every evil work, and are therefore called emphatically "sinful men", Luk 24:7. And indeed the word Gentiles, among themselves is sometimes used for , "a certain most wicked part" of Gentiles in a city (m), and so may here design such who lived the most dissolute lives and conversations, to which the Jews are opposed, who had a written law, and were under a better regulation and discipline. The reason of this description, both in the positive and negative branch of it, is to observe, that since they, the apostles, and others, who were born Jews, and so under the law of Moses, and, until Christ came, were under obligation to observe it, but had now relinquished it, and wholly and alone believed in Christ for righteousness and life; then it was the most unreasonable thing in the world, by any means whatever, to lead the Gentiles, who never were under the law, to an observance of it. (l) Mattanot Cehunah in Vajikra Rabba, fol. 164. 3. (m) Harpocratian. Lex. p. 93.”

“We who are Jews by nature - We who belong to the Jewish nation - who have been born, bred, and educated Jews. And not sinners of the Gentiles - Ἁμαρτωλοι· Not without the knowledge of God, as they have been. Ἁμαρτωλος often signifies a heathen, merely one who had no knowledge of the true God. But among the nations or Gentiles many Jews sojourned; who in Scripture are known by the name of Hellenists, and these were distinguished from those who were termed εξ εθνων ἁμαρτωλοι, sinners of the Gentiles - heathens, in our common sense of the word; while the others, though living among them, were worshippers of the true God, and addicted to no species of idolatry. Some have translated this passage thus: We Jews, and not Gentiles, by nature sinners; for it is supposed that φυσει here refers to that natural corruption which every man brings into the world. Now, though the doctrine be true, (and the state of man, and universal experience confirm it), yet it can neither be supported from this place, nor even from Eph 2:3. See the note on Rom 2:16. It appears, from the use of this word by some of the best Greek authors, that φυσει did not signify by nature, as we use the word, but expressed the natural birth, family, or nation of a man; to distinguish him from any other family or nation. I can give a few instances of this, which are brought to my hand in a small elegant pamphlet, written by Dr. Mnter, the present bishop of Zealand, entitled Observationum ex marmoribus Graecis Sacrarum Specimen, and which has been lent to me by the right honorable Lord Teignmouth, to whose condescension, kindness, and learning, many of my studies have been laid under particular obligation. The word in question is the xxviiith example in the above pamphlet, the substance of which is as follows: In an inscription on a Greek marble, given by Dr. Chandler, page 27, we find these words Ὁ γαμβρος μου Λεων Αρτεμεισιου, ὁ επικαλουμενος Ιασων, οικονει μεν Μειλησιος, φυσει δε Ιασευς· "My son-in-law, Leo, the son of Artemisius, who is called a Jasian, is of the house of Milesius, though by nature he is from Jaso." That is: Jaso being a town of Caria, this Leo is said to be φυσει Ιασευς, by nature a Jasian, although he sprang from the Milesian family. The following examples will place this in a clearer light. Josephus, Ant. Jud., lib. xi. cap. vi. sec. 5, speaking of Amanes, the Amalekite, says: Και γαρ φυσει τοις Ιουδαιοις απηχθανετο, ὁτι και το γενος των Αμαλεκιτων, εξ ὡν ην αυτος, ὑπ' αυτων διεφθαρτο· "For he was by nature incensed against the Jews, because the nation of the Amalekites, from whom he sprang, had been destroyed by them;" that is, he had a national prejudice or hatred to the Jewish people on the above account. The following example from Dio Chrysostom, Orat. xxxi., is also to the point: Οἱγε (Αθηναιοι) τον δεινα μεν Ολυμπιον κεκληκασι, ουδε φυσει πολιτην ἑαυτων· "For they (the Athenians) called this person an Olympian, though by nature he was not their citizen;" that is, he was called an Olympian, though he was not naturally of that city, or, in other words, he was not born there. From these examples, and the scope of the place, we may argue that the words, we who are Jews by nature, mean, we who were born in the land of Judea, and of Jewish parents. And hence the passage in Eph 2:3, which speaks most evidently of the heathens, "and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others," may be thus understood: Being Gentiles, and brought up in gross darkness, without any knowledge of God, abandoned to all sensual living, we were, from our very condition, and practical state, exposed to punishment. This sense is at least equally good with that given of the words in Rom 2:16, where it is proved that φυσει, in several connections, means truly, certainly, incontestably; "we were, beyond all controversy, exposed to punishment, because we had been born among idolaters, and have lived as they did. Here both senses of the word apply.”

“Connect these verses together, and read with most of the oldest manuscripts "But" in the beginning of Gal 2:16 : "We (I and thou, Peter) by nature (not by proselytism), Jews, and not sinners as (Jewish language termed the Gentiles) from among the Gentiles, YET (literally, 'BUT') knowing that . . . even we (resuming the 'we' of Gal 2:15, 'we also,' as well as the Gentile sinners; casting away trust in the law), have believed," &c.”