a keeper of the law, shall judge thee who art a transgressor, though he is uncircumcised, and thou
hast the literal circumcision.”
27.By the letter and circumcision,etc. A construction^85 which means a literal circumcision.
He does not mean that they violated the law, because they had the literal circumcision; but because
they continued, though they had the outward rite, to neglect the spiritual worship of God, even
piety, justice, judgment, and truth, which are the chief matters of the law.^86
28.For a Jew is not he,etc. The meaning is, that a real Jew is not to be ascertained, either by
natural descent, or by profession, or by an external symbol; that the circumcision which constitutes
a Jew, does not consist in an outward sign only, but that both are inward. And what he subjoins
with regard to true circumcision, is taken from various passages of Scripture, and even from its
general teaching; for the people are everywhere commanded to circumcise their hearts, and it is
what the Lord promises to do. The fore-skin was cut off, not indeed as the small corruption of one
part, but as that of the whole nature. Circumcision then signified the mortification of the whole
flesh.
- What he then adds, in the spirit, not in the letter, understand thus: He calls the outward rite,
without piety, the letter, and the spiritual design of this rite, the spirit; for the whole importance of
signs and rites depends on what is designed; when the end in view is not regarded, the letter alone
remains, which in itself is useless. And the reason for this mode of speaking is this, — where the
voice of God sounds, all that he commands, except it be received by men in sincerity of heart, will
remain in the letter, that is, in the dead writing; but when it penetrates into the heart, it is in a manner
transformed into spirit. And there is an allusion to the difference between the old and the new
covenant, which Jeremiah points out in Jeremiah 31:33; where the Lord declares that his covenant
would be firm and permanent when engraven on the inward parts. Paul had also the same thing in
view in another place, (2 Corinthians 3:6,) where he compares the law with the gospel, and calls
the former “the letter,” which is not only dead but killeth; and the latter he signalizes with the title
of “spirit.” But extremly gross has been the folly of those who have deduced a double meaning
from the “letter,” and allegories from the “spirit.”
Whose praise is not from men,etc. As men fix their eyes only on those things which are visible,
he denies that we ought to be satisfied with what is commendable in the estimation of men, who
are often deceived by outward splendor; but that we ought to be satisfied with the all-seeing eyes
of God, from which the deepest secrets of the heart are not hid. He thus again summons hypocrites,
who soothe themselves with false opinions, to the tribunal of God.
(^85) Hypallage, substitution, a figure of speech, by which a noun or an adjective is put in a form different from its obvious
import. — Ed
(^86) The rendering of this clause is rather obscure, “who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law.” The preposition,
, has no doubt the meaning of or , as in some other passages, as in Romans 4:11, — in uncircumcision, and in
Romans 8:25, μ — in or with patience. Then the version should be, “who, being with, or having, the letter and circumcision,
dost transgress the law.” The “letter” means the written law. That this is the meaning is evident from the context. Both Grotius
and Macknight give the same construction. It is better to take “letter,” i.e., the law, and “circumcision” separate, than to amalgamate
them by a rhetorical figure, as is done by Calvin and others. Hodge justly says, that this is “more suited to the context, as nothing
is said here of spiritual circumcision.”
The word μμ , letter, has various meanings — 1. What is commonly called letter, the character, Luke 23:38, — 2. What
is written, a bond or contract, Luke 16:6; — 3. In the plural, letters, epistles, Acts 28:21; — 4. The written law, as here, and in
the plural, the Old Testament Scriptures, 2 Timothy 3:15; — 5. What is conveyed by writing, learning, John 7:15; Acts 26:24;
— and, 6. The outward performance of the law, it being written, as opposed to what is spiritual or inward, as in the last verse of
this chapter, and in 2 Corinthians 3:6. — Ed