Bible Strands
Romans 2:27
The one who is physically uncircumcised yet keeps the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Paul addresses a Jewish interlocutor in Rome, challenging their reliance on outward religious privileges. He contrasts their possession of the written code and circumcision with their actual failure to obey the law.
The words — κρινεῖ (krinei) = will judge/condemn, and ἀκροβυστὴς (akrobystēs) = uncircumcised person.
The thread — The judgment of outward status by inward reality continues in Romans 2:29, while the broader principle of external witnesses condemning internal rebellion echoes Matthew 12:41.
Why it lands — The text demands that readers evaluate religious identity by actual obedience rather than inherited markers. It requires immediate self-examination regarding whether one's spiritual claims align with lived law-keeping.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law?
Cross-references
- Matthew 12:41 The men of Nineveh will stand at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now One greater than Jonah is here.
- Romans 2:29 No, a man is a Jew because he is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise does not come from men, but from God.
- Romans 7:6 But now, having died to what bound us, we have been released from the law, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
- Romans 8:4 so that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
- 2 Corinthians 3:6 And He has qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
- Ezekiel 16:48 As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did as you and your daughters have done.
- Matthew 3:15 “Let it be so now,” Jesus replied. “It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness in this way.” Then John permitted Him.
- Matthew 5:17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
- Acts 13:22 After removing Saul, He raised up David as their king and testified about him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after My own heart; he will carry out My will in its entirety.’
- Romans 2:20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—