Romans 3:1
New International Version
What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision?

New Living Translation
Then what’s the advantage of being a Jew? Is there any value in the ceremony of circumcision?

English Standard Version
Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?

Berean Standard Bible
What, then, is the advantage of being a Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?

Berean Literal Bible
What then is the superiority of the Jew? Or what is the benefit of the circumcision?

King James Bible
What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?

New King James Version
What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision?

New American Standard Bible
Then what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision?

NASB 1995
Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision?

NASB 1977
Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision?

Legacy Standard Bible
Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?

Amplified Bible
Then what is the advantage of the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision?

Christian Standard Bible
So what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision?

Holman Christian Standard Bible
So what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision?

American Standard Version
What advantage then hath the Jew? or what is the profit of circumcision?

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
What therefore is the excellence of the Jews, or what is the advantage of circumcision?

Contemporary English Version
What good is it to be a Jew? What good is it to be circumcised?

Douay-Rheims Bible
WHAT advantage then hath the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision?

English Revised Version
What advantage then hath the Jew? or what is the profit of circumcision?

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Is there any advantage, then, in being a Jew? Or is there any value in being circumcised?

Good News Translation
Do the Jews then have any advantage over the Gentiles? Or is there any value in being circumcised?

International Standard Version
What advantage, then, does the Jew have, or what value is there in circumcision?

Literal Standard Version
What, then, [is] the superiority of the Jew? Or what the profit of the circumcision?

Majority Standard Bible
What, then, is the advantage of being a Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?

New American Bible
What advantage is there then in being a Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?

NET Bible
Therefore what advantage does the Jew have, or what is the value of circumcision?

New Revised Standard Version
Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?

New Heart English Bible
Then what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the profit of circumcision?

Webster's Bible Translation
What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?

Weymouth New Testament
What special privilege, then, has a Jew? Or what benefit is to be derived from circumcision?

World English Bible
Then what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the profit of circumcision?

Young's Literal Translation
What, then, is the superiority of the Jew? or what the profit of the circumcision?

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
God Remains Faithful
1What, then, is the advantage of being a Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? 2Much in every way. First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.…

Cross References
Psalm 147:20
He has done this for no other nation; they do not know His judgments. Hallelujah!

John 4:22
You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.

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 3:2
Much in every way. First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.

Romans 3:9
What then? Are we any better? Not at all. For we have already made the charge that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin.


Treasury of Scripture

What advantage then has the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?

advantage.

Romans 2:25-29
For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision…

Genesis 25:32
And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?

Ecclesiastes 6:8,11
For what hath the wise more than the fool? what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living? …

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Advantage Benefit Better Circumcision Derived Jew Privilege Profit Special Superiority Value
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Advantage Benefit Better Circumcision Derived Jew Privilege Profit Special Superiority Value
Romans 3
1. The Jews prerogative;
3. which they have not lost;
9. howbeit the law convinces them also of sin;
20. therefore no one is justified by the law;
28. but all, without difference, by faith, only;
31. and yet the law is not abolished.














III.

(1-8) Continuing the subject, but with a long digression in Romans 3:3 et seq. The Apostle asks, What is the real value of these apparent advantages? He is about to answer the question fully, as he does later in Romans 9:4-5; but after stating the first point, he goes off upon a difficulty raised by this, and does not return to complete what he had begun. This, again, is characteristic of his ardent and keenly speculative mind. Problems such as those which he discusses evidently have a fascination for him, and lead him, here as elsewhere, at once to leave the immediate subject before him, and to enter eagerly into the discussion of them. A more lethargic or timid brain would be under no such temptation.

One real and solid advantage on the part of the Jew was that he was made the direct recipient of the divine revelation. This privilege of his is not annulled by the defection of a part of the people. It rests not upon the precarious fidelity of men, but upon the infallible promise of God. Yet is not the ultimate triumph of that promise any excuse for those who have set it at nought. They will be punished just the same, and rightly. Otherwise there could be no judgment at all. The casuistical objection that sin loses its guilt if it redounds to God's glory, or, in other words, that the end justifies the means, carries with it its own condemnation.

Verses 1-8. - (2) Certain objections with regard to the Jews suggested and met. In this passage, before proceeding with his argument, the apostle meets certain objections that might be made to what has been so far said. Some difficulty in determining his exact meaning arises from the concise and pregnant form in which the objections are put and answered, and from fresh ones arising out of the answers, which have also to be met. The objections are from the Jewish standpoint, though not put into the mouth of an objecting Jew, but rather suggested as likely ones by St. Paul himself. To the original readers of the Epistle, who were familiar with the tone of Jewish thought, the sequence of the ideas would probably be more obvious than to us. Reserving special consideration of successive clauses for our exposition of each verse, we may, in the first place, exhibit thus the general drift. Objection 1 (ver. 1). If being a Jew, if circumcision itself, gives one no advantage over the Gentile, what was the use of the old covenant at all? It is thus shown to have been illusory; and God's own truth and faithfulness are impugned, if he is supposed to have given, as conveying advantages, what really conveyed none. (This last thought, though not expressed, must be supposed to be implied in the objection, since it is replied to in the answer.) Answer (vers. 2-4).

(1) It was not illusory; it did convey great advantages in the way of privilege and opportunity; this advantage first, not to mention other. that "the oracles of God" were entrusted to the Jew. And

(2) if some (more or fewer, it matters not) have failed to realize these advantages, it has been their fault, not God's. It is man's unfaithfulness, not his, that has been the cause of the failure. Nay, though, according to the hasty saying of the psalmist, all men were false, God's truth remains; nay, further, as is expressed in another psalm (Psalm 51.), man's very unfaithfulness is found to commend his faithfulness the more, and redound to his greater glory. Objection 2 (ver. 5). Based on the last assertion. But if man's unfaithfulness has this result, how can God, consistently with his justice, be wrath with us and punish us for it? Surely the Jew (whose case we are now considering) may claim exemption from "the wrath" of God spoken of above, his unfaithfulness being allowed to have served only to establish God's truth and to enhance his glory. Answer (ver. 6-8). I have suggested this objection as though the matter could be regarded from a mere human point of view, as though it were one between man and man; for it is true that a man cannot justly take vengeance on another who has not really harmed him. But such a view is inapplicable to God in his dealings with man; it does not touch our doctrine of his righteous wrath against sin as such. I can only meet it with a μὴ γένοιτο. For

(1) it would preclude God from judging the world at all, as we all believe he will do. Any heathen sinner might put in the same plea, saying, Why am I too (κἀγὼ) judged as a sinner? Nay, . . .

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
What,
Τί (Ti)
Interrogative / Indefinite Pronoun - Nominative Neuter Singular
Strong's 5101: Who, which, what, why. Probably emphatic of tis; an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what.

then,
οὖν (oun)
Conjunction
Strong's 3767: Therefore, then. Apparently a primary word; certainly, or accordingly.

[is] the
τὸ (to)
Article - Nominative Neuter Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

advantage
περισσὸν (perisson)
Adjective - Nominative Neuter Singular
Strong's 4053: From peri; superabundant or superior; by implication, excessive; adverbially violently; neuter preeminence.

of
τοῦ (tou)
Article - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

[being] a Jew?
Ἰουδαίου (Ioudaiou)
Adjective - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 2453: Jewish. From Iouda; Judaean, i.e. Belonging to Jehudah.

Or
(ē)
Conjunction
Strong's 2228: Or, than. A primary particle of distinction between two connected terms; disjunctive, or; comparative, than.

what [is]
τίς (tis)
Interrogative / Indefinite Pronoun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 5101: Who, which, what, why. Probably emphatic of tis; an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what.

the
(hē)
Article - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

value
ὠφέλεια (ōpheleia)
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 5622: Usefulness, profit, advantage, benefit, gain. From a derivative of the base of ophelimos; usefulness, i.e. Benefit.

of circumcision?
περιτομῆς (peritomēs)
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular
Strong's 4061: Circumcision. From peritemno; circumcision.


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NT Letters: Romans 3:1 Then what advantage does the Jew have? (Rom. Ro)
Romans 2:29
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