Among contemporary Roman Catholic commentators on Romans, there is broad agreement that τὰ λόγια τοῦ θεοῦ ("the oracles of God") in 3:2 refers to the Old Testament Scriptures (or divine revelation contained in them) that were entrusted to Israel. Brendan Byrne is the clearest exception: he finds the precise meaning unclear and prefers a narrower sense (scriptural assurances of salvation grounded in the covenant), explicitly rejecting both the entire biblical revelation and a restriction to the Abrahamic promises alone. Other commentators (Fitzmyer, Matera, Hahn, and Johnson) affirm the broader reference to the Scriptures as a whole; Kertelge and Penna are less explicit about the full scope of the OT but treat the oracles as God’s prior revelation entrusted to Israel (with Kertelge stressing that this advantage is ultimately qualified by Israel’s failure to recognize the gospel).
| Author | Citation | Short Quotation |
|---|---|---|
| Luke Timothy Johnson | Reading Romans: A Literary and Theological Commentary (Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2001), 42 | “they ‘have been entrusted with the oracles of God,’ by which he means all that is contained in the writings of Torah.” |
| Luke Timothy Johnson | Reading Romans, 146 | “all the other ways of specifying the relationship of God with this people are found in these ‘oracles,’ that is, the texts of Torah.” |
| Luke Timothy Johnson | Reading Romans, 13 | “his use of Scripture (= Torah) points to his Jewish identity. … Midrash is the broad term used to describe the interpretation of Torah in the light of changing circumstances.” |
| Luke Timothy Johnson | Reading Romans, 13 | “It was the world of Torah—the texts, stories, and symbols that are found in Law, Prophets, and Writings—that was inhabited by all the first Christians.” |
| Brendan Byrne, S.J. | Romans, Sacra Pagina 6 (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1996), 108–109 | “The precise meaning of the unusual expression ‘oracles’ (ta logia …) is not clear. … The statement that the Jews ‘were entrusted’ (episteuthēsan) with these oracles lends the sense of something committed for safe, faithful keeping—perhaps also the hint that the Jews were to hold them in trust so that others (the Gentiles!) might in due course benefit from them as well. Thus, while the oracles contained God’s pledge faithfully to bring in salvation, their entrustment also implied a corresponding fidelity on the part of the recipient people as well.” |
| Brendan Byrne, S.J. | Romans, 112 | “This background suggests that ta logia here denote various scriptural assurances of salvation resting upon Israel’s covenant bonding with God. To think of the entire biblical revelation … is too broad. To think solely of the promises to Abraham … leaves unexplained why Paul did not use the term epangelia.” |
| Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J. | Romans, Anchor Bible 33 (New York: Doubleday, 1993), 130 | “He grants too that ‘the oracles of God,’ namely, the Scriptures, have been ‘entrusted’ to them (3:2).” |
| Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J. | Romans, 326 | “The phrase ta logia tou theou is not to be limited to the messianic promises … or to the Mosaic law … or to the promises made to the patriarchs. … Rather, it is to be taken in the broad sense of the whole of the OT in which the revelation of God’s will is set forth. … the phrase refers to the OT in general as God’s word about salvation.” |
| Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J. | Romans, 559 | “‘the oracles of God,’ which declare and make known God’s will and his set purpose.” |
| Scott W. Hahn (with Curtis Mitch) | Romans, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017), 11 (on 3:1–2) | “The first indicator of a Jewish advantage is that Israel was entrusted with the utterances of God. Some speculate that Paul has particular divine oracles in mind, such as the promises to the patriarchs, the commandments given by Moses, or the pronouncements of the prophets. It is more likely that Paul is referring to the Old Testament as a whole. … The point is that Israel, as the custodian of divinely inspired writings, had a privileged knowledge of God’s will and God’s ways.” |
| Frank J. Matera | Romans, Paideia Commentaries on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2010), 81 | “Although the expression is open to a range of meanings (the messianic promises, the promises to the patriarchs, the commandments of the law, the whole of Scripture), it seems best to follow C. K. Barrett (1957, 62) and Fitzmyer (1993, 326), who take it as referring to the whole of Scripture. Thus … he affirms that the Jews are in an advantageous position because they know God’s will and purpose as revealed in Scripture.” |
| Frank J. Matera | Romans, 81 | “Paul’s use of the verb ‘entrusted’ suggests that those who have received these oracles took a certain responsibility upon themselves. Entrusted with the oracles of God, they were to remain faithful to God, even as God had been faithful to them.” |
| Karl Kertelge | The Epistle to the Romans (New Testament for Spiritual Reading; New York: Herder and Herder, 1972), 41 | “the Jew nevertheless retains an ‘objective’ advantage, exemplified above all by the ‘oracles of God’ entrusted to Israel. … His clear implication, however, is that even the ‘oracles of God’ given to Israel in the past are invalidated by Israel’s present failure to recognize the decisive word of God in the gospel as his communication of himself to all men.” |
| Romano Penna | Paul the Apostle: Jew and Greek Alike, vol. 1 (trans. Thomas P. Wahl; Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1996), 86–87 | “to the ἐπιστεύθησαν τὰ λόγια τοῦ θεοῦ, ‘They were entrusted with the oracles of God,’ of 3:2 corresponds the reaffirmation of 9:6: οὐχ οἷον δὲ ἐκπέπτωκεν ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ, ‘It is not as though the word of God had failed.’ Still, the meaning is not altogether identical: the λόγια alluded to revelation in general, entrusted to Israel, whereas now the λόγος is specified in the context as elective (and hence selective) choice of God in the history of salvation.” |
| Michael Theobald | Studien zum Römerbrief (WUNT 136; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2001/2003), 332 n. 23 | Das aber schließt ein, dass es sich bei diesem „Wort Gottes“ (man beachte den Rückbezug auf 9,5b, die Eulogie des Gottes, der als verlässlicher Bürge hinter den Israel gewährten Privilegien 9,4.5a steht) um sein Israel gewährtes Wort handelt (vgl. auch 3,2), also ein Wort, für welches die geschichtliche Verankerung konstitutiv ist. TF Translation: This implies that this “word of God” (note the reference back to 9:5b, the eulogy of the God who stands as a reliable guarantor behind the privileges granted to Israel in 9:4–5a) is his word granted to Israel (cf. also 3:2), that is, a word for which historical grounding is constitutive. |
Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J. (1920–2016) was an American Jesuit priest, biblical scholar, and longtime professor at the Catholic University of America. He was one of the leading Catholic New Testament specialists of the twentieth century, especially noted for his work on Luke–Acts, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Pauline literature. His Anchor Bible commentary on Romans (1993) remains a standard technical reference.
Karl Kertelge (1926–2009) was a German Catholic priest and New Testament scholar. After ordination in 1951 he taught at Trier and then for many years at the University of Münster, where he held the chair in New Testament exegesis until his retirement in 1991. He is best known for his work on Paul’s theology of justification (especially “Rechtfertigung” bei Paulus) and for his commentary on Romans in the Geistliche Schriftlesung series. His scholarship combined careful historical-critical exegesis with a strong interest in the ecumenical implications of Pauline theology.
Romano Penna (1937–2025) was an Italian Catholic priest and biblical scholar. He taught New Testament for many years at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome and was widely regarded as one of the leading Italian specialists on Paul. His major multi-volume commentary Lettera ai Romani (2004–2008; later reissued in a single volume) is a standard technical reference in Italian Catholic scholarship; he also wrote extensively on the historical and cultural context of early Christianity and on the relationship between Christianity and its Jewish and Hellenistic interlocutors.
Brendan Byrne, S.J. (born 1939) is an Australian Jesuit priest and biblical scholar. He taught for many years at the Jesuit Theological College in Melbourne and has written widely on Paul. His Sacra Pagina commentary on Romans (1996) is widely used in Catholic seminaries and universities for its combination of careful exegesis and theological sensitivity.
Frank J. Matera (born 1943) is an American priest of the Archdiocese of Hartford and a New Testament scholar. He taught for many years at the Catholic University of America. His Paideia commentary on Romans (2010) is valued for its clarity and accessibility while remaining firmly grounded in contemporary scholarship.
Luke Timothy Johnson (born 1943) is an American New Testament scholar and former Benedictine monk. He taught for many years at Candler School of Theology (Emory University) and is known for his literary and theological approach to the New Testament. His Reading Romans: A Literary and Theological Commentary (2001) emphasizes the rhetorical and narrative shape of the letter.
Michael Theobald (born 1948) is a German Catholic priest and New Testament scholar. After studies in Bonn, Münster, and Munich he held positions at the Free University of Berlin and then, from 1989 until his retirement in 2016, the chair of New Testament at the University of Tübingen. He has published extensively on the Gospel of John and on the Pauline letters, with a particular concentration on Romans (including a two-volume commentary in the Stuttgarter Kleiner Kommentar series and the collected essays Studien zum Römerbrief). He also served as one of the revisers of the German Einheitsübersetzung and has been noted for his attention to the relationship between the Church and Israel in Paul’s theology.
Scott W. Hahn (born 1957) is an American Catholic theologian, biblical scholar, and convert from Protestantism. He holds the Fr. Michael Scanlan Chair of Biblical Theology and the New Evangelization at Franciscan University of Steubenville. His co-authored Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture volume on Romans (2017) is written primarily for pastors, teachers, and educated lay readers.
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