Goodspeed(i)
17 Suppose you call yourself a Jew, and rely on law, and boast about God,
18 and can understand his will, and from hearing the Law read can tell what is right,
19 and you are sure that you can guide the blind, enlighten people who are in the dark,
20 train the foolish, teach the young, since you have knowledge and truth formulated in the Law—
21 why, then, will you teach others and refuse to teach yourself? Will you preach against stealing, and yet steal yourself?
22 Will you warn men against adultery, and yet practice it yourself? Will you pretend to detest idols, and yet rob their temples?
23 Will you boast of the Law and yet dishonor God by breaking it?
24 For, as the Scripture says, the very name of God is abused among the heathen, because of you!
25 Circumcision will help you only if you observe the Law; but if you are a lawbreaker, you might as well be uncircumcised.
26 So if people who are uncircumcised observe the requirements of the Law, will they not be treated as though they were circumcised?
27 And if, although they are physically uncircumcised, they obey the Law, they will condemn you, who break the Law, although you have it in writing, and are circumcised.
28 For the real Jew is not the man who is one outwardly, and the real circumcision is not something physical and external.
29 The real Jew is the man who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart, a spiritual, not a literal, thing. Such a man receives his praise not from men, but from God.
3 1 What advantage is there then in being a Jew, and what is the use of circumcision?
2 A great deal, from every point of view. In the first place, the Jews were intrusted with the utterances of God.