'The oracles of God' (3:2) and the advantage of the Jew

Says To "What, then, is the advantage of being a Jew?" (3:1) Paul answers, "Much in every way. First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God" (3:2): τὰ λόγια τοῦ θεοῦ (ta logia tou theou). Their "lack of faith" does not "nullify God's faithfulness" (3:3–4). Stephen says Moses received λόγια ζῶντα, "living words" (Acts 7:38; cf. Heb 5:12; 1 Pet 4:11).

In the Greek Bible λόγια are God's own utterances. Balaam is the one "hearing" λόγια θεοῦ, "oracles of God" (Num 24:4 LXX; cf. 24:16), and the psalmist sings τὰ λόγια Κυρίου λόγια ἁγνά, "the oracles of the Lord are pure oracles" (Ps 12:6; MT 12:7; LXX 11:7). Philo's Therapeutae studied "the laws and the sacred oracles of God enunciated by the holy prophets" (Contempl. 25). Josephus says the Jews "had it written in their sacred oracles" that the city would fall when the temple became four-square (J.W. 6.311). For Israel's sense of a calling to teach the nations, see the note on 2:19–20.

Implies The advantage is a trust: Israel received God's word to keep, and God's faithfulness to it does not hang on theirs (3:3–4). It is no exemption from judgment, since "Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin" (3:9).

Uncertain Whether τὰ λόγια here means Israel's Scriptures as a whole or especially the promises, which "lack of faith" in 3:3 would then concern, is debated.