Paul now turns more specifically to the Jewish listeners in the audience. We can imagine them already agreeing with Paul as he inveighs the pagans and hypocritical moralizers, and then being surprised as they come under the apostle's scrutiny, and told that they too are no better. Proud of their ritual separation from the non-Jewish and pagan world and thinking they they are fine with God, Paul tells them that such things have no value if they break the law as well. Any Jew familiar with his Scriptures would immediately know what Paul meant when he says, "As it is written: 'God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.'" The quotation is a blending of the words from Isa 52:5 and Eze 36:22 (see below) and had, as their contexts, the exile. Their exile under the Babylonians was a symptom of their rebellion against Yahweh. As Paul wrote, the Jews were "in exile" still; Judea was under Roman rule, are they not?
Isa. 52:5 — "And now what do I have here?" declares the Lord. "For my people have been taken away for nothing, and those who rule them mock, " declares the Lord. "And all day long my name is constantly blasphemed.
Ezek. 36:22 — "Therefore say to the Israelites, 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says: It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone.
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