The question still remained whether Israel as a whole belongs to those who keep the law (Romans 2:21–24). On that score it appears that Israel does not measure up at all, as the prophets had always maintained (Romans 2:24). The latest and greatest of the prophets, John the Baptist, had also very recently once again make that clear to the people. Paul proceeds to list a number of violations of the laws of God, of which the Jews are guilty (Romans 2:21–22: theft, adultery, robbing of temples). These actions conflict with the Ten Commandments, which the people of Israel themselves openly present to the world as the law of God. With their violations they dishonour God himself. With their behaviour, they blaspheme the name of Israel’s God (the Truth) among the Gentiles. And all of this while the Gentiles, who suppress the knowledge of God, were meant to be led back to the obedience of faith through the revelation given to Israel (Romans 2:23–24). What Paul writes here is not something theoretical. It was especially in Rome that the Jews were discredited more than once, causing the Romans to blaspheme the God of Israel. For example, Josephus relates how Emperor Tiberius evicted the Jews from Rome for a time because four Jews had passed themselves off as expounders of the wisdom of the Torah and had urged a rich woman to give up her purple and gold to the temple in Jerusalem, only to appropriate those riches for themselves (Josephus, Antiquities 18:81—84). The later eviction of the Jews from Rome by Emperor Claudius also does not suggest that the Gentiles trusted the people of Israel and their God. The readers of the letter were aware of the truth of Romans 2:21–24 from the news reports regarding their own city.1
21 you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal?