Some translations of the Bible unintentionally suggest that Romans 9:31–32 contains a dichotomy between law
and faith,
rather than between works
and faith.
This is the result of a small number of manuscripts that render the second reference to the law of righteousness
in this passage simply as the law.
The King James Version, however, is very careful in rendering the subtleties of Paul’s argument: But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law.
This translation clearly maintained the distinction between the law of righteousness
and the works of the law.
This translation followed the majority text, which does not simply speak just of works
in Romans 9:32, but of works of the law.
Despite compact formulations employed in Romans 9:30–33, Paul’s argument is made rather complex. Yet as he so often does, he adds something new in the second half of the comparison, which complicates what would have otherwise been a simple parallelism (see also Romans 9:21–24, for example). At times it really seems as if Paul stumbles over what he tries to say. In Romans 9:31 he spoke succinctly about pursuing a law of righteousness
that the Gentiles lack. He could then have simply added in Romans 9:32 that Israel indeed pursued the law of righteousness,
but did not attain it, because they did not follow the path of faith. Yet between Romans 9:31 and Romans 9:32 he also considers the fact that the Jews pursue a law of righteousness
while living under the law. Paul therefore specifically adds to this comparison the fact that Israel pursues God’s righteousness. As a result Romans 9:32 not only speaks about the fact that the Jews missed the opportunity (faith) as such, but also the question of how that opportunity was missed: they lacked faith in Jesus and as a result, in opposition to him, they anchored themselves in the good law as if it were a pagan law by which salvation can be merited and in which there is no room for faith in Jesus. Those who leered at Jesus thereby turned the good temple into a robbers’ den,
and likewise the Jewish leaders now turn the good law which actually pointed to him into a trench from which to shoot at him. In later times, especially when the actual historical circumstances in which the letter was written had largely been forgotten, Paul’s complicated formulations employed in his argument here easily led to inaccurate and unjust generalizations about the Jews and about the law.1
31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law.