Paul writes, “You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?” (Rom. 2:22). What does Paul mean by this? Does this refer to robbing the Jewish temple or pagan temples?
OPTION #1. Robbing the JEWISH Temple
Some commentators believe that Paul is referring to the practice of robbing the Jewish Temple. The term “rob temples” (hierosuleō) means “to take objects from a temple by force or stealth” or “to commit irreverent acts, commit sacrilege” (BDAG). Thus, these interpreters argue that Paul is siding with Jesus’ disgust at the robbery and stealing that was happening in the Temple (Mt. 21:13). This could also refer to how the Jewish people were “robbing God” by bringing their second-best to him. In Malachi, we read, “Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings” (Mal. 3:8).
OPTION #2. Robbing PAGAN temples
Osborne,[1] Moo,[2] Mounce,[3] and Stott[4] argue that Paul is referring to robbing Pagan temples. We agree with this second view as well. After all, Paul specifically states, “You who abhor idols.” How can Paul have the Jewish Temple in mind, when the parallel is hating idolatry?
While the practice of robbing pagan temples was “relatively infrequent” in history,[5] it is not without historical precedent (Deut. 7:25-26). Josephus records an incident in AD 19 in Rome, where four Jewish men convinced a Gentile convert (Fulvia) to make a sizable donation to the Jewish Temple. However, the men “they employed [the money] for their own uses, and spent the money themselves” (Antiquities, 18.82). Tiberius (Fulvia’s husband) had 4,000 Jews expelled from Rome because of this. Josephus writes, “Thus were these Jews banished out of the city by the wickedness of four men” (Antiquities, 18.84). Josephus also writes, “Let no one blaspheme those gods which other cities esteem such; nor may anyone steal what belongs to strange temples; nor take away the gifts that are dedicated to any god” (Antiquities, 4.207). This implies that the Jewish people were doing this, or perhaps, were tempted to do this. This would make sense of Paul’s indictment that “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you” (v.24).
[1] Grant R. Osborne, Romans, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004), 75.
[2] Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996), 164.
[3] Robert H. Mounce, Romans, vol. 27, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 99–100.
[4] John R. W. Stott, The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001), 91.
[5] Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996), 164.