You, the one saying ‘Do not commit adultery,’ do you commit adultery? You, the one expressing abhorrence of the idols, do you rob temples?

Romans 2:21-

⁷ Rhetorically, Paul brought up two wrongs that the Ten Commandments directly addressed: Do not steal, and do not commit adultery. (Exodus 20:14, 15) Some Jews in Paul’s day were proud that they had God’s Law. They ‘were orally instructed out of the Law and were persuaded that they were guides of the blind and a light for ones in darkness, teachers of babes.’ (Romans 2:17-20) However, some were hypocrites because in secret they were committing theft or adultery. That would dishonor both the Law and its Author in heaven. You can see that they were hardly qualified to teach others; they really were not even teaching themselves.

 8. How might some Jews in Paul’s day have been ‘robbing temples’?

⁸ Paul mentioned robbing temples. Did some Jews literally do that? What did Paul have in mind? Frankly, in view of the limited information in this passage, we cannot be dogmatic as to how some Jews ‘robbed temples.’ Earlier the city recorder of Ephesus declared that Paul’s companions were not ‘temple robbers,’ which suggests that at least some people thought that Jews were open to that accusation. (Acts 19:29-37) Were they personally using or commercializing precious items that came from pagan temples that had been plundered by conquerors or religious zealots? According to God’s Law, the gold and silver of idols were to be destroyed, not appropriated for personal use. (Deuteronomy 7:25)a So Paul might have been alluding to Jews who disregarded God’s command and used or profited from items originating in pagan temples.

 9. What wrong practices involving the temple in Jerusalem might have been much the same as robbing the temple?

⁹ On the other hand, Josephus told of a scandal in Rome caused by four Jews, the leader being a teacher of Law. Those four convinced a Roman woman, a Jewish proselyte, to turn over gold and other valuables as a contribution to the temple in Jerusalem. Once they got these from her, they used the riches for themselves​—as much as robbing from the temple.b Others were in a sense robbing God’s temple by their offering defective sacrifices and promoting greedy commercialism on its grounds, turning the temple into “a cave of robbers.”​—Matthew 21:12, 13; Malachi 1:12-14; 3:8, 9.