2:1  Therefore you are without excuse, whoever you are, when you judge someone else. For on whatever grounds you judge another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge practice the same things.

Who is this judgemental person?

Some think that Paul is directly addressing some in the Roman church:

‘When Paul’s letter was read in the Roman church, no doubt many heads nodded as he condemned idol worshippers, homosexual practices, and violent people. But what surprise his listeners must have felt when he turned on them and said in effect, “You have no excuse. You are just as bad.”‘ (Life Application)

But it is better to recognise that Paul’s literary technique at this point is that of a ‘diatribe’.  He addresses an imaginary person (he is not necessarily thinking of any of the Roman Christians, for he has a high opinion of their spiritual status, Rom 1:8; 15:14

‘Paul is explaining for the benefit of his audience that people who know what God requires but do not carry it out are left exposed to the righteous judgment of God.’ (Kruse)

But is this imaginary person a Jew, or a Gentile?

Some commentators regard this critic as representing any person – Jew or Gentile – who aspires to a higher standard than that described in Rom 1:18-32. This is supported by Paul’s general ‘whoever you are’, by the reference to this individual as a ‘man’, v3, and by the reference to Jew and Gentile in v9f.  So Stott, who writes:

‘[Paul’s] main emphasis is clearly seen in his turning from the world of shameless immorality (1:18–32) to the world of self-conscious moralism. The person he now addresses is not just ‘O man’ but ‘O man who judges’ (1, 3), ‘O critical, moralizing human being’. He seems to be confronting every human being (Jew or Gentile) who is a moralizer, who presumes to pass moral judgments on other people.’

Morris thinks that Rom 1:18-32 refers primarily to Gentiles, and Rom 2:1ff primarily to Jews (specifically, those beset by self-righteous pride).

Many interpreters, however, think that this imaginary character is a Jew.  So (with varying degrees of confidence) Cranfield, Mounce, EBC, F.F. Bruce, Kruse, Edwards, Osborne and others.

F.F. Bruce says that such self-righteousness pride could be found in the Gentile world and well as the Jewish world:

‘We know that there was another side to the pagan world of the first century than that which Paul has portrayed in the preceding paragraphs. What about a man like Paul’s illustrious contemporary Seneca, the Stoic moralist, the tutor of Nero? Seneca might have listened to Paul’s indictment and said, “Yes, that is perfectly true of great masses of mankind, and I concur in the judgment which you pass on them—but there are others, of course, like myself, who deplore these tendencies as much as you do.”‘

Even so, Bruce thinks that Paul is thinking here of a Jewish critic (this will become especially clear from v17 onwards).